New Algae Scrubbers

Discussion in 'Filters, Pumps, etc..' started by SantaMonica, Sep 14, 2010.

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  1. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2008
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    Location:
    Santa Monica, CA, USA
    Here is a complete cleaning video (with one hand, and with no sound) of a mature screen from one of the two SM100 scrubbers on my tank. It shows how to clean the acrylic box, the acrylic window, and how to scrape off the turf. About one pound of algae (wet) is removed total, including the algae in the box. Most new screens less than a year old won't have any turf, but this screen is well-grown-in so the turf must be removed every 3 months or so, to give the green hair algae a place to attach to the screen.

    Cleaning is done slowly, so you can see all the steps; if I were in a hurry, I could do it all in 5 minutes. Also, the box is full because I let it grow as much as possible (about 2 weeks) to show the 3D growth for the video; you would not normally let it fill up so much: YouTube - ‪SM100 complete cleaning‬‏

    Shortcuts:

    00:30 - 3D close up
    03:45 - Turning off pump
    06:10 - Removing screen
    08:50 - Screen scraping
    13:55 - Putting screen back in pipe
    15:20 - View the algae in the box
    17:35 - Putting pipe back in box
    18:40 - Water flow again in clean box
    19:00 - Cleaning window with toothbrush
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    For those who are using tap water for top-off or water changes:

    Tap water sometimes contains copper to kill unwanted things. Algae eats copper, as long as the copper is not added to much, too fast. If the copper is added too much, too fast, it will stop the algae from growing for a while. So to prevent your scrubber from being affected by this, try to make sure you have as much algae on your screen(s) as possible when you add the tap water. In other words, don't clean your screen(s) before you add the tap water.
     
  4. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
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    Location:
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  5. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2008
    Messages:
    312
    Location:
    Santa Monica, CA, USA
  6. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2008
    Messages:
    312
    Location:
    Santa Monica, CA, USA
  7. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2008
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    Location:
    Santa Monica, CA, USA
  8. Click Here!

  9. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
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    A reminder about lighting:

    Stronger lighting is always better, until you start "burning" the algae. Burned algae will be yellow, because it is getting too much light but not enough nutrients from the flow. More light requires more nutrients, which give you more filtering.

    So if you have yellow growth, increase the flow so that more nutrient are delivered to the algae. If you can't increase flow, then add some iron. If you can't add iron, then reduce the number of hours the lights are on. Do not reduce the wattage, however; stronger light for less hours is better than weaker light for more hours, because weaker light will grow darker algae. Stronger light grows bright green algae, which does the most filtering.
     
  10. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

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    Location:
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    This is an experimental fix for brown/black growth, and also for extending the life of the bulbs past 3 months:

    1. Use bulbs with twice the wattage as recommended; so use 2 real watts per square inch (6.25 sq cm) of screen. Thus a screen 10 X 10 inches = 100 square inches would get 200 total real watts of light instead of 100 watts.

    2. Run the lights for half as many hours as recommended; this would be 9 hours instead of 18.

    3. Around 3 months, when the growth starts to get darker (because the bulbs are getting weaker), start increasing hours until it grows green again. When you reach 18 hours, it's time for new bulbs.

    This does a few things: The first is obvious; you will get longer bulb life as long as you remember to increase the hours when you get to 3 months. But stronger light can also turn black/brown growth into green, no matter how high the nutrients are, if the light is strong enough. The trick is just to not burn the algae; thus the hours have to be less.

    When the light is strong (compared to the nutrients), more of the growth is physical algae, and it's also more green (less proteins). When the light is weak (compared to the nutrients), more of the growth is DOC and dark physical growth (more proteins).
     
  11. daninfamous

    daninfamous Flamingo Tongue

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    Bourbonnais, Il
    is that 25 produced/for sale?
     
  12. SantaMonica

    SantaMonica Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Santa Monica, CA, USA
    No it got delayed, and it might be replaced by a newer version to be posted next year.