Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover

[SantaMonicaHelp]

People often ask what they can do to speed up the filtering after they've added a scrubber, at least until there scrubber "catches up" and fixes thing. Here are some things to consider:
Increase the lighting period in your display a few hours; this increases photosynthesis (filtering) of your corals, and of also of the periphyton on your rocks.
Feed less, or break your current feedings into smaller ones (don't feed all at once). This is because each burst of feeding generates lots of ammonia/urea by the fish, and lots of ammonia by the corals. When all that ammonia goes into the water at one time, it goes straight to your glass and rocks, and is absorbed by algae anywhere the algae can exist. A larger burst of ammonia will support more algae throughout your system, but by breaking your feedings up into more smaller feedings, the peak levels of ammonia in your water will be reduced before the ammonia can feed more nuisance algae.
Keep your sump vacuumed.
Start (or do more) water changes. Not the most effective in the world, and is costly and a hassle, but it will help some.
Start (or do more) GFO. This is more effective than water changes if you use a reactor, and much easier. If it causes your scrubber grow less, then use less GFO.
And speaking of the periphyton on your rocks, don't move any rocks or change any flow on them; keep everything the same and your natural periphyton filter will develop on your rocks in about a year and will help tremendously.

- C. Smith

[SantaMonica]

Cleaning Off Slime On New Scrubbers

When scrubbers are new, they will almost always first develop a slimey first layer of growth. This is because diatoms and dino's, which make up most of the slime, are the quickest to be able to "colonize" a new surface, sort of like weeds in a new garden.

This slime layer will not get any thicker, however, because slime cannot attach well (it has no "roots") to the growth surfaces of the scrubber, and thus will get washed away when it gets thick, Also, it prevents green hair algae from attaching because of the slippery texture of the slime.

So when your scrubber is new, be sure to take it to the sink and use a toothbrush to clean all the slime off of the growth surfaces so you can see all white surfaces again. You could clean it while still in your tank if you don't mind the slime particles floating around, but most people would probably do better to take it to the sink (or outside; slime makes great fertilizer). Slime, especially when dark or black, is also an indicator that you can use more watts or hours of light.

Once you have cleaned off the slime for one or more growth periods, you should start seeing green hair algae take hold.

[SantaMonica]

PowerPoint presentation for clubs, schools, etc., to learn the basics of scrubbers:

http://www.algaescrubber.net/AlgaeScrubbers.pps