Very informative, thanks!
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Theoretically herbie is based off siphon to achieve the greater gph so you can't run a true herbie with this being on the drain just fyi.Plan is for a Herbie drain for the overflow so I have the emergency drain covered should it become blocked.
Thanks for the fast response.
Theoretically herbie is based off siphon to achieve the greater gph so you can't run a true herbie with this being on the drain just fyi.
I thought it was a sticky! Oh well. @revhtree can you make it happen?How is this thread not a sticky and a CO2 scubber is? All you need for that is bottle filled with sodalime and an airline. Done.
Hehe...I'm getting stalked...my push alerts were going bonkers
I thought it was a sticky! Oh well. @revhtree can you make it happen?
This is not horrible...12 ppm of nitrates.
0.19 phosphates Hanna
2 weeks of growth since last cleaning? 2 weeks of growth since installation?This is 2 weeks growth
Been running a month 1/2 on the scrubber.That's likely a result of the multichip hotspot. If you want, you can take a small piece of diffuser, about 2" square, and use clear Scotch tape (double stick if you have it) to stick it to the acrylic on the scrubber (not the light, too hot there) right in front of the multichip to diffuse it a bit. The diffuser I am referring to is the kind that you put in a light fixture mounted in a grid ceiling
http://www.lowes.com/pd/PLASKOLITE-...in-x-48-in-Actual-47-75-in-x-23-75-in/3307632
Hard to see in the pic but it's the kind with little "bumps" on one side (a bit like pointed pyramids, but more "sculpted") and smooth on the other side. Tape with the pointy side facing the lights (there really is no other way to double-stick tape it to the acrylic, you'll see what I mean)
you can knock the lights back to 18 hours but you are getting decent growth outside of that center spot, so I would say you're fine leaving it 24/7 if you want. You lose a lot of intensity outside of that spot directly in front of the multichip, so the area where you are getting good growth is where the light level is better, so you get good growth there. Once the center fills in, you can probably take the diffuser off and it will stay filled in, it's just to intense to start filling in quickly. Honestly if you left it alone it will likely fill in, even if it takes 6 months. One scrubber I ran with blue LEDs directly across from one another in the center did exactly that after 6-9 months of a center bare spot.
The other thing is that your screen is huge. Do you feed 15-20 cubes/day? Is this on a very large tank?
And the golden question, which trumps all worry about how the screen is growing is how does your tank look?
This is not horrible...
2 weeks of growth since last cleaning? 2 weeks of growth since installation?
I take it that this is a open-air scrubber, meaning there is not an enclosure that would foster "3D growth"? If you don't have that, then the algae will get thick enough to shade the base and it will die off and detach - this is what you are seeing when you get to 4 weeks and go to clean and the algae almost slides off with little to no effort. I start to get this on my old scrubbers (which have a slightly wider growth chamber) by about day 16 on the growth cycle - much past that, and it all comes off with a hand swipe leaving little behind. I've never gone longer than 20 days!@Floyd R Turbo for my last cleaning I decided to leave my scrubber and see how long it would take for the emergency overflow to kick in (4 weeks). The growth was still in line with just cleaning it at 2 weeks (I got just over 100g of algae and at 2 weeks I get around 50g of algae) But when I pulled the screen out I noticed almost the entire right hand side of the screen had the algae fall off in more or less a whole sheet. I have noticed that this side consistently has a section that either just doesn't grow well or has the algae grow and then fall off. This time the left hand side also had a little bit where it looked like the algae had fallen away but not as much as on the right hand side - although still a bit concerning.
Is this an issue with the lights not "punching" through to the base of the algae (not sure as lights on both sides are the same and same distance away from the screen - but I can move them closer) or is the screen maybe not roughed up enough? I roughed up both sides of the screen (I thought) well with a saw blade until it was very prickly. Is there a way to re-rough up the screen without going back to square 1 growth wise? Or could the flow be a bit too strong? I aim for 35gph per inch of screen width but it's just a guess.
Just to recap my scrubber is a 2 cube per day screen, I feed between 1-2 cubes per day. And lights are 20W led multichip grow flood lights from ebay.
I will post pics in a few minutes.
Cheers,
Macca
Big tank! Scrubber is probably a good size then. For 1.5 months and the way that scrubber is constructed, I would say you are on track. Don't over-clean, that's the #1 mistake. I started using the term "harvest" instead of "cleaning" because you never really want to truly "clean" the screen. Just remove any algae that easily detaches. I usually don't even "scrape" with a scraper anymore, I tend to "drag" the scraper across the algae mat until I can get the most harvest I can, then only "scrape" when I have tough areas that I need to thin outBeen running a month 1/2 on the scrubber.
My fish are huge tangs like over 12" most of them.
Tank is 500 gallons with total volume of 700 gallons.
Feed 4 sheets of nori. A bit of pellets here and there and LRS once or twice a week.