DIY LED Scrubber Lighting Guidelines and Builds

[Floyd R Turbo]

Without having read all of this thread top to bottom, i wonder whether it might be possible to made a hard and fast rule regarding led power to square inches on scrubbers, as 1 x 3w for 3" x 4" seems far too low, and it had resulted in buying various different drivers and more leds to upgrade on a trial and error basis. I cant help thinking it would have saved me a fortune if there had of been more accurate guidance to start with. I will start with what i have come up with, but wonder whether others may suggest power to surface area so we can get a more up to date idea of what is needed. With the upgrades i have made so far, and basing it on nuisance algae growth in tank/phosphate and nitrate level of the water, i would say that just under 1w per square inch on the 660nm 3w leds is closer to wiping the tank clean of all nuisance algae and nutrient levels. From looking at the L2 algae scrubber also, with the leds used versus the 4" x 6" screen, this seems to be a just under 1W per square inch per side. I would like others to share their experience as i see many new starters, with grossly underlit screens. Adding more leds is easy enough but getting bigger heat sinks to cope with heat and different drivers to cope isnt cheap.

Thanks for the valuable feedback. I developed the LED guideline based on what people had done and had success with. The "minimum" of 1 3W LED on each side of each 4x4 section (16 sq in, or 6w/16 = 0.375 w/sq in total, or 0.1875 w/sq in on each side) always did seems pretty low to me, but there were those that had successful growth with that level of light. How long did you try your setup before deciding to change the lighting?

My Lx series scrubbers generally use 6 3w LEDs on each side, so that's 18W x2 = 36W on a 24 sq in screen, or 1.5W/sq in total (0.75 w/sq in per side) if you don't count the blues into the calculation (and I don't), and that is the coverage you get when you have one LED per side of each 2x2 section. This is actually 4x the "density" of the "minimum".

So perhaps it is worth bumping the minimum up to one 660nm Deep Red on each side for every 8 sq in. So for a 2 cube/day screen, 24 sq in, that would be 3x 3W on each side, 6x3W=18W total / 24 sq in = 0.75 w/sq in total (0.375 w/sq in on each side).

Let's not get too confused with the "total" vs "each side"..."total" is easier to explain and less room for error.

So the revised rule would be:

Minimum: Screen size (LxW) times 0.75 = total wattage of LEDs needed. so 24 sq in x 0.75 = 18W, which is 6x 3W LEDs, 3 on each side.

Maximum (high-intensity): Screen size (LxW) times 1.5 = total wattage of LEDs needed. so 24 sq in x 1.5 = 36W, which is 12x 3W LEDs, 6 on each side. This is how I build mine, and I also include a diffuser, which I am recommending that people leave in place until the screen cures, then removing it if they chooses (the working theory being that after the screen cures, it can take more intensity)

[Enigma84]

The revisions you have are spot on i would say. I ran a 10" x 8" screen with 10 x 3w 660nm per side for about 5 months. Then upgraded to 19 per side which i have now, with some very good growth. My nitrates and phosphates are zero but there is still some brown diatom algae, so i am gonna push it a bit further to finish the last of it off. This will be 6 lots of drivers i will have bought now, 4 of which i will use (two per side). I think that people worry about having too much light, so it is good to see a maximum as well as a minimum, but it should be stressed that the higher end is needed to really get rid of the filth. It might be worth adding that my screens are about 5 inches away from the mesh surface, so i might have to use just a bit more.

[Floyd R Turbo]

5" distance might explain part of it. 3" probably would have produced better results. For reference mine are 2" away with a diffuser at about 1"

[inkidu]

Has it been 4 years? Wow. And still no water changes.
I got an email, and was checking out SM's new surf8X. Great work.
FW
Lost a couple led I see. Happy I checked now.
That is thing about led and algae scrubbers.
It is easy to forget about them.
I tried aeration from below screens at one time, and I did have some green success, but in my horizontal the long air stone got in the way.
I will rotate the three separate mesh/screens i.e. I will pull one at one end, clean, and then replace back at the other end.
I switch to Scoth Brite pads (white) in FW they float well and thought I would just give it a try. So far so good. Year or more, lost track.
I got a lot of catch up post reading to do, just thought I'd post.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome back.

Yes I too will forget about the scrubbers sometimes. By the time I check, the LED lid has 6 inches of growth attached to it.

Glad you horizontal is doing what it needs to do

[inkidu]

Thanks SM,
I am noticing now, in my pictures, were I was really neglectful.
The brown algae up the sides above the water line (backed up) in the scrubber.
From what I remember the brown algae (FW) is no good. Probably from not cleaning.
The tank always was running but I only had a few fish swimming around.
Goes to the ability of the scrubbers. Even through complete neglected my only filter was still working.
Any thoughts on whether I should clean the brown algae off or just let it go?
Might correct itself if I stay current with cleaning it and not let the water back up.
Thanks

[SantaMonica]

As long as you harvest it, it's good for filtering. If you don't harvest, it does not filter but does still make pods.

[atoll]

I considered building my own LED unit but after research decided it was hardly worth the effort in truth after I found others are using these off eBay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2217088853...%3AMEBIDX%3AITMy

leaflet box scrubber immediately after installation and prior to installing my LED units.



My screen size is 6" wide by 7" long.

One of mine mounted on my DIY supporting rig.


The two mounted on my sump in front and beghind of my leaflet scrubber. Skimmer cup removed to get a better shot of it.



A 10w version is just $12 and the 20w $23 They come with the right 650/660nm LED's and a couple of 440/450 blues. They are also splash proof, come with heat sink slim casings, mounting brackets and can be adjusted into different angles.

[SantaMonica]

Those look to be the best on ebay. Does it come with power supply?

[atoll]

Those look to be the best on ebay. Does it come with power supply?

Yes they do it is built in in casing. The only downside is you only get a short length of power cable about 9". I bought 2 tubular waterproof connectors to extend them.
these ones.