View Full Version : LED scrubber for 65 gallon
This is boring backstory which you can skip.
This might be my third attempt at a good scrubber. I had a scrubber working fairly well for a year or so, had to move so had the tank running at a friends house. For a year it was barely touched except to feed and top off water(which i didn't find out about until I came back) and surprisingly about half of my tank survived. Since i got it back i couldn't seem to grow decent algae on the scrubber and instead they grew in the display. I feel like I may have gotten the wrong type of bulbs from costco but i can't remember what it was anymore when i ran out of bulbs i stopped changing them altogether. Tank was neglected for another few months Now I finally decided to fix the scrubber with some leds.
2 heatsinks from Rapid led
1 meanwwell LPC-35-700 driver
3 x CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED
3 x Violet UV LED
6 x Philips Rebel ES 660nm LED
Is this too much light on a 12x10 screen? I'm currently running it on 18 on 6 off. (6 hours on 2 off etc this isn't necessary anymore right? ) Should I reduce the time?
Another question i have is I used 2 mesh sheets together and I don't see anyone doing that anymore. Is one sheet fine? I noticed alot of gunk was getting trapped in between the sheets. I realized some of my old problems as I was fixing this. The slot for the sheet was too thin and I had to widen that so I could run my pump unrestricted without it squirting from the scrubber.
This scrubber has been running for a day so far so i don't have any results to show here. I'm open to any suggestions for change
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-01%2017.02.58.jpg
Outsourcing labor to an asian
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-01%2019.46.28.jpg
These didn't seem to turn out too bad considering it was her first time soldering
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2004.41.01.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2004.41.11.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.37.23.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.37.52.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.38.03.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.39.33.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.39.39.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2005.57.27.jpg
This is how bad the algaes gotten, even my snails are covered in hair algae.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2007.09.13.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2008.47.13.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2008.42.45.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-02%2008.43.09.jpg
Today I decided to clean the glass and do a water change.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-03%2021.20.25.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-03%2021.33.33.jpg
Wow look at all the algae but at least I can finally see into the tank.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-03%2023.19.03.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-03%2023.19.38.jpg
SantaMonica
03-03-2013, 09:50 PM
Well at least the water quality will be good.
The LEDs look few and far away, and the spray blocker seems to be in the way.
Well at least the water quality will be good.
The LEDs look few and far away, and the spray blocker seems to be in the way.
How many more LEDs would you suggest? I was trying to increase the distance because I was afraid of having too many since they are 3watts each.
Also are the colors and ratio ok? I bought these a few months back and I can't remember which thread on here I pulled the information from and whats changed since then.
I removed the splash guard and replaced with saran wrap.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-04%2001.01.43.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-04%2001.01.51.jpg
SantaMonica
03-04-2013, 09:32 AM
Since you only have 6 on each side, I'd make them all 660's. And I'd move them towards the middle of the heat sink a bit, and I'd move the heatsinks to within 2" of the screen.
The way it is now, with the strong scrubber that you have in the display, it probably is not going to work.
rleahaines
03-04-2013, 01:00 PM
the Engineer Goby is fantastic. I have one of these monsters in my tank, only see him when he sticks his head out to grab some food.
Since you only have 6 on each side, I'd make them all 660's. And I'd move them towards the middle of the heat sink a bit, and I'd move the heatsinks to within 2" of the screen.
The way it is now, with the strong scrubber that you have in the display, it probably is not going to work.
If I get 12~16 more 660s would that be enough to keep the heatsinks where they currently are(about 4~5 inches)? Would 60 or 80 degree lenses help at that distance?
Thanks for all the help!
the Engineer Goby is fantastic. I have one of these monsters in my tank, only see him when he sticks his head out to grab some food.
They are funny guys who constantly rearrange my sand. I can't keep any corals in my sandbed cause it'll get buried and lost haha. Do you think some PVC tunnels would help them?
SantaMonica
03-06-2013, 07:21 PM
If you make the current ones 660's and use lenses, it might work.
This is about 9 days of growth on the side where the leds are 4~5 inches from the screen.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-11%2017.40.39.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-11%2017.47.29.jpg
the opposite side has the leds about ~6 inches away. it doesn't look like anything but there are a few green strands of algae attempting to grow.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-11%2017.41.14.jpg
I attempted to add lenses but the solder points seem to have gotten in the way, I think i might have to either cut the lenses or redo the solder so it doesn't stick out as much. I'm also considering redoing the entire frame maybe with acrylic so I can move the leds closer and skip the lenses. But i'll have to save that job for spring break.
