Question about algae turf scrubber

danieljones8623 · Oct 17, 2022

Hey everybody.

I am trying to advance my reef tank a bit by playing around with an algae turn scrubber. I installed it to my sump about 10 days ago, and I am already getting some brown looking fuzz. I was just wondering if this is normal progression? Does the brown fuzz eventually turn to green stuff?

Dan_P · Oct 17, 2022

danieljones8623 said:
Hey everybody.

I am trying to advance my reef tank a bit by playing around with an algae turn scrubber. I installed it to my sump about 10 days ago, and I am already getting some brown looking fuzz. I was just wondering if this is normal progression? Does the brown fuzz eventually turn to green stuff?

When a clean surface is placed in water under illumination, a succession of algae colonize the surface. Depending on conditions, the alga culture will range from a disgusting brown slime to a pretty green lawn of algae. The light intensity and the level of nitrate will likely play an important role in determining what you get. High light intensity and low nitrate will likely give the brown slime, high nitrate and high light intensity could shift the alga community to a green slime. I don’t know what leads to a pretty green lawn of filamentous algae. It might be dumb luck.