Ace's ATS v2.0 - LEDs

[fajars2003]

if there any different on algae growth with the red grow Led, and red led ?

[fishbrain888]

Ace - Can you or someone who also might know comment on the amount of heat that is generated by the LED's vs. T5HO, specifically the heat being projected in the same direction as the light?

[MorganAtlanta]

With LED you get very little heat as compared to fluorescent, both because the LEDs are more effecient at turning electricity into light, and because you need so much less wattage to get the light you need. I went from 150 watts of T5HO to just 30 watts of LED and am getting much better growth than before. The heat sinks on the LEDs don't even get warm to the touch, even without fans. My display has roughly 200 watts of LED light, and I need fans on the heat sinks, but that replaced 750 watts of MH lights.

[salty joe]

MorganAtlanta,
Can you elaborate on your LED scrubber? What kind of LEDs, how far from screen, photoperiod,etc?

[fishbrain888]

Thanks Morgan. Sounds like I'm sold on going with LEDs on the scrubber.

With LED you get very little heat as compared to fluorescent, both because the LEDs are more effecient at turning electricity into light, and because you need so much less wattage to get the light you need. I went from 150 watts of T5HO to just 30 watts of LED and am getting much better growth than before. The heat sinks on the LEDs don't even get warm to the touch, even without fans. My display has roughly 200 watts of LED light, and I need fans on the heat sinks, but that replaced 750 watts of MH lights.

[Ace25]

So I am now working on Version 3 and 4 of my scrubbers for both my display tanks. I have several different ideas to go with and still working out final designs but I got more LEDs for them. The ATS in this thread will be replaced by one that is much more compact, instead of using a 55G tank outside the stand as a sump I can use a 15G tank inside the stand for the sump and still have a great ATS on it (which was my original sump for the tank, I replaced it when I got into scrubbers). My newest design is a mixture between the one seen in this thread and the SM100 scrubber. It will be modular, but it will fit snug within the top rim of the sump, unlike the ATS in this thread which is not modular at all. I have been anxiously waiting to see Santa Monica's new design but in the mean time my brain doesn't turn off and I am always trying to think of new designs, and always striving to find the "perfect" light. One thing I want to test is to see if the cheap china LEDs differ any in growth from the OSRAM 660nm LEDs. At less than 1/2 the cost per LED if the China LEDs work out that will be a big cost savings for others.

I just got these this week, 3w 700mA LEDs. 10x dual band 630/640nm, 10x dual band 650/660nm, and 10x 455nm LEDs from FEDY (China). They only cost $1.80ea. The 430nm were very expensive, $8ea, so I decided against trying those at this time due to the extreme cost vs what I think will be little benefit.

[kerry]

Real nice, I am going to have 20 LED's coming here shortly as well to play with until SM shows the new stuff. I am ordering 10 of 660nm and 10 of 15000K for the display lighting but, I have not decided on which tank to do first with the 15000K, the 75G African tank or the 40G SW. I already have my 10G SW running 12000K and its real nice.

[Ace25]

Seems kind of a high kelvin for a African tank (I am assuming your talking about freshwater). I think 10k-12k LEDs all by themselves look great over a FW tank. I would use the 15k over the 40G.

[kerry]

I know have 18000K t-8's over the 75G African tank now and it looks real nice, the blue and yellows really show. I only tried this because my 10,000K burned out so I stuck in my only one left which was the 18,000K for SW tank. I am leaning toward the 40G as i would like to get the halide off of it.

[kerry]

Also to note while using the 18,000K for freshwater, it makes most of the algae water born so your filter pics it up and not the surfaces of the tank and contents. This was a real nice surprise!!!! I would say I only have about 2-5% of the algae growth with the 18,000K verses the 10,000K but the filters are alway green now when I rinse them as with the 10,000K the filters where always rinsing a brown color when rinsed.