- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
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So about a month ago I got a Drop 1.4 from Santa Monica. Anyways it is an algae scrubber. But it has not been scrubbing...I mean, not much anyways. And at this point, I have a theory as to why. I joked about it in the beginning but I think it might actually be happening.
I think that the GHA in the display is out-competing the scrubber. By day, all the nutrients go into the GHA which is already established in the display. Then the lights go off and the scrubber turns on for the night cycle, but there aren't a ton of nutrients left. And yes I have tried to just remove the GHA by hand. It helps with the look of the tanks but then it just comes back in about a week. So that got me to thinkin': "Well I have this big old bottle of Nopox here. Should I even the playing field a bit?" The downside is that the nopox would hurt algae growth in the scrubber, but it would also hurt algae growth in the display. Could that reset the balance of things and get the scrubber to start out-competing the display? By the way this is a 0 water change system, which is a big part of why I got the scrubber to begin with. You wouldn't think growing algae would be too hard in a system that has literally never had a water change. It's had water added to the system but that's it.
Or, here's theory B and also plan B: The "bio" blocks I put in there, sort of like marine pure blocks but from another company, are in the sump along with the scrubber. Could it be that the water in the sump is fairly low on nitrates (and also phosphates because there's no rock in there?) because of the blocks? In that case the plan wouldn't be to use Nopox, but I'd have to move the scrubber into the display tank. What do you guys think?
I think that the GHA in the display is out-competing the scrubber. By day, all the nutrients go into the GHA which is already established in the display. Then the lights go off and the scrubber turns on for the night cycle, but there aren't a ton of nutrients left. And yes I have tried to just remove the GHA by hand. It helps with the look of the tanks but then it just comes back in about a week. So that got me to thinkin': "Well I have this big old bottle of Nopox here. Should I even the playing field a bit?" The downside is that the nopox would hurt algae growth in the scrubber, but it would also hurt algae growth in the display. Could that reset the balance of things and get the scrubber to start out-competing the display? By the way this is a 0 water change system, which is a big part of why I got the scrubber to begin with. You wouldn't think growing algae would be too hard in a system that has literally never had a water change. It's had water added to the system but that's it.
Or, here's theory B and also plan B: The "bio" blocks I put in there, sort of like marine pure blocks but from another company, are in the sump along with the scrubber. Could it be that the water in the sump is fairly low on nitrates (and also phosphates because there's no rock in there?) because of the blocks? In that case the plan wouldn't be to use Nopox, but I'd have to move the scrubber into the display tank. What do you guys think?