How much algae do you leave on the screen of an algae turf scrubber after cleaning?

[DrewFish]

How much "seed algae" do people leave on the sides of their screen for their algae turf scrubber after a cleaning?

I did my first major cleaning yesterday and didnt want to strip too much off. I ran my credit card over both sides of the screens but that did not remove much algae. When I put my shoulder into it, that actually removed algae from the screen, but removed it down to the screen showing bare screen on both sides. It was like the algae grew through the screen holes and didnt simply adhere to the sides.

Any pics would be appreciated.

 

[Aquachristik]

I actually ran into the same thing when I cleaned my screen for the first time, not so long ago. Simply washing it with the hose took 99% of the algae off the screen; none adhered to the screen. Although not ideal because the consumption from the algae will drop significantly from before it was cleaned, the algae are populating on the screen again (it took over a month to see any algae when I first set it up).

I've seen mention of sanding the screen with sandpaper to allow the algae to stick better. I'll be trying that in the future.

I'm thinking of leaving 50% of the algae on the screen during the next cleaning not to reduce consumption too much, where a spike in nutrients would occur.

 

[Aquachristik]

Going to bump this to see if anyone else can chime in...

 

[jason2459]

I don't try to remove any that doesn't easily come off with a quick swipe with some tool like a credit card.

This was one of mine this morning. Started this one about a month ago or so. I use a shim to quickly swipe down on each side and use a brush up at the top to make sure flow is even across it.

Before cleaning.

After cleaning