New led bulbs

[jfenton954]

Hi I just recently bought these bulbs from ebay and they don't seem to be working??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130766100603?var=430094895221&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Now my nitrates are 80ppm!!! :( I was using 4 cfl's that were work great but now the algae doesn't seem to be growing that much. The 2 new led bulbs have been on there for a week or two. A couple of fish have died recently also. Should I get more bulbs or should I get different ones? Please help!!

[kotlec]

How far bulb is from screen.
There are very small LEDs used in this bulb. Should place it as close to screen as possible.

Another possible reason for not working is bad spectrum regardless of what is stated, what is common for most chinese production. They say that only one third of bulb power is in 660nM range. If that wavelength is true at all , you have max 5.5w off needed color light. Consider blue as supplemental and orange as waste.

[jfenton954]

They are very close 2-4 inches away. So your saying these bulbs are junk?

[SantaMonica]

Going by watts: 2 X 16 = 32 total LED watts = 64 CFL watts = 64 square inch screen = 8 X 8 inches.

Is your screen 8 X 8 inches? How many hours a day?

[rleahaines]

way underpowered light source for a scrubber

each individual LED is 16Watts/168 = which although works as a diffused light source for something like reading, it doesn't give you enough light energy to grow anything.

I tried something similar early in my experiements with scrubbers.

In my experience, I have found you need at least 1 Watt individual LED's in any array, preferably 3 Watts to get the right intensity.

If you are losing fish, I would check your water parameters and do a water change. An increase in Ammonia probably is what caused this. Do you have live rock, a sand bed? What are you using to keep Ammonia and Nitrite under control? Has your tank cycled?

The scrubber reduces Nitrates and Phosphate. If the scrubber stops working you get a Nitrate spike, but this should not have a major effect on fish.

Something else is causing your problems.

[jfenton954]

The screen is 10x10

[jfenton954]

I've had the tank up for 4 1/2 years now. And have a lot of live rock and live sand. I thought the scrubber would take out the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia from the water. I've also did two water changes today a 16g and an 18g and the nitrates are still reading off the charts. And I put 4 new cfl's on the screen yesterday.....

[SantaMonica]

Waterchanges won't help.

If the screen grows, your N should come down. Post pics in 14 days.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Way, way too low wattage for a screen that size. Low power LEDs are completely inadequate to begin with. If your nutrients are off the charts after just a few weeks, something else is going on here though. I would go back to CFLs and plan a better LED fixture