Algae Scrubber Not Growing

[sundog101]

I've had my algae scrubber on my tank now for about 2 months and I'm just not getting very good growth. It took off pretty good in the beginning, but now the growth has actually decreased.

Tank
40 gallon IM nuvo
Softies
5 fish

Filtration
Santa Monica drop 1.4 scrubber
Small protein skimmer

Parameters
Nitrate- 0
Phosphate- 0.06
Calcium- 380
Alkalinity- 8 dKH

I've got a decent of hair algae in the tank and I'm not seeing improvement.

So...
Could the exiting algae be out competing the scrubber?
Should I increase nitrate and therefore phosphate?

Here's a picture

It's a really thin growth, but not really slime. Also, I've added the black screen back and running the light 10 hrs a day.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Shep]

I've had my algae scrubber on my tank now for about 2 months and I'm just not getting very good growth. It took off pretty good in the beginning, but now the growth has actually decreased.

Tank
40 gallon IM nuvo
Softies
5 fish

Filtration
Santa Monica drop 1.4 scrubber
Small protein skimmer

Parameters
Nitrate- 0
Phosphate- 0.06
Calcium- 380
Alkalinity- 8 dKH

I've got a decent of hair algae in the tank and I'm not seeing improvement.

So...
Could the exiting algae be out competing the scrubber?
Should I increase nitrate and therefore phosphate?

Here's a picture

It's a really thin growth, but not really slime. Also, I've added the black screen back and running the light 10 hrs a day.

Thanks for the help!

Thats about what mine looks like, I think you might want to increase the time you run the light. @SantaMonica @SantaMonicaHelp might be able to shed more light on it

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Clean the slime off with a toothbrush in your sink. Run for 18 hours light, with the screen. Bubbles 24 hours.

Are you running pellets?... your nutrients are low.

 

[sundog101]

Thanks for the reply! I'm not running pellets... just the scrubber and protein skimmer. There's a lot of algae in the display so I think that's taking up the nutrients.

 

[SantaMonica]

Ok do the brush clean.

 

[twilliard]

Just based off of the life of algae...
You may not see a lot of growth as the display is taking the nutrients needed for the specific species of algae in your display.
I wouldn't change anything about po4 or no3 since you are implementing a scrubber.
With that small of volume I would, if it were my tank, do a 50% change
Take out the rocks you don't like to see this algae on and soak the algae with 3% peroxide and let stand for 5 minutes.
Put the rock back in place and the algae should be dead within 72 hours (visually )
From there your scrubber should start to grow the algea in question.

 

[sundog101]

Twilliard, I think I'm going to try the peroxide. Some questions:
Do I have to be sure to rinse all the peroxide off (is it toxic to corals or fish)?
Will it kill the bacteria in the rock?
Thanks for the help!

 

[sundog101]

Twilliard
Forgot to tag

 

[sundog101]

Well it still didn't work

 

[blitz49]

What lights are you using? My ATS wasn't growing well when there was not enough and too much light.

 

[Servillius]

I just want to back up Santa Monica on this. I now have 3 SURF scrubbers on my tank. When I set the first one up, I had slime preventing proper growth. He gave me the same guidance, go do a good job of that toothbrush thing and take another look in a few days. I had to do that several times but now it grows like Sasquatch's beard.

 

[sundog101]

Its been a couple months now and I'm still not having much luck. Im just not getting any growth with hair having a party in the display. I've done the toothbrush clean twice, tried peroxide, and lights out. I'm not saying that the scrubber doesn't work (works greats on my other tank) I'm just trying to find the problem.

-Nothing new to the tank
-Drop 1.4 scrubber
-AquaCulture air pump with both outputs combined (on 24hrs)
-Using the shade
-Lights on 15hrs per day

Should I keep doing toothbrush cleaning and if so how often? Anything else I should try?
Thanks for the help!

 

[SantaMonica]

The shade should have been removed after the first week or two.

 

[sundog101]

Ok. I left it in because there's still a lot of white areas.