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Thread: DIY LED Scrubber Lighting Guidelines and Builds

  1. #91

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    I took my screens out today and the side with the violet and red LEDs had much less growth than the side with blue and red in during my 2 week trial so the violets are coming out as soon my new red and blue LEDs arrive from china.

  2. #92
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    Keep in mind that one blue 455nm LED will have much higher intensity than a 422nm Violet. So you might need 2 violets whereas you only need one blue. Hard to say for sure without doing some experimenting, but that might explain the difference.

  3. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timo View Post
    I took my screens out today and the side with the violet and red LEDs had much less growth than the side with blue and red in during my 2 week trial so the violets are coming out as soon my new red LEDs arrive from china.
    I would have given it a bit more of a chance to be honest. The algae types may just not be acclimated to this light. It may get better, the more cycles you put it through.

  4. #94

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    Quote Originally Posted by Garf View Post
    I would have given it a bit more of a chance to be honest. The algae types may just not be acclimated to this light. It may get better, the more cycles you put it through.
    It was a brand new screen an scrubber. I only used the violets as I had them kicking around (I got the violets to make a light for the main tank but never got round to using them) and I could only salvage one blue from my old scrubber. Planning now to use red 630 and 660 + a blue 455 as that combo worked great on my old scrubber.

  5. #95
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    The true test would be to use it on a seasoned scrubber for a couple of months. Thanks for adding that bit of info - I'm still planning to bench test a scrubber with 660/455 against 660/422.5

  6. #96

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    Quote Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo View Post
    The true test would be to use it on a seasoned scrubber for a couple of months. Thanks for adding that bit of info - I'm still planning to bench test a scrubber with 660/455 against 660/422.5
    Also I think my violets are a little to far down the scale at 405-415nm mabye too UV, your test with 422.5nm may have totally different results. Algae did grow it just looks stronger,thicker and greener on the blue screen. BTW my scrubber has 4 separate screens in it.

  7. #97
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timo View Post
    Also I think my violets are a little to far down the scale at 405-415nm mabye too UV, your test with 422.5nm may have totally different results. Algae did grow it just looks stronger,thicker and greener on the blue screen. BTW my scrubber has 4 separate screens in it.
    Why not start a new topic, I'm intrigued, for one.

  8. #98

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    Quote Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo View Post
    Keep in mind that one blue 455nm LED will have much higher intensity than a 422nm Violet. So you might need 2 violets whereas you only need one blue. Hard to say for sure without doing some experimenting, but that might explain the difference.
    Humans don't see violets that well so they appear less intense than blue, but as far as LEDs, violets typically have a higher forward voltage and need to run on lower amps than blues because of heat issues so it is true that more violet diodes may be needed for a fair comparison if you want to compare equivalent power but even that has all sorts of variables like quality of manufacture.

  9. #99

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    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.

  10. #100

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    having said that, i have just found https://public.sheet.zoho.com/public...lculator-xls-1 on the sticky page which wasnt there before.
    As long as you go closer to the maximum than the minimum, then this should be more accurate.

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