Scrubber growth

[Jmck]

Alright, this may as well be a noobie section, plus, I like asking things here :D

I just got my scrubber installed yesterday because I have a bit of bad algae in the tank. I want to promote the scrubber as the best place for it to grow. The ideas ive had are...

1. Remove as much algae from the DT as possible.

2. create a blackout period in the DT so the algae struggles to grow and has to find an alternate home

3. possibly dropping some algae on the scrubber?

4. Please suggest! I want this scrubber working grrr.

Thanks in advance, hope my newbie question hasnt been answered before! :bounce::chair::HELP!:

 

[little_fish]

You dont have to do the manual removal of algae in the DT, but i did because i am impatient :)

I dont think is necessary, plus you are going to more grow in the DT because all the trap nutrients in the rocks and what has settle out has to be used up. You kinda want this stage to get over faster. I tried to shorten this by lots of siphoning, and manual removal. But there really isnt a good way to get what is leached into the rocks out faster than how the algae will pull it out on its own.

As long as your scrubber sheet is rough like cactus, or spiny like an echidna for you, you will be surprised how fast the algae spores get on there and get going. But it will still take about a month to get the algae growing on there like you want. You get a little diatom phase, and then you can get some tar like stuff which means you might have to clean it more frequently for a bit. This is good though because it means its pulling out tons of stuff.

I hope that helps!

 

[Jmck]

Thanks LF, I did the manual removal, like you, im impatient, I wanted to see it growing after about an hour of having it installed! whoops :P

yea, i heard about the nitrates being stuck in the rocks :S means ive got at least 2 months before I see some noticeable improvements hye.

The scrubber is a criss cross peice of tank divider that i snapped into sized. I used my dremel tool with the sanding end to roughen up both sides as much as I could along with the wholes in the sheet, so hope its enough!

Grrr, I hate the waiting game! hopefully this liquid helps it work faster as well...

How do I know when it needs to be cleaned?

Btw, LF, you post as much as Biff now :D

 

[little_fish]

If you get dark tar like growth, clean it as soon as you see it. Otherwise clean it once a week.

 

[Lizardgi]

I did not remove the hair algae from my DT when I installed my scrubber and the hair algae went away on it's own after about a month.

 

[Jmck]

Thanks :) hopefully there is some growth tomorrow.

 

[Jmck]

I see growth on the scrubber! thats awesome :D took 2 and a half days but i can see small green particles trapped on the rough parts of it. Cool as