Floyd R Turbo
03-14-2013, 08:23 AM
I would just let it continue to grow as is and see what happens
This is 13 days in
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-15%2021.27.53.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-15%2021.28.01.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-15%2021.29.35.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-15%2021.30.49.jpg
I pulled this off the bottom so that its not getting sucked back into the pump.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-15%2021.31.35.jpg
I had to move the tank to another room so I took some more pictures of the algae.
19 Days in
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.14.26.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.14.33.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.17.45.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.17.33.jpg
Oh god I found some more bristle worms. These things creep me out so much I screamed a little when I found this guy.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.16.33.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.16.52.jpg
23 days in and I haven't done any real cleaning to it. So i decided I should finally do it.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-23%2023.55.32.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-23%2023.55.51.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-23%2023.56.23.jpg
there seemed to be alot of mudlike detritus under the algae probably because I kicked it all up while moving the tank.
Also the algae seemed a little too easy to come off the screen. But it looks better than the yellow from a few days ago.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-24%2000.02.08.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-24%2000.03.58.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-24%2000.04.11.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-24%2000.05.15.jpg
A little cloudly when I put the screen back on but overall I think theres less algae in the tank. I cheated a little by flipping over rocks/covering it up. Also I've been pulling excess algae every time my hand gets into the tank.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-24%2000.24.29.jpg
SantaMonica
03-24-2013, 01:35 PM
mudlike detritus under the algae
Dead algae, from being shaded for too long. This is why the growth let go from the screen easily, and is what clouded the water. Clean more often.
Also, flipping/moving rock will kill much of the periphyton layers on the rock, which will reduce filtering of the periphyton, and will add nutrients to the water, and will lower the amount of pods since they will have less to eat. It's always best to not move rocks or change flow patterns.
Floyd R Turbo
03-25-2013, 11:29 AM
+1 on that. Unless you plan to do that frequently as part of your husbandry, don't move your rocks at all. Choose your setup and power heads and then just leave it alone.
+1 on screen cleaning. I've never seen that mud-like layer on a screen, I would have never put it back in without cleaning the screen down completely! No telling what all is in that stuff!
Dead algae, from being shaded for too long. This is why the growth let go from the screen easily, and is what clouded the water. Clean more often.
Also, flipping/moving rock will kill much of the periphyton layers on the rock, which will reduce filtering of the periphyton, and will add nutrients to the water, and will lower the amount of pods since they will have less to eat. It's always best to not move rocks or change flow patterns.
Peri-what... lol had to google that word. How bad is it to move rocks etc? I know I need to move this tank at least one more time in the next few weeks/months and I'm planning on upgrading to a ~90 soonish so I want make that move the same time as the upgrade. I had two screens smashed together and I think that was helping to trap alot of detritus. I removed the 2nd screen when I did the last cleaning and hosed off as much of it as I could. These are both old screens and do you know if I need to scrape up a new screen at any time since it didn't feel as rough as it did before.( my guess is thats just slimey algae covering it so I wouldn't really be able to tell.
+1 on that. Unless you plan to do that frequently as part of your husbandry, don't move your rocks at all. Choose your setup and power heads and then just leave it alone.
+1 on screen cleaning. I've never seen that mud-like layer on a screen, I would have never put it back in without cleaning the screen down completely! No telling what all is in that stuff!
I cleaned almost all of it off but there are still strands of green on the layer. Though it does almost look like its starting new again especially since I removed the 2nd screen and I lost all the algae on that side.
I'll find out how it looks this weekend at around the 7 day mark. I feel like there hasn't been too much growth of new algae in the display but since theres still so much its hard for me to tell.
I'm curious about this picture at 19 days. Is that yellowness bad? is it because of not enough light? not enough nutrients? it seemed to green up again after the move maybe because of the dying of algae underneath.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-03-21%2004.14.26.jpg
Also is it possible for the scrubber to handle a tank with very very little live rock indefinitely? When I do the upgrade I'm thinking of only moving sand/corals/fish maybe a few pieces of new rock. The reason for this is I have a few pieces of aiptasia on my rocks which I wanna deal with separately before I move it all into the new tank. I used to have a huge problem with them but the past year I've been able to control it with Berghia nudibranchs/peppermints/aiptasia X/kalk paste.
Just nothing has eliminated it completely. I've set up a quarantine tank finally to at least stop the flow of new pests but I have to deal with the current problem.
rleahaines
03-29-2013, 06:45 AM
Rawr,
Keep in mind that you need to have something that converts Ammonia to Nitrite and then to Nitrate in your system.
The Algae scrubber is good to clean out the Nitrate and Phosphate after the biological systems do their work. It does not take the place of your live rock.
