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Thread: Ace's ATS v2.0 - LEDs

  1. #161
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    So here is a quick and dirty MS paint of my idea for my next scrubber.

    To explain what that simple thing is, pretty much a mini Santa Monica 100 that uses LEDs and will fit inside the rim of the sump on a 15G tank. The ATS box will sit 1/2 above the rim and half below the rim to keep it compact in my short stands. It will be all black, I just used different colors in the drawing to show the different pieces. Screen will be 6"x6" and using 6 LEDs per side, 2x 455nm, 2x 630-640nm, and 2x 650-660nm per side. The box will be made out of black ABS plastic ordered from tapplastics.com, cut with a table saw, sanded, and bonded with weld-on. There will be a 90 degree barb fitting for the input side and a drain on the bottom, there will be 3 independent lids, led light boxes using lexan as dividers between the screen so ensure no warping/melting from the LEDs being so close. The whole thing will be solid, water tight, and modular, simply unplug the pump feeding the ATS and plug for the LEDs and you can pull the entire thing right off if you needed to. There will be baffles in the sump, I just didn't draw any.

    This drawing depicts a 15G sump (24"x10"x13"tall), so the ATS part is really small, about 9" long x 8" deep x 8" tall for the box part.

  2. #162
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    Forgot to mention, I am going to go with a new route on light times with my new builds. Since I will be blasting the screens with the correct spectrum, and lots of it, I am going on the theory I will be reaching photo-inhibition rather quickly (just a wild guess, no science behind it other than my positive experience switching times from 18/6 down to 12/12 on my 42w CFLs) so I am planning on running a 4hrs on / 4hrs off light schedule to see if that greatly increases the algae usefulness. In theory it should be getting 3 days worth of growth every day, which means the screen should be full every 3 days, which is exactly how long my 5G ATO bucket lasts. Hopefully it lines up where once every 3 days I refill my ATO with Kalk water and clean the screen and swipe a mag float across the glass and that will be the extent of my maintenance routine (besides feeding).

    Also the reason I am still going with royal blue LEDs is because I still believe that blues are useful for what we are doing. I don't think blues do anything for growth of algae, so if you put blues over algae and expect growth you will be disappointed. What the blues will do is provide light needed for respiration, which will in turn make the algae stronger as well as remove more CO2 from the water. It is very hard to see the blues providing any benefit with your eyes though which is why I originally thought they were not helpful, but after running all reds and then adding a single blue back to each side the algae does seem to be stronger/thicker on the screen and not as stringy and weak like it was when I only ran 660's.

  3. #163
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    Very interesting take on the blue LEDs. SM noted in his 'test' using the eshine fixture that he did not think it was doing anything. Maybe this is why.

    I can't say that I agree that you will get any more growth by doing 4/4 vs any other cycle. Algae can only grow so fast, can't fool mother nature. I would think at best you would be able to get 1.5 to maybe double the growth. But I guess we will see!

  4. #164
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    Yes, great data. As I am reconfiguring my 10G LED horizontal screen to vertical I will leave room for a blue that I do have at this point but, I do have to order more for a display project in a week or so and I will be sure to get a few to try myself.
    150G. Reef/Mix
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    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
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    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  5. #165
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    To clarify a little better to what I was saying about blues. When I ran all 660nm LEDs, I got great growth, but when it came time to clean I could literally take a credit card and with a single swipe clean a section of screen, like using one of those car window cleaner things, one swipe wipes the water off the window. Since adding a blue back to the light, now it is more like removing paint from the wall, short 1" strokes with the credit card to really dig in and break the algae free. It really is a night and day difference on how easy/hard the algae comes off the screen.

    As for the 4/4 light, ya, completely unknown how it will actually work. I suspect your right though Floyd and I won't see 3x the growth, but I think your right that 1.5 to maybe 2x the growth could be possible. We will see.

  6. #166
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    It could be the opposite of what you think. Ease-of-scraping is from the roots dying. Dying is from lack of light and flow. It is possible that the all-reds actually caused more growth, which blocked more light and flow from reaching the roots.

  7. #167
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    Certainly an interesting theory, and I may agree with it if it weren't for the fact I was running 6x 660nm for months, then the only thing I changed was I added a single royal blue to each side, going from 12 LEDs total up to 14 LEDs, 7 on each side, I didn't remove any reds. So your theory doesn't seem to fit my scenario unless your saying that by adding a blue it somehow reduced the effectiveness of the reds already running.

  8. #168
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    I think Ace is right based on that. And that is certainly a very, very interesting observation.

  9. #169

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    Ace, I may have missed this. Did you add the blues to the same driver you were using for the reds? If so, wouldn't this reduce the current to all LEDs? Unless you had the REDs dimmed down before adding the blues and were able to compensate for the additional LEDs. Just thinking...

  10. #170
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    If you have your driver maxed out it that might be an issue. I have added LED's to my display and not seen any visual brightness difference but I had plenty of room to add more.
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

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