New Santa Monica 100 Set Up

[Floridays]

Its going to be 0.5 Phosphate

[Floyd R Turbo]

Wow your rocks must be loaded with P. Either that, or you are N limited and P is not getting absorbed. What is your N?

[Floridays]

Nitrate 10ppm

[Floyd R Turbo]

I've been following this thread with interest. I just wanted to put this into perspective for you, or anyone else reading...

You started off in January, and by February/March, your N was somewhere in the 40-80 range (difficult to tell when levels are that high, unless you dilute the sample and test at several dilution levels) and P in the 0.5 range.

Now your N is down to 10, P still hanging on at 0.50. Your screen growth is indicating progression, albeit slow, away from a ultra-high nutrient system. It seems that your LR was (and still is) really nutrient rich. But you are winning the battle. I would have to say it has been a tough battle and I am curious to see how long it takes to finally get the N and P down to zero.

Think of the money that you would have spent on alternate methods of nutrient reduction - skimmer, GFO/Carbon reactor & media, filter socks/pads, etc, and don't forget PWCs. And time dealing with all of those.

[Floridays]

Thanks again.
I am not giving up on this. You are right about the money savings
I will continue to fight the battle and keep everyone posted of the progress.

[SantaMonica]

You should be cleaning one screen at a time. If you clean both (in a high-nutrient system like yours), the nutrients will shoot up in the water after a cleaning, and cause the initial screen growth to be dark and slimey, which will block gha from attaching to the screen. So clean one screen every 5 days; each one will then grow for 10 days.

Also get all the turf off so that you can see the white of the screen. If light can't shine through the roots (which it's not in your pics), then the roots are not getting light from both sides and will die twice as quick (as they do on 1-sided screens).

I actually try to push any dark stuff out of the holes, using a toothbrush.

[Floridays]

Thanks Santa Monica
I was cleaning both screens at the same time.
I will change to one screen at a time.

[Floridays]

Hey Everyone
Im still getting the dark brown algae on the screens.
I clean one screen at a time. I leave them growing for a total of 14 days.
When I clean the screens I leave all the green algae that is under the brown on the screen hoping it will over take the brown. After a couple of days the brown algae is back.
I have tried water changes and cleaned the sand which gets really dirty.
N0 is 80
P0 is 1.0
I feed two cubes a day along with several fiddler crabs and small shrimp to the eel
There is green algae on the Display glass
I have : 3 fish
1 Zebra Eel
2 Turbo Snails
1 Bubble tip
Numerous Mushrooms
I have been running the scrubber since Jan 2010 trying to keep interested in this hobby with the scrubber, but with my results its is very hard.
I need help, with any suggestions anyone might have.

[kerry]

I had that problem until I updated my lights to double the standard and I still run them 16-18HRS on.

[SantaMonica]

How old are the lights. 18 hours?

Clean the whole screen, all the way, every 14 days.

Clean the bottom of the box too. And the slot.

Pics before cleaning.