First harvest from algae scrubber!!

[vareefer1979]

Hello just pulled harvest first growth from ice cap algae scrubber, this was about 5 weeks growth on new tank that has been running about 2.5 months. It was mostly sludge is this normal and how long with it be before hair algae grows in scrubber. Currently only small amount of hair algae it tank thanks to CUC and help from Tomini tang. Nitrate are running between 10-20 and within normal range phosphates. I attached pic of first growth, let me know if everything is normal at this stage.
Thanks

 

[Dan_P]

Hello just pulled harvest first growth from ice cap algae scrubber, this was about 5 weeks growth on new tank that has been running about 2.5 months. It was mostly sludge is this normal and how long with it be before hair algae grows in scrubber. Currently only small amount of hair algae it tank thanks to CUC and help from Tomini tang. Nitrate are running between 10-20 and within normal range phosphates. I attached pic of first growth, let me know if everything is normal at this stage.
Thanks

It might always be a “sludge” reactor. I have seen comments from vendors portraying this as an “OK” thing.

Just a thought. I don’t think there is anything against tying a clump of hair algae to the mesh to seed it. The slime, possibly cyanobacteria, may still out grow it.

Another thought. Vigorous algae growth can strip trace elements from your system, at which point the algae/slime will not be able to grow and consume nitrate.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Slime is fine, but I would start a more frequent partial cleaning process as well as a more frequent general harvest process.

You should not let a screen go more than 3 weeks between harvests. Ideally every 10-14 days, mainly because of shading causing lower layers to die off and detach.

Then, to help mitigate the slime growth and encourage GHA growth, remove the screen as often as every 4-5 days and do a "rub & rinse", which is just like it sounds. No scraping, just use fingertips or your palm and "swipe" each side while rinsing to remove any loosely attached growth (including slime). You can rub a bit if you want to to thin out the GHA, or pick at clumps that are growing fast compared to the rest, but the point is you are not doing an aggressive harvest, just getting rid of the slime.

Also it probably would help to rough up the screen. I don't think IceCap is doing this at all still but I could be wrong. Even a pass with 60-80 grit sandpaper would be better than nothing.

 

[vareefer1979]

Update on Icecap algae scrubber, currently harvesting every 2 weeks, my nitrates per api test are <20, I run scrubber reverse light cycle 12 hours. Would running longer reduce nitrates lower? I thought about instead of 12 hour run time increasing to 14-16. Any advice ?? I attached pic of last harvest.

Thanks

 

[Dan_P]

Update on Icecap algae scrubber, currently harvesting every 2 weeks, my nitrates per api test are <20, I run scrubber reverse light cycle 12 hours. Would running longer reduce nitrates lower? I thought about instead of 12 hour run time increasing to 14-16. Any advice ?? I attached pic of last harvest.

Thanks

Is the two week harvesting a recommended time to clean it? If there is some play in cleaning intervals, try cleaning based on biomass rather than time interval. A larger biomass needs more nitrate to grow than one that gets harvested too often. And yes, the photoperiod can be longer. Are you dosing trace elements?

 

[vareefer1979]

Is the two week harvesting a recommended time to clean it? If there is some play in cleaning intervals, try cleaning based on biomass rather than time interval. A larger biomass needs more nitrate to grow than one that gets harvested too often. And yes, the photoperiod can be longer. Are you dosing trace elements?

Currently not dosing anything, performing 20% water changes every 2 weeks. No coral currently.

 

[Dan_P]

Currently not dosing anything, performing 20% water changes every 2 weeks. No coral currently.

OK, .

Just a heads up, algae can deplete a system of trace elements and as a result its growth will suffer which means diminishing nitrate reduction.