UAS design for FW

[SantaMonica]

That one will melt your screen.

You probably only need 18 to 24 LED watts.

[Floyd R Turbo]

That one will melt your screen.

You probably only need 18 to 24 LED watts.

LOL that's about right! Yeah you could use that maybe if it were about 8-10 inches away, that thing would turn your whole fish room Barbie Pink.

[jaddis18]

im not too sure what u mean by 18 - 24 led watt.

i am shining the light from the side of the screen, where there are mirrors in front and back of the screen. total length from side to side is roughly 17".

my 1st screen attempt there was growth but very little then changing to the new screen, i see 10x better growth but its not spread out.

[jaddis18]

what about this particular set?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FEE-SHIPPING...item2ec8d9b0a9

sorry. posted the wrong light earlier. hehe! my apologies.

[jaddis18]

what about these lights? will it melt the screen too if it is rated at 100w?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12W-40W-60W-...e7456#shpCntId

[Floyd R Turbo]

It won't literally melt the screen, that was just a figure of speech. He was saying that it is way too much light.

But then again, I reviewed this thread so I had the full picture and if you took one of those 'screen melters' and oriented it vertically on the side of your sump with the mirrored area, that might actually work since none of the light is direct. Your mirrors are at a small angle, any way you can widen them so they are at more of a 90 degree angle with the screen in the middle of it?

Do you have more pictures of your current setup, just for reference?

[jaddis18]

Hey bud,

That was totally my bad about the melted screen. Haha!

I am unable to adjust the mirrors angle, it's set good. Unless I get a problem with the sump in the future. I don't understand what a 'screen melter' is.

What I have done with the screen so far is that I didn't clean it but just swapped it around, so the area with almost no growth is closest to the light. I remembered from the prev. Screen I used there was most growth furthest away from the light. Let's hope I get a full screen by the end of this week.

I don't understand about these light things, am I using too little of light? What could be the better wattage for this particular screen? What I know is that I'm using 50watts of LEDs of 50 bulbs at 1watt(roughly) each and using 90watts of 42bulbs at 3watts each is too much light. I'm really sorry guys, still unclear of LEDs.

[Floyd R Turbo]

again, I'm calling the big LED arrays "screen melters" in reference to prior posts joking about those melting your screen.

So if I understand you right, the last picture of the screen that you posted (the green mesh) has growth on the part of the screen that is furthest away from the light source? I'm guessing that this is near where the 2 pieces of mirror meet up, right?

If so, I would continue to leave the screen oriented the same way. The screen that is nearest the light is not getting any direct light, because the light from the LEDs is directed along with the orientation of the screen instead of perpendicular to it. now, near the other end of the screen, the light has dispersed a bit and then reflected off the mirrors, so the light is now more perpendicular to the screen in this area. That is why you are getting growth in that area. By switching the screen around, you are going to cause the growth that you current have to die off, at least partially, and new growth will start on the area that is now in the proper lighting.

The biggest thing here is consistency. You will never be able to figure out what is wrong if you are constantly changing things. Leave things alone and see what happens.

As for cleaning, I would scrape off any loose algae, carefully. You are using a non-standard screen material, so it's hard to say how well that algae is going to stay attached. You might just rub it gently with your finger. Can you find any of the plastic knitting canvas material over there? I would strongly suggest ordering some from ebay or elsewhere - it will definitely make a difference, both of the types of material I have seen you post here are not very good for algae scrubbers.

[Floyd R Turbo]

About the LEDs: for your purposes, you can ignore the wattage of the individual LEDs. Just go by overall wattage. 1W LEDs are generally less intense, so they don't penetrate as well. 3W LEDs penetrate very well. But we are not talking about a lot of distance here, and you have a mirrored setup, so much of the light will be re-directed towards the screen in either setup.

Bottom line is to just go by overall wattage.

I think one of the issues that you are having is that you are trying to light the screen in a very non-standard manner and this just doesn't work very well.

[jaddis18]

Thx again bud,

Well i went around almost half the country looking for the proper screen. Checked on ebay, seems i need to get 2 screen just for my set up and its going to cost me over $50 including shipment.

The area furthest away from the light had good growth in the first screen n best growth nearest to the light in the 2nd screen, but the growth wasnt very spread out. Yes, my purpose of turning the screen around is to get a spread growth, at the moment it seems that the non-growth area(being closest to light now) is growing brown algae but didnt really check properly.

If i was to purchase a new set of light, would this be better? Rated at 60watts of 30 LED bulbs at 2watts each? Or something entirely different. The shape n size should be able to light the whole screen rather than the mid like my current light set. But my concern is if the blue bulbs in the middle will cause burnt area of the screen.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12W-40W-60W-...e7456#shpCntId

I think i will leave everything as it is, just to see if the current light set will be sufficient which i hope it is. Iwill post more pictures later of my current set up. I have been able to make minor tweeks to get bubbles all over the screen except the mid where the airstones 'kiss' each other, but there are bubbles probably an inch above the stones and growth too.