Too much light

[Fred]

Hi guys,

I have my waterfall style scrubber installed for several months but it never worked properly.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/display_2_zps0f4021ed.jpg

My tank is a 53 gallon all glass dispay with skimmer, calcium reactor and a home made algae scrubber. The tank is 2 years old.

Here is my scrubber:

36 x 1watt warm white leds (one side only)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_200_litros_6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_200_litros_5.jpg

The screen is 13.75" wide and 7.8" tall. I use a 530Gph pump

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_200_litros_3.jpg

Some time ago I got this kind of grow .....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS1.jpg

Always brown, very little green.

Today I got this after almost 2 weeks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/screen_2_zps83494b8e.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/screen_4_zps5d3c53da.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/screen_3_zpsa4647727.jpg

There are algae all over the tank.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/display_zpsf601ff7b.jpg

Look at the return pipe, very nice grow (but it´s on the wrong place) !

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/overflow_exit_zpse22524c9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/display_2_zps0f4021ed.jpg

What do you think ?

- Too much light ?
- Leds too close to te screen ?
- Wrong led color (may try reds)?
- Small screen ?
- Wrong flow ?

Any ideas ?

Thanks,
Fred

[kerry]

Red are the trick for sure but, I have seen warm white grow algae but not like the 660nm red do. You might try reducing your display light hours and or longer scrubber hours. IMO I would upgrade to 660nm LED's and put in a couple 450nm LED's to. I like to run one 450nm to every 4 660nm LED's.

[Ace25]

Ya, looks like too much light, and if you have the option of changing them to 660nm reds I would recommend it. For now I would definitely reduce the hours. It also looks like your slot is getting clogged and reducing the flow which will speed up the dying algae if it already has too much light.

I just ordered 2 of these to replace my CFL bulbs on my CFL scrubber. Seemed cheap enough to test and I will post how they work, but I do think they should work fine even though they are only .06w per LED/10w total per bulb. That is 10w of ideal spectrum vs 26w of mostly bad spectrum from a CFL.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BV3Q96/

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

Did you rough up the screen? Are you cleaning the slot each 14 days?

It looks like the screen might be smooth, which will not allow longer green hair to attach because longer green hairs stick out into the water flow more and get pulled off. Without longer green hairs, filtering will be less.

[Fred]

Thanks guys,

I´ll go for the 660nm Reds
http://www.satisled.com/1w-high-power-red-led-star-emitter-for-plant-grow-light-660nm670nm_p1177.html

And for some 450nm
http://www.satisled.com/1w-high-power-royal-blue-led-for-reef-lighting-450455460nm_p480.html

Will reduce the display´s light and rough up the screen a little more.

Thanks !

[Floyd R Turbo]

Satis IMO are grab-bag. You will get a mixture of LEDs with no bin control at all. That's why they are cheap. I would pay the price and go with Steve's LEDs (who is a distributor, and you know you are going to be getting a specific bin because he lists it on his site) or RapidLED (but you'll pay more and you will get grab-bag, but at least they are name brand)

[Fred]

Thanks Floyd,

RapidLED do not carry 1W led anymore so I´ll try my luck with SATIS for a while.

I´ll put here the results.

thanks

[Fred]

Some feedback ...

Just reduced from 18/6 to 14/10 ....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_less_light_4_zps7da4d70d.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_less_light_3_zps37a63dae.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_less_light_2_zps99a81f47.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_less_light_1_zpse25107db.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/ico/ATS/ATS_less_light_5_zps129c8fcb.jpg

Using the old 1W warm white yet. The red and blue ones did not arrive yet.

Thanks a lot,
Fred

[Floyd R Turbo]

looks like the growth you tend to get under T5HOs when the screen is nutrient starved, meaning not enough flow or too much light. My theory has been that the "useless" bandwidth provided by fluorescent lamps (any maybe WW LEDs also) tends to promote more of the yellow growth. But that just be be due to the oversized/underfed screen