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- Apr 13, 2019
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So much for instant gratification, huh?An Algae Scrubber is a long-term solution. Getting the base of growth to start can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. In some extreme cases, I've had customers have it take over 3 months for a scrubber screen to really get growing consistently. It all depends on your specific system, so there is no blanket answer that covers everyone.
But, 3 days is not a point where you can judge effectiveness. Now, if you have zero progress in growth and a completely bare white screen after a couple weeks, there's a problem.
Generally speaking, you will start getting a discoloration of the screen (usually brown, which is typically diatoms). If you take pics of the screen a couple times a week you can see this when you look at them side by side. If you want to get really specific about it, take the screen out and place it on a white cutting board and take a pic with the flash on. That really brings out the color progression (as long as you don't get flash glare).
They say to let them know if you don't get anything after 2 weeks, but that still doesn't answer my question of when I can expect growth. But like you said, there isn't even an answer. Given this is a 0 water change system with GHA issues, you wouldn't think it'd be that hard! I think Steve was right about biofilm though. Seems like things that have been in the water for a while grow algae much faster. But at the same time, they did invent an entire material just for growing algae. I guess that got my expectations up a bit.