So you need a deep enough sand bed, enough live rock or something else.
If your system has live rock in it now, it has stabilized using the live rock for the cycle. If you remove the live rock or don't transfer it, you will end up having to go through the cycling process all over again.
Rawr,
Keep in mind that you need to have something that converts Ammonia to Nitrite and then to Nitrate in your system.
The Algae scrubber is good to clean out the Nitrate and Phosphate after the biological systems do their work. It does not take the place of your live rock.
So you need a deep enough sand bed, enough live rock or something else.
If your system has live rock in it now, it has stabilized using the live rock for the cycle. If you remove the live rock or don't transfer it, you will end up having to go through the cycling process all over again.
ah thanks, I was hoping the scrubber did something with ammonia/nitrite as well and would make this process easier.
Some updated pictures since its been awhile.
It was kinda hard to see the algae grown so I scooped it up a little. Sorry I'm totally fluffying it up to make it seem bigger.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2000.36.26.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2000.36.36.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2000.39.07.jpg
This is the last time im gonna be cleaning that scrubber
I have finally decided to make my own scrubber box and copied Floyds Turbo design as closely as I could given the heatsinks I already had. Thanks for the design for me to copy!! <3 Hope you're not too disappointed I didn't buy one from you.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-13%2005.59.23.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2001.31.31.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2001.33.33.jpg
I forgot about the bulkhead here when I threw on the tops. The top is misaligned half because of bad measuring and half because I was hoping the overhang would help cut down on salt creep.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2015.56.26.jpg
So I did some very bad cuts on the bulkhead instead. So far no leaks.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-16%2016.03.58.jpg
Everything here is growing nicely although its a little yellow. I added alot more leds this time 31 reds and 4 blues and 1 UV in total
I think I did some bad counting when I was ordering leds so I had an uneven amount of reds. So I threw in one of the extra UV leds I had onto the mismatched side just for the hell of it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-23%2020.00.39.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-23%2020.01.07.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-19%2023.41.49.jpg
Within 2 days the growth had started leaking into the pipe and clogging up the gatevalve. So now I know I probably need to clean it when it gets noisy and comes out the emergency pipe.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-19%2023.46.55.jpg
Again two days later it was clogging the pipe and i had to clean it. This time I gave it a fairly serious cleaning. I forgot to get a picture of that but maybe next time.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-25%2018.56.03.jpg
Alot of yellow growth but I noticed the algae that had gone into the pipe was a nice green. I reduced the hours of lighting and I'll see what happens in the next few days.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-25%2018.59.45.jpg
I'm much more satisfied with this design because I can almost completely eliminate the noise thats been plaguing me for years. Although i had to use saran wrap again which I really do dislike. I can put up with it if it'll stay silent. Now that its not fed from the overflows I've been able to throw a herbie onto my main tank so that is silent as well. That was probably my happiest moment when I realized how quiet everything suddenly became.
The display tank is still growing algae but I'm hoping in the next few months that'll solve itself.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-26%2002.03.31.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-26%2002.03.49.jpg
I still need to work on building a decent stand for it to sit nicely over the sump. Im thinking I may do that sometime when I change tanks because I don't really want it sitting inside the sump. I figure the fans are gonna blow too much salt moisture into the heatsinks. Im hoping to build a taller stand for my next tank so that I'll have better working room when removing the algae screen etc. Currently I remove the whole thing for fear of dripping water everywhere.
Started growing Phytoplankton too since I figure I should start feeding my corals more.
They say nannochloropsis can grow in both fresh and saltwater but all the guides I see online say to grow it in 1.019 salinity. Is it necessary to do this? I started 3 cultures at different salinities and they seem to be thriving. I have one culture that I'm slowly converting into pure freshwater and am curious if it does as well. The reason I'd like to grow it in fresh is so I don't have to worry about it changing my salinity if I dump in a gallon+ a week.
I've already had people open the fridge and wonder if this was some kinda homemade green koolaid. I really should mark these better
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32647617/Scrubber/2013-04-18%2022.45.51.jpg
Thanks in advance for any input/criticisms
Floyd R Turbo
04-26-2013, 05:40 AM
Nice build!
SantaMonica
04-26-2013, 07:50 AM
Very clear :)
itzrulez
04-26-2013, 06:53 PM
really nice!
serious growth!
Post more pictures of your tank!
its nice to see the evolution!!
and with this kind of growth, it will be really nice!
about the cloudy water, do you consider active carbon?
some people use only A.Carbon and ATS.
Congrats, I'll try to keep watching this thread!
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