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Thread: My new scrubber, LED 15w

  1. #11

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    Re: My new scrubber, LED 15w

    The LED fixture didn't seem to be working all that well. I think each individual LED is not strong enough to make a difference. I did some research here and on other sites. The key seems to be the individual LEDs involved in an array. If each one doesn't have enough power, you don't get the light energy you need.

    I updated the setup with a home made fixture I made with a 28 Watt CFL bulb [100 watt equv] some aluminum foil and a box on Monday 12-19



    This is the growth I have since Monday



    I checked Nitrates and Phosphates...

    The Nitrates dropped from 30 PPM last week to 0 !!!!! This really works!!!



    phosphate is still higher than would like, looks to be between 5 and 10 PPM




    So far so good....

  2. #12
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    Re: My new scrubber, LED 15w

    Looking good so far. You really need to use the 3 watt LED's IMO, I have had great luck with them so far on my 10G horizontal. I will be upgrading it to the new technology when that info comes out. I have a single sided screed 2.75x6.75 and use four 3W 660nm LED's
    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.

  3. #13

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    Re: My new scrubber, LED 15w

    Update..

    Phosphate at about 5 PPM

    Nitrate between 5 and 10 PPM

    Getting good dark green algae growth. Starting to get heavy.

    Using CFL bulb instead of LED - not getting hot - seems to work very well.

  4. #14
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    Just a point of clarification here. You have a 30g tank and you're running a 10x12 single sided screen. Going by the feeding-based method, that screen can handle 5 cubes per day. I would suggest

    1) trim the bottom off the screen, leaving only about 1" max to 'dip' into the water (the rest does nothing for you)
    2) reduce the width of the screen such that you have 24 square inches (L x W) of illuminated area for each cube you feed per day. This would probably mean you can reduce to 4 wide x 6 high. This will also dramatically increase your flow per inch and you may have to widen your slot a little if the overflow starts backing up.
    3) Consider eliminating the shutoff valve, or just shut it completely. This valve being open is in effect lowering the pressure to the slot and allowing algae to grow into it and block flow more easily as the water has a secondary pressure relief path with zero resistance (bad for flow to screen)
    4) Your reflector design is great, the aluminum foil may not be the best thing to use. If you can get a smooth material, like the one SM has http://www.santa-monica.cc/Flexible-Reflector_p_15.html that might deliver a little more light to the screen. The aluminum foil has a scattering effect. This is not so critical, just sayin'.
    5) consider putting in a larger wattage CFL and cutting the hours down. Check out post #17 here http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...cs-The-Summary

    Still, with all that, You dropped N from >100 to less than 20 in a month. This shows how powerful these systems can be! You'll have this system down and clicking along in no time.

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo View Post
    Just a point of clarification here. You have a 30g tank and you're running a 10x12 single sided screen. Going by the feeding-based method, that screen can handle 5 cubes per day. I would suggest

    1) trim the bottom off the screen, leaving only about 1" max to 'dip' into the water (the rest does nothing for you)
    2) reduce the width of the screen such that you have 24 square inches (L x W) of illuminated area for each cube you feed per day. This would probably mean you can reduce to 4 wide x 6 high. This will also dramatically increase your flow per inch and you may have to widen your slot a little if the overflow starts backing up.
    3) Consider eliminating the shutoff valve, or just shut it completely. This valve being open is in effect lowering the pressure to the slot and allowing algae to grow into it and block flow more easily as the water has a secondary pressure relief path with zero resistance (bad for flow to screen)
    4) Your reflector design is great, the aluminum foil may not be the best thing to use. If you can get a smooth material, like the one SM has http://www.santa-monica.cc/Flexible-Reflector_p_15.html that might deliver a little more light to the screen. The aluminum foil has a scattering effect. This is not so critical, just sayin'.
    5) consider putting in a larger wattage CFL and cutting the hours down. Check out post #17 here http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...cs-The-Summary

    Still, with all that, You dropped N from >100 to less than 20 in a month. This shows how powerful these systems can be! You'll have this system down and clicking along in no time.
    Some questions...

    1. I am unclear about the sizing guidelines that depend on the amount of food.

    I would think that this would depend on what is in the tank and how much food that the various critters consume. Since I have a one sided screen setup and feed around one cube a day plus one large pinch of food [about 1/2 teaspoon] per day, I wonder what screen size I need. I have great water flow as it is the gravity feed from the tank. According to your post, that would mean about 48 square inches...? 6 X 8 "



    2.

    In the tank I have 3 fairly good size fish, 4 different soft corals, about 60lbs. or so of live rock, a brittle starfish - who is getting pretty large, and multiple snails, hermit crabs, lots of pods, and lots of other critters living in the rock and gravel bed. The food I put in seems to be mostly eaten, although I think a lot ends up as crud in the gravel, etc.. Tank has been up for at least 7 years.

    The current size screen - about 10X10" seems to be working very well with one CFL 28 Watts.. I realize that this may be overkill. I have trimmed the screen a bit and am looking into getting a stronger light source, and adjusting the timing as you suggest.

    I also keep the shut off valve in the closed position. Only use it when I want to drain the tube so I can clean the screen easier.

    I appreciate your help.

  6. #16
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    The livestock can only consume what you put in the tank. So how much livestock there is does not matter.

    If you want to increase filtering, the first thing is to make it 2-sided. This will double the filtering without even increasing wattage; you can use 14 watts on each side and get twice the filtering of 28 watts on one side.

  7. #17
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    SM, what did I miss here - if you run a 10 x 10 screen lit on one side by 28W, then make that a 2-sided screen lit by 14W on each side, I thought that was the same amount of filtering capacity, since the light is the same. It was my understanding that if you start with a double-lit screen, to get the equivalent filtering capacity on a single-lit screen you would use the same amount of total lighting, but double the area. Then for a horizontal you would need 4x the area of the double-lit and 1.5x the light. This is going way back to your initial recommendations years ago. Has something changed?

  8. #18
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    2-sided screens hold on to the roots twice as long, for the same wattage. So they filter twice as much, for the same wattage.

    Horizontal is even weaker than 1-sided, because of the slow flow.

  9. #19
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    That makes sense. So in effect, because the roots of the algae mat on a double-sided screen can hold on longer, you can go longer between cleanings (10 days vs 7) and the extra time in the exponential growth phase means double the filtering capacity, in the long run. But, if you were to clean a single sided screen and a double sided screen at, say, 6 days, they should have equal filtering capacity. So it is a different means by which the double-sided screen becomes more efficient. Do I have this correct?

  10. #20
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    No the 1-sided starts letting go at about 3 days. Especially since mostly people trying 1-sided's tend to have nutrient problems and dark growth which does not let the gha grab on at all.

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