Starting out general and CFL questions

[greaps]

Hi, I'm looking into building my first scrubber in the next week or two for newest build, a 40 gallon breeder sps reef. I read for the best results to go straight for CFL lighting, rather than tinkering with more expensive LEDs, maybe in the future, but for now I want this to work, not be a work in progress.



First on home-depots web site looking at bulb options and I'm seeing CFL comes in different K ratings, 2700K, 5000K, and 6500K, with different watts. Is one K rating better than the rest? I would assume 6500K is best since its warm light similar to day light.

Next, based off AS calculator, I need 48 Watts lite on one side of a 8X6 48 sq inch screen. Or 14 watts light from both sides, based off this which way would you go? I have a over sized DIY stand so space is not a concern. I imagine going with 1 side for now, leaving space for lighting the second side should I add more fish, and increase feedings. I'm looking at purchasing a clamp on fixture and running the light off a timer. My concern with going on one side verse two overall is light spill / spread, would I be able to get proper coverage on a 8X6 with one fixture?

Last, just starting this out, would I want to run the scrubber from day one? I'm going to be cycling with dry rock,kick started with a small amount of fish food, the rock itself tends to have some die off, and does release phosphates.

Thanks for helping me out!

[SantaMonica]

LED is just as effective and less heat, but harder to build, unless you get a spotlight LED grow bulbs like these:
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...-led-grow-bulb

For CFL, 2700k is best. You don't want daylight, you want red.

For 48 sq inch screen, you'd want at least 24 real watts on each side. Spotlights will keep most of the light on the screen.

Definately go 2-sided as soon as you can; 1-sided starts shading the roots twice as fast, which then die and let go sooner.

Yes start at the cycle. 1-sided at that time is fine; it won't grow much, but will be ready for fish sooner.

[greaps]

Hi I looked over the thread, and I saw a recommendation by you that some tried and didn't have much luck with, I think im going to stick to the CFL bulbs for now, thanks for the help with the Kelvin ratings, im going with 2700K. LED is tempting nice prices, I just read multiple suggestions and am having a hard time deciding which one to get.

[SantaMonica]

Any 2700 k should do.

[Brent1128]

That LED bulb in that link is crap for ATS purposes. I tried it for a month and the CFL floodlight it replaced did a much better job. Since then I have found an 18x3w bulb on amazon and am still testing it out. I'm running a double sided screen with 2 23w CFLs on one side and 1 23w CFL along with the 54w LED bulb. Its been going about a month and the results are pretty similar...The mounting isnt quite as good on the LED side so I've recently tweeked it. The all CFL side was winning but not by a large amount. We'll see what happens after the tweek.

Bottom line though is that the small wattage LED dont have enough power.