When does algae start growing on algae turf scrubber

[SeeFu]

I've been running my algae scubber for about 5 days now w/ the lights on 24 hrs a day. When should I expect to start seeing algae growing on the screen?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Roughly 72 hours

 

[Paul B]

I smear sakrete Mortar mix on the screen when it is new. Algae loves cement.



At first the algae is slow because the plastic produces some stuff algae doesn't adhere to right away

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Took mine about a week to get started, by 2 weeks was covered, 3rd week i had to harvest. Now i have to harvest every week

 

[Garf]

I've been running my algae scubber for about 5 days now w/ the lights on 24 hrs a day. When should I expect to start seeing algae growing on the screen?

Here’s my old one. I documented the maturing process;

howdy from the uk - day one

thought i would chip in and let you comment on my effort so far. Backgroung of display- 5 x 2 x 2 with 240 ltr sump containing skimmer (massively inefficient), DSB in display (silica play sand), approx 100 kgs live rock. Most corals are 7 years old and all fish but 2 of the tangs, are of...

algaescrubber.net

 

[Garf]

I've been running my algae scubber for about 5 days now w/ the lights on 24 hrs a day. When should I expect to start seeing algae growing on the screen?

Here’s my old one. I documented the maturing process;

howdy from the uk - day one

thought i would chip in and let you comment on my effort so far. Backgroung of display- 5 x 2 x 2 with 240 ltr sump containing skimmer (massively inefficient), DSB in display (silica play sand), approx 100 kgs live rock. Most corals are 7 years old and all fish but 2 of the tangs, are of...

algaescrubber.net

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

First, you should not be running the light 24/7 right off the bat. That is likely to cause photosaturation (too much light, not enough growth to absorb it)

Knock the lights down to 8-10 hours/day.

Next is flow. Make sure you don't have too much, this can essentially wash away anything that tried to start growing on the screen. You want only enough flow to cover 75% or more of the screen. As growth fills in, the flow will spread out a bit and you can increase flow then as well (slightly). the 35 GPH/in rule is a max, you can start out with half that amount of flow (and in some cases, you can keep it there)

Make sure the screen is rough. At a minimum, scuffed up with sandpaper. I personally make mortar screens, thanks to @Paul B teaching me about that!!

There are many other factors that play into how fast a screen will start up - there is no one answer. More info on your system and scrubber would be helpful. But either way, you're not likely to get enough growth to perform effective nutrient reduction for at least a few weeks, probably a month.

 

[BanjoBandito]

3-4 weeks after "seeding" before it needs cleaned first run, then it'll take a couple goes to get it really caking the sheet.

 

[MPCReefer]

First, you should not be running the light 24/7 right off the bat. That is likely to cause photosaturation (too much light, not enough growth to absorb it)

Knock the lights down to 8-10 hours/day.

Next is flow. Make sure you don't have too much, this can essentially wash away anything that tried to start growing on the screen. You want only enough flow to cover 75% or more of the screen. As growth fills in, the flow will spread out a bit and you can increase flow then as well (slightly). the 35 GPH/in rule is a max, you can start out with half that amount of flow (and in some cases, you can keep it there)

Make sure the screen is rough. At a minimum, scuffed up with sandpaper. I personally make mortar screens, thanks to @Paul B teaching me about that!!

There are many other factors that play into how fast a screen will start up - there is no one answer. More info on your system and scrubber would be helpful. But either way, you're not likely to get enough growth to perform effective nutrient reduction for at least a few weeks, probably a month.

So, only 35 gph to start, is that correct? I may have too much flow.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Yes - the original guidelines had this as a minimum, but my experience is that you can use a much lower flow, and going much over 35 GPH/in does not give you much benefit - in fact, going up to 50 GPH/in has a negative return in most cases. It's only in very large and biodiverse systems that you can push the limits and get away with it.

20 GPH/in is a good start, but if it's too difficult to actually measure, no worries. You can eyeball it. Start out with the flow choked way back so that you only get water across the inlet side of the screen. Then slowing increase it until you get roughly 75% coverage. That's your starting point. If you can get 90-100% coverage balanced out after a week of letting it get the initial coating of goo, then that's good as well. But if you start to see the flow "arcing" or "piling up" at the far end of the pipe, that's way too much.

HTH

 

[Cory]

You need to seed the screen with hair algae from your tank. It grows the next day. Take some and rub it all over your screen.

 

[Ev8siveaz]

I setup my turf scrubber and seeded with some hair algae on Jan 27th. Its been close to 4 weeks and there is a brown almost slime on most of the screen and some patches (maybe the size of a quarter) of green algae starting. I run the lights when the tank is dark from 6pm to 10pm everyday at about 25%. I was thinking that it should have more algae on it at close to 4 weeks. Does that sound like I have everything setup right? Should I turn up the lights at all at this point? It is definitely growing, just growing pretty slow. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!