New sizing guidelines

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yes, if the light has to pass through the screen to get to the other side. Once algae grows thick enough, no light will be transmitted and therefore none reflected.

[dryworm]

so if i am building a uas similiar to the hog. at one cube a day. i would need a 6 x 8 screen and 12 watts of leds or 24 watt cfl at 18 hours a day. sorry if this seems obvious but i want to make sure.

[kerry]

Normally you only need a 1/4 it a 1/3 of LED wattage compared to CFL.

[dtyharry]

Surely one sided needs 24sq in so 6x4 inches would be fine with 24w cfl

[dryworm]

ah ok. the example had 3 x 4 for a .5 cuble. so i doubled it to 6 x 8. i see my error now thanks. i seen sm's hog design and it was a 12 watt cfl and a 6w led. thats how i figured it was half. i will be using a dimmable led driver so i can adjust accordingly. thanks for y'all help.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Don't dim, just go less hours. If you go by the minimum LED 'guideline' of one 3W LED per 16-20 sq in (4x4 to 4.5x4.5) this is especially true, IMO

[sklywag]

Wow! I'm thinking of using LEDs on my new ATS. I PMed you about that by the way Floyd. So only one(1) 3 watt LED for a 4x4 inch screen? How far away? Bright white? Soft white? 6500K?

What if you use a lesser watt LED? I see a lot of reds being used with some blues. Is there a dominant pattern that seems to work best?

[Floyd R Turbo]

I must have missed the PM? Use 660nm deep red primarily, you can add a blue 455 and WW maybe too, but you should have roughly 6:1 red : other, or somewhere near that ratio. 1 3W per 4x4 is what I consider the minimum. I actually build them with 4x the density, one every 2x2 (on each side) and then add a diffuser to blend. Diffuser is something I added standard to my builds (new post coming soon, one of these days...)

[SantaMonica]

if i build a uas in the sump lighted on one side. a reflector on the the other side. does that count as a one sided screen or a two sided screen?

Depends on how the reflector is set up. If it is oversized and spread out well beyond the screen, and angled so that light can get around the back side, and if the light can get around the screen, it might be possible to approach a 2-sided screen.

[pskelton]

If this has already been answered I apologize, with the new sizing guidelines is there an estimate for say teaspoons of pellet food per square inch of screen. I know I feed my tank a couple good pinches of food per day but I don’t know how that transfers to ounces. If I had a measuring spoon per square inch estimate It would be helpful.