First LED Scrubber Coming In Strong

[Mud]

Here's my new baby. She runs on my drain lines, flowing about 500gph over a 10x5-inch screen. Water flows into the slot pipe from both directions and "piles up" in the middle of the screen a little, but it's better than the water rocketing off of one end IMHO. Powered by two screw-in LED grow lights from China (15 watts each), she seems to be breaking in hard and fast. :D The bulbs are mounted on a wooden base that is anchored to the block wall behind the sump. I built a simple acrylic box for the lights out of an old football helmet display case. I had to notch the box to get it past a brace in my frag tank stand, though. The screen is rougher than I imagined that a screen could be, and it seems to be paying off.

4481
4482
4483
4485
4486
4484
Two weeks
4487
Three weeks

[SantaMonica]

Looks like it's going to grow really well.

[Mud]

Between the 1st and 3rd cleanings my alkalinity went on a wild ride. I was dosing 12tsp of Reef Builder to a 125 gallon system per day at one point (which supposedly raises kh by 2 meq/L or 5.6dkh). It seems to have stabilized at 10dkh now during week four. I replace all evaporation with fully saturated kalkwasser from a reactor, but this humid summer has dropped my evaporation rate markedly. I want to use this as an excuse to add more fish. :rolleyes:

[SantaMonica]

A fan on the surface might help.

[Mud]

Yeah, I have a fan going. Without it the tank barely evaporates anything.

I think I need to split my photo period. The algae grows green in spots but the surface burns and turns pale brown/grey. I've been running it 8 hours opposite my display. I'm thinking 2on/2off all day but leave it off for the 4-hour "high noon" in my display (my LEDs ramp up and down gently). Sound legit?

[SantaMonica]

Yes try it.

[Mud]

Lights are still way too strong. After digging through some of the LED info on this forum, I think that I should have more like 10 watts, not 30. The lights are 1.5" from the screen, too. I've added CFLs (2x23w) to the other side, and that made things worse. I'm going to put black plastic canvas in front of the LEDs figuring that they will block about 2/3 of the light.

I'm thinking I'll run the CFLs for 9 hours, and start with the LED only running 15 minutes in the middle of photoperiod. The screen looks like it wants to take off, but I just keep burning it to death.

[Mud]

I'm dosing a little Seachem Propel (iron) to see if that helps, too.

[SantaMonica]

Shorter hours will certainly reduce the yellow.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I'm not sure if I would put canvas in front of the LED array, just reduce the overall total hours/day, and split the photoperiod up into multiples. A better thing to put in front of the array would be a diffuser, and if that's not enough, put small squares of black electrical tape on the diffuser lined up with the LED, particularly any LEDs that are not 660nm red (like royal blues, etc) as those will cause photosaturation

[Rumpy Pumpy]

Be interested in hearing an update on this one from "Mud"

I am using the same lamps (although on a two sided waterfall design) but suspect that they are underpowered rather than overpowered.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59581966/Rev%202/2013-08-09%2019.06.39.jpg

[Mud]

I plugged them into a meter, and it said they were pulling 15 watts combined. I guess the 15 watt each rating is on 220, thus my 110 is half power.

I changed the black plastic canvas to clear after a couple weeks and eventually took it off. It seemed to help. The LED side grows dark green and even. The CFL side grows a little more yellow with large clumps of neon green hair algae.

How far are your lights from the screen? Mine are about an inch away.

[Mud]

I put a surge device on my frag tank so the water over the scrubber slows to 200gph over the 10-inch slot then surges at about 550gph (30-second cycle). I think the algae likes it, but I don't think it's something to go out of your way to do.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I plugged them into a meter, and it said they were pulling 15 watts combined. I guess the 15 watt each rating is on 220, thus my 110 is half power.

Do you have a link for where you bought them from?

[Rumpy Pumpy]

I plugged them into a meter, and it said they were pulling 15 watts combined. I guess the 15 watt each rating is on 220, thus my 110 is half power.

I changed the black plastic canvas to clear after a couple weeks and eventually took it off. It seemed to help. The LED side grows dark green and even. The CFL side grows a little more yellow with large clumps of neon green hair algae.

How far are your lights from the screen? Mine are about an inch away.


Thanks for the update. Glad to hear they're working out.

I'm in the UK so mine are on 220v - don't have any way of checking the wattage but they don't seem very bright (I had them over a lit fuge type arrangement for a month before and they grew next to nothing but they were perhaps 6 or 8 inches away)

I now have them about an inch away from a two sided screen. Only the 2nd week but it seems to be filling in.

[Rumpy Pumpy]

Do you have a link for where you bought them from?


Dunno about Mud but mine were on Ebay (UK site). Shipped from China.

Still listed

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013Newest-15W-LED-Grow-Lights-E27-B22-RED-BLUE-168-LEDS-Hydroponic-Plant-220V-/251240322629?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBu lbs_JN&var=&hash=item3a7f171645

[Mud]

That's them. I got them from DH Gate, which is a Chinese importer, I think.

I put one over my betta bowl for a while. The plants loved it, and my blue and red betta really was looking good under those colors. I had less algae than with my typical 13w 6500k CFL, too. I want to order more, maybe some with lenses, and do a freshwater planted tank with a combo of CFLs and red/blue LEDs. I think it would look bomb.

[Floyd R Turbo]

the second pic on that link says AC 85-267V so it would appear that it should be as all LED drivers are, universal voltage input. Why a single lamp would only pull half power on 120 is odd. It just doesn't work that way.

meaning power doesn't work that way. If the LEDs draw 15W, that means the output of the driver is 15W regardless of the voltage. That is the purpose of the current driver.

[Rumpy Pumpy]

the second pic on that link says AC 85-267V so it would appear that it should be as all LED drivers are, universal voltage input. Why a single lamp would only pull half power on 120 is odd. It just doesn't work that way.

meaning power doesn't work that way. If the LEDs draw 15W, that means the output of the driver is 15W regardless of the voltage. That is the purpose of the current driver.


They're Chinese. Go figure.

Cheap though, and if they work.... so what?

[Mud]

Yeah, all I know is Amps X Volts = Watts, lol. Electricity is not my area of expertise.

As for wether or not they work, I'm not entirely sure. My display tank algae is dying off, but my egg crate algae is going strong (typical for egg crate even in a scrubbed system?). I keep some cheato around just as a test. Some weeks it grows, some it doesn't.

Seachem Nitrate test consistently reads 0.1-0.5 and API is bright yellow.

[Mud]

I have a scratched-up acrylic tank that I was going to drill and turn into a 20g macro algae garden since my chaeto still grows. I'm probably just overfeeding, to be completely honest.

[Rumpy Pumpy]

As for wether or not they work, I'm not entirely sure. My display tank algae is dying off, but my egg crate algae is going strong (typical for egg crate even in a scrubbed system?). I keep some cheato around just as a test. Some weeks it grows, some it doesn't.

Seachem Nitrate test consistently reads 0.1-0.5 and API is bright yellow.


Sounds good enough.