ok i want to give this a try and was wanting to know if i did it right

[Patrick727]

i have a 72 bowfront tank with t5 lighting on 10,000 day light for 6 hours blue ant. on 9 hours and moon lights on for 3 hours so basically lights run like this 9 to 3 10,000 k 12 to 9 blue ant. 9 to 12 moon lights i made the screen 9 inches wide and 12 inches long i put 23 watt cfl daylight bulbs on it 18 hours on 6 hours off i have them on all night and off during the day from 9 am to 3 pm didnt know if this matter or not i run a rio 3100 return pump which i am waiting on my danner mag drive 1200 to get here to change that i feed 2 pinchs of flake food and 1/2 a cube of frozen a day to a blue hippo tang a yellow tang a coral beauty a flame angel a fire fin and a royal gramma and a sergent starfish as of day three i see hardly anything on the screen just a light hint of brown but it is all over the sand and rocks any advice would be helpful thanks pat 397339743975397639773978

[rleahaines]

It looks like you set it up correctly. a 2 sided scrubber with 23 watts of light on each side.

If you followed the recommendations for sizing, flow and light intensity it should work.

It takes a few days for the scrubber to get up and running. If you are getting some light brown on the scrubber, it is a start.

Is your tank new or an older one that you are putting a scrubber on?

Rick

[Patrick727]

it is a new tank has been setup for 13 weeks everything in it is out of the old tank though

[Patrick727]

tryin to get rid of this brown stuff that has started and hope this does the trick 3979

[Floyd R Turbo]

you're getting a diatom outbreak which will happen pretty much no matter what and it will run it's course.

Couldn't tell what Kelvin those lamps are from the pics. Can you find that on the package? look for something like 2700K, 3000K, 4000K, 5500K, etc. The lower the better.

As for screen progression, you're gonna need patience. You may not see green for 2 weeks. Don't count on it for filtration capacity until it's a mature screen, which can take 4-6 weeks, generally, and there is not much you can do to speed that up in most cases.

[Patrick727]

it says on the package 5000k and your sayin i need to go lower like what is the best to go down to and thanks for the help39803981

[SantaMonica]

5000 will work, but 2700 is better.

[Patrick727]

ok cool i will go get some tomorrow on the way home from work

[sklywag]

In picture #4, I can see your screen has not been roughed up. That thing needs to be almost shreaded to hold any algae.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Ooooh, missed that one. Good catch.

Here's a vid to help you


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrCWALt9Qs

[Patrick727]

ok thanks guys i must of missed that part somehow and the video was great i will do this as soon as i get home and start over and also i used the calculatoron that sticky and it said i only needed 22 square inches so i only need a 6x4 screen is this right

[Patrick727]

because if that is right i am going to rebuild the entire thing this weekend and make it more down in the tank spray most of the tank black so the light dont escape to much

[cdm2012]

ok thanks guys i must of missed that part somehow and the video was great i will do this as soon as i get home and start over and also i used the calculatoron that sticky and it said i only needed 22 square inches so i only need a 6x4 screen is this right

According to your first post you are feeding "2 pinchs of flake food and 1/2 a cube of frozen a day". According to the calculator if you are putting lights on both sides your screen only needs to be 12 sq. in. That would be a 3x4 screen. And you would only need 6 watts of actual watts (cfl) on each side.

[Patrick727]

thank you cmd 2012 i am rebuilding the entire thing when i get home tonight now that i understand this a little more i will take pictures and let everyone know how things are coming along and again thanks for all the help

[Patrick727]

also i was wanting to know if anyone has tried the red cfl bulbs you see in the hydro stores

[Floyd R Turbo]

If they are red when off don't bother. Why would they sell those in a hydro store? Those are gimmick lamps. They are not meant for growing, just for splashing color on something. CFL grow lamps don't actually project red light, it's the kelvin temp of the light that matter and the remote phosphors used to achieve that color temp.

[Patrick727]

they are clear with refecther and turn red when on they said they are for house plants in a green house 23 watt 2700k was just wondering if they would i will go back and try to get a picture of one in the package and post as well as try to get one turns in working order turned on and off thanks for the reply floyd you have been a lot of help

[Patrick727]

i was wondering will this light work ok http://www.ebay.com/itm/FEIT-8W-45W-Dimmable-LED-Indoor-Outdoor-Flood-Light-Soft-White-R20-PAR20-Bulb-/251229215043?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item3a7e6d9943

[Patrick727]

or maybe even this one thanks for any help http://www.creativelightings.com/LED-6W-PAR-20-Light-Bulb-CREE-LEDs-Dimmable-WHI-p/cl-p20-6w-120v-38-dw-d.htm

[Floyd R Turbo]

LED is a different animal.

All household-type LED lights are meant to match the look and feel of their CFL or Incandescent equivalents. The spectrum is wrong for our purposes. Flourescent sources are mercury based with a lot of UV and IR and this is shifted into visible light with phosphors. LEDs are element based and bandwidths are more specific. They do not correlate. You need LEDs that are of the specific bandwith for growing algae

[Patrick727]

ok thanks i guess i will just have to spend the money and built one like yours

[Patrick727]

hey floyd this is the same light they have at the hydro store so no good that sucks but theres is way cheaper

[Patrick727]

my bad i forgot to add the lights to show you
https://www.advancedledlights.com/products/SpectraBoost-Grow-Spotlight-%252d-15w-High-Intensity-LED-Grow-Light.html