FWIW, I set up my IceCap SM 20W scrubber before watching this video. I pulled some nuisance (hair) algae off my back glass and rubbed it into/across the mesh, basically seeding the scrubber. The algae immediately took hold, my pH has gone up, and my nutrients dropped. I can't say that I'm a fan of the construction quality of the IceCap scrubber, but it, and seeding it, work well for me.
Definitely won't hurt to seed! But also not usually necessary. I have heard of people who couldn't get hair algae to grow and kept having brown algae and slimes take over the screen - in cases like that, getting some hair algae from another healthy scrubber to seed the screen can be a good path to take!
Thanks for the great answers to few questions. If I may, two questions on using with a UV : 1. Can one use an algae turf scrubber with a UV "sterilizer?" 2. Is there a particular orientation for the install? Example, have the UV after the algae turf scrubber to allow water borne algae to reach the scrubber. 3. Must the UV be off during the algae turf scrubber start post install to allow seeding of the ATS? As always, thanks for your wisdom and insight, Jim
James, yes you can use a UV with a scrubber. Just make sure to shut off the UV during the seeding stage of the scrubber which is usually around 1-2 weeks at most. Once the screen is seeded the UV will not affect the production of the scrubber.
FWIW, I set up my IceCap SM 20W scrubber before watching this video. I pulled some nuisance (hair) algae off my back glass and rubbed it into/across the mesh, basically seeding the scrubber. The algae immediately took hold, my pH has gone up, and my nutrients dropped. I can't say that I'm a fan of the construction quality of the IceCap scrubber, but it, and seeding it, work well for me.
Definitely won't hurt to seed! But also not usually necessary. I have heard of people who couldn't get hair algae to grow and kept having brown algae and slimes take over the screen - in cases like that, getting some hair algae from another healthy scrubber to seed the screen can be a good path to take!
Thomas Great information yet again
Thanks!!!
Thanks for the great answers to few questions.
If I may, two questions on using with a UV :
1. Can one use an algae turf scrubber with a UV "sterilizer?"
2. Is there a particular orientation for the install? Example, have the UV after the algae turf scrubber to allow water borne algae to reach the scrubber.
3. Must the UV be off during the algae turf scrubber start post install to allow seeding of the ATS?
As always, thanks for your wisdom and insight,
Jim
James, yes you can use a UV with a scrubber. Just make sure to shut off the UV during the seeding stage of the scrubber which is usually around 1-2 weeks at most. Once the screen is seeded the UV will not affect the production of the scrubber.
Thomas always gets a 👍