Now in Production: L2 Waterfall LED 2 Cube/day Algae Scrubber

[Floyd R Turbo]

Oh it is most definitely not less power more hours. SM has covered this many times and I believe it is in the FAQ. When he came out with the "double the light, half the hours" method to battle the black growth (which turned into a general rule to get better green growth) he covered this. It's all about intensity of the light. More intense light for a shorter period will promote green growth better, and green growth filters better. Less intense light for a longer period will not grow green nearly as well. Not to mention that this rule generally applied to people already running 18 on / 6 off, so further shortening the dark recovery period would do more harm than good.

[General0]

Would this work on a 220 gallon? Or would I just use two of them? very interested in one or more for my system.

[Floyd R Turbo]

The old method of sizing these is based on the tank volume. The new method is based on feeding. So it really doesn't matter how big your system is, just how much you feed daily (on average).

2 would have 2x the capacity and I am working on a prototype 4 cube/day unit.

[Floyd R Turbo]

To date, I have shipped units to the following areas:

Iowa
North Carolina
Illinois
Texas
Florida
Missouri
Minnesota
Virginia
Norway
Ireland

All except the international ones have arrived 100% in tact and several are up and running

Here's a YouTube video of one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6TXCccQSyc

[acorral]

To date, I have shipped units to the following areas:

Iowa
North Carolina
Illinois
Texas
Florida
Missouri
Minnesota
Virginia
Norway
Ireland

All except the international ones have arrived 100% in tact and several are up and running

Here's a YouTube video of one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6TXCccQSyc

What happened to the ones shipped internationally ?

I'd like to but one and have it sent to mexico city

[mangobusa83]

I gotta say Bud packages these things like a brick! there is no way they could get damaged unless the UPS driver ran over the box and i wonder if the alignment of the truck would be messed up afterwards, but on to the point Bud has been kind enough to offer advice and troubleshooting with this product and it is a great and well thought out design he has built. I am excited to start seeing some growth on the screen and watch the tank turn around from its algae and diatoms outbreak that comes with the start up cycle. thanks a ton Bud!

[Floyd R Turbo]

there is no way they could get damaged unless the UPS driver ran over the box and i wonder if the alignment of the truck would be messed up afterwards

I literally LOLd at this.

[Drewfish]

Just coming in to echo mangobusa83. Scrubber got to me fast and very well packaged plus a great follow up email with tips from Bud. Now if the sand would settle I could start my stinking cycle.

[thegreek]

Glad to see you are at this point for your scrubbers. Can't wait to see the 4 cube a day. I read that you should keep the lights on for 9 hours a day for the 2 cube scrubber. Say you decide to feed more cubes a day (3-4) would that mean just to leave the lights on a little longer on the 2 cube scrubber? Just wondering

[Floyd R Turbo]

I get that question a lot. At this point I would say that is a subject that is due for some benchmark testing. I don't think anyone has ever made a bunch of identical devices then pushed them to the limit on various setups, besides the SM100 which was probably not pushed to 10 cubes/day by most people as it was originally sized for tank volume. Definitely no one has made LED scrubbers in volume, and definitely not with lighting at the double-light level. So there is quite a bit of new ground that could be broken through and a few things revealed in the process.

One is that since actually attaining the double-light level is difficult if not impossible to achieve with fluorescent light sources, you really need LEDs to get that 'density of intensity' (I think I just coined a phrase) without burning. So most cannot run less than 18 hours/day, or at least not much less. Truly being able to run the device for 9 hours/day would mean that if you fed more, that you should be able to, in theory, run the lights proportionately longer according to what you are feeding.

If such were the case, then 9 hr/d :: 2 cubes/d, 11.25 h/d :: 2.5 cubes/d, and 6.75 hr/d :: 1.5 cubes/d (where "::" means "proportionate to")

However I think there would be a limit, I don't think you would be able to run the lights 18 hr/d and get 4 cube/day capacity. There has to be some kind of limiting factor. When I get a month of spare time I might set up a few of these and find out. If someone wants to run that experiment for me, I would be willing to cut a deal on multiple units I think LOL