Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everything

[SantaMonica]

Yes it will still fill in. You may consider adding a second light on each side. You are lighting both sides right?

[SantaMonica]

It will fill in, more slowly though. Light is the most important, double or triple it if you can. Both sides.

[lcstorc]

All right you guys are getting me curious now.
I understand why you wouldn't want to clean it in the sump but is there any reason I couldn't set it up in my fuge as long as I can take it our for cleaning? I already feed the fuge from a t so part of the water goes to the sump and part to the fuge so I could modify that pretty easily.

[everwater]

Hey Varga,

dont rub hair algae on it. try letting it develope on its own. it will start as a green ribbon algae then hopefully turn into true turf algae (mainly red..some browns...and a little green)...It will be really short and thick...unlike the green ribbon which grows long and not nearly as dense. This is just my own observations when I grow algae in the algae turf scrubber at inland aquatics. I'm curious to see how jski711 screen turns out....hes taking pics each week to see if the turf will continue to grow or if it is some other less efficient algae like the green ribbon, ulva, or caulerpa.

keep us updated on the algae growth on yours too.....what was the lighting on yours?

[SantaMonica]

Why not seed it ?

[everwater]

seeding it is fine but not with hair algae. turf is different than hair algae.

[Varga]

We've had a burst of growth in the last 24 hours.
Here it is on day 6.
I'm thinking in a month or so, when I clean it, I will leave this much on there to seed it again?
Should I turn off the pump 15-20 minutes every day?

[SantaMonica]

everwater: Yes I know they are different algae's, but, nobody has red/brown turf to seed with. Even if they did, wouldn't it just get replaced by green as soon as the screen started to grow? Some people are setting up screens that are not designed to grow true turf anyways (so they will only have green hair), so for them it would seem to make sense to at least speed the green along.

varga: That's great about the growth. But where is the lighting? Are you moving it out of the way so you can get pics? If not, it should be right up against the screen, on both sides, and we should be able to see it in these pics. It will grow much much faster with the lighing that way.

When you clean it, you will have a lot more remaining than what I see in this pic; you won't be able to see that fan through the screen. And you can't wait a month, even if it hasn't grown much, because the pods will start eating the algae, and you'll start getting spots like I showed in the pics a few days ago. So at least weekly (which is probably today), run the screen under some tap water in the sink to kill them. You don't have to clean the screen today, but you do have to run some FW.

Also, do NOT turn the pump off for 15-20 minutes. You'll dry out the top layer of algae. Use a wavemaker timer on the pump; I have mine set right now to 60 seconds on, 60 seconds off, with a strong fan blowing on it.

[Varga]

yes, I'm moving it for the pic, the light is right on the screen, almost touching it

[everwater]

SMonica,
I know a few of these people that made these algae filters have purchased a red and brown turf seed screen from me at Inland Aquatics...and yes, that has been my major concern that the true turf will not stay on the screen long term....ultimately turning into ulva, caulerpa, and slime algae.
All I wanted to share with Varga was the info that algae will grow without a seed.

[SantaMonica]

Ahh I see. I too tell them to make sure to keep the green stuff from over-shading the red/brown. I've been cleaning the green stuff off my turf now about every 3 days, and I've found that using a toothbrush works great: It's just enough to remove hair/slime, but not enough remove turf.

[everwater]

dont be afraid to scrape the heck out of the screen. the shorter the turf, the more efficient because its working hard to grow length so its taking up more nutrients to produce the energy to grow.
regardless which type of algae is on the screen its always helpful to filter with algae.

[Varga]

so Turf is the one that grows in fast moving water I'm guessing?

[Witfull]

SM, has anyone had an issue with turf getting a foothold in their display?

[everwater]

exactly.....especially on the reef where the waves are hitting.....producing that back and forth turbulence.