Well, even with the current T5HO design, it can handle 5 cubes per day when new, and 10 cubes a day when grown-in, without any help from other filters or waterchanges. So if you will not be feeding more that 10 cubes per day, the current design will do fine.
good stuff ,, keep on truckin!
Just to clarify what I mean when I said redesign, I was just talking about how to mount the lights. The box/screen/etc is all fine as is. The 50w LED light is much smaller than the T5HO fixtures used on the SM100, so what I was thinking as a way to modify it, buy a sheet of ABS plastic (like I used on my lid and baffles) and cut it to the size of the side where the light mounts, cut out the center to fit the LED light into the ABS, and use some blocks to support the light so it is centered. This will block out any light spill from using this fixture.Originally Posted by SantaMonica
We are right there at the dawn of the perfect algae scrubber buy giving it exactly the correct spectrum of light it can utilize at an affordable price, one that is less than a T5HO fixture and a years worth of bulbs on a good sale, so if these LED lights work well and last over 12 months, they will break even, anything longer than 12 months and it is $ in the pocket and they do have a 3 year warranty. Like Floyd mentioned though, dealing with the warranty is going to take weeks and a lot of effort more than likely (longer than you want to run a scrubber without light), so a higher quality made fixture will save you even more $ in the long run. I would also go with a Cree fixture like Floyd has described if they were available, it does sound like a great fixture just from the little he has said of it. Small fine tuning of spectrum and finding its maximum absorption is the only thing left to do. With what is out now on the market and what I have learned doing experiments myself, there is no question in my mind that these types of LED lights are going to be the next generation lighting for Algae Scrubbers. Half of the stuff I have read about wavelengths and using LEDs to grow plants is from weed forums. They are even more interested in using less electricity and maximizing growth and have been using red/blue LEDs for a few years now, just going off what I read doing searches, I do not grow anything outside of a fish tank in my home. LOL. I always new that a "1w" fixture like the ones in this thread would be much more ideal than using 3w LEDs like I did. The main reason I went with 3w LEDs was because they are much easier to DIY at home. Now all we need to do is put them to the test to prove how well it would work. I wish I had a SM scrubber to try these LEDs on but it is going to take me a few months to save up for a SM scrubber and a pair of the 50w lights. It would be really cool to see Santa Monica try a pair of these 50w LED lights out for a couple weeks (or longer if they work as well as I think they will) on his system to give a great comparison write up.
To answer why I went with 660nm LEDs. I had tried the Cree Red LEDs also when I tried the royal blues, those are 610-630nm, and I felt I didn't get as much growth even though the output was close to double, like you stated Floyd. This showed me that intensity does not in fact trump spectrum for algae growth, although on a T5HO light that is true due to the nature of the light spectrum it is emitting. I believe the algae, at least the algae growing on my screen, reacts to the chlorophyll A absorption points much more, and can utilize 2x as much of the 660nm light than it can the 630nm light. As this chart shows, the other peak for chlorophyll A is 420nm, which is why I have been wanting to try out those spectrum LEDs. Since I didn't get as much growth with 630nm LEDs and almost no growth with 455nm LEDs the non scientific conclusion I came to was the algae did not utilize the Chlorophyll B spectrum much at all. I do think you are right with your observation with my setup, I was blasting too much Royal Blue in a concentrated area and not mixing the correct spectrum properly and that was one reason it did not work.
why bother with royal blues at all? why not do a 50/50 mix or red and warm whites?
I'm not planning on using RB of WW. 425 nm blue not 450, and WW don't do as well as reds or deep reds so they waste bandwidth. Otherwise these types of grow lamps for plants would use them
Even warm whites do not put out much, if any, 660nm red light. So as far as Warm whites are concerned, they are pretty much pointless to use (due to incorrect spectrum) for the purpose of growing algae. They do grow Cyano really well though. I started off with Neutral and Warm whites, had to keep adding more and more LEDs until it got to the point I was using more wattage to run LEDs than a T5HO fixture uses, which is a really dumb thing to do IMO. This is the "Intensity trumps Spectrum" theory people toss around, and as I have tested and learned first hand, it is the absolute wrong way to think about lighting for the purpose of growing algae for filtration. Once I started removing whites and placing reds in place of them the algae started growing faster than I have ever seen and using 1/3 the wattage because I ended up only really needing 4 3w 660nm LEDs per side instead of 10 neutral and warm whites. I was pushing just over 60w with 20 LEDs before, now I am pushing just over 20w with 8 LEDs according to my Kill-A-Watt AND the best part I am getting about 3x as much growth since switching to 660nm red LEDs.
Can it be estimated recommended 660nM LED wattage per square inch of screen at this point of investigation ?
I wish it were that simple, but other variables come into play like distance from screen, wattage of LED (1/2w, 1w, 3w, etc) and spacing between LEDs, as well as beam angle of LED. Right now there is no way to say "x" watts of 660nm per sq inch due to those variables. This is why I think the LED light in the first post would be one of the most ideal lights as a replacement to T5HO on a SM100 scrubber, but I won't go as far as saying it is the perfect light for all scrubbers.
Also, wattage is a terrible measurement to use for what we are discussing due to the differences in quality/efficiency of different LEDs. One type of LED may put out more light than another brand of LED because it is more efficient, so you could use 20% less wattage with one type and still get the same growth. PAR would be a more precise measurement at the screen.
So is anyone going to get one of these units to try it out then?
I'm quite tempted by the 100w one.
This is my ATS.
My question is for ace25 and Floyd: my current ats is running under T5 112 watts per side. In my country (Venezuela) it is too expensive to maintain this enlightment over a year. Thats why i’m more interested in led illumination, so i would like to buy 24 660nm/3watts leds (i can only find this wattage leds, its nearly imposible to find 1watt leds here) . My ATS is 120cm x 22 cm; is that enough for 1 side or is it too much?
I really would like to try LEDs, is it required to have royal blues? Or can i use regular blue?
Based in ace25’s comment about White and royal blues i think that regular blue and red would be great, or even only red.
Im looking forward to your answers so i can start shopping ?
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