I have been failing at scrubbing for the better part of 6 months, I have tried various sizes boxes and screens and am just not getting good growth I see everywhere else. My latest venture was with some chinese LEDs and I am literally getting -no- growth with 15 watts of LED at 3-4" away from the screen. I am not handy with saws and what not but if I have a plan I have people who will help me out. So I finally would like to set a plan in action, and get this done.
I want to make an overflow fed scrubber that sits on a 55 gallon tank, and is powered by LED.
I feed at least 1 cube daily, but usually 1 cube and a couple pinches. I would assume with a good running scrubber I will feed coral and fish more so my estimated screen size will be 24 inches, lit on both sides.
Initially I was going to go a little bigger screen but then I realized my GPH turnover with my Quietone 9000 at ~9-10 feet is 1000 gph at max. So my screen will require 840 GPH which is just about perfect for my current exchange rate. My water comes down to the basement via 2" then is converted to 1.5 and finally down to 1" where it will connect to the scrubber. (I am open to opinions on side vs top feed)
LED:Thinking 6:1 R:B per side, however I am curious how these are mounted externally or how to build a box with a compartment for LEDs which I have seen in some various builds, and what type of cooling is then required. Since forward voltage seems to be different on R/B I would need 2 drivers for the build correct? How far are people running LED from the screens? This amount of LEDs seems extreme for this small of screen, can a guy go like 4:1??
So based on my own assumptions and plans this is the plan overview:
Screen:24 inches total, 6x4 or 4x6
LED:6:1 R:B, 3 watts, 2 drivers
Box:Side Fed, sized to fit on 55g tank:
11 5/8" x 3" x 7", 2 x 1" bulkhead drains, 1x3/4" emergency drain bulkhead.
Water will be gravity fed via overflow to the side of the box.
Edit/Note:
I was fine with my scrubber failing miserably until I recently have had a small cyano outbreak in addition to red slime or red hair algae. I have lost a nice birds nest, tips on another birds nest, a chunk of monti spongoede is bleached out. Since they are in higher flow areas the strands of algae get stuck on them and just irritate them to death, literally. Temporary fix was I ordered 42W lightbulbs as a last effort attempt at boosting my algae growth, I had a 48 inch screen with 26W watt bulbs on each side and it just wasnt working.