Nitrate and phosphate rise???

[jfenton954]

I have a waterfall scrubber and had 4 23w cfl's on it for 18 hrs a day and the turf algae grew like crazy I had my tank for over 7 years now and the last 5 months or so the algae has been a red slime. That's changing the bulbs out every 90 day also. So I put a post on here a month or so ago and someone suggested I switch to 22 hours so I did and no change really. So instead of buying more bulbs I decided to upgrade to leds and rebuild my design. So I have 4, 3w led bars 2 on each side with a total of 16, 660nm LEDs and 2, 430nm LEDs on each side running 22 hours a day. The lights are about 2 3/4 inches off of the screen with a rio 1700 pump with very little growth after 2 weeks. My nitrate and phosphates are slowly raising. Here are some pics.

[SantaMonica]

Well that black growth looks exactly like weak light. At the very least, brush/scrape all the black stuff off because it blocks light and it stops GHA from attaching.

Maybe the LEDs are not as strong as advertised. To test them, you could put all 4 strips on one side.

[jfenton954]

Here is where I ordered them from. Let me know what you think.

http://www.expressions-ltd.com/Algae...grow-light.htm

[SantaMonica]

Yes I've seen that light before, is a good one and it has nine 1w LEDs. So you have 18w per side, compared with your previous 46 CFL watts per side. So it's just a wattage issue.

By temporarily putting all 4 of them on one side, you'll find the answer quickly.

Have you moved any of your rock, or changed anything flow in the display?

[jfenton954]

If that's true I'm really not trying to spend another $160 on more lights

[SantaMonica]

Still though, by putting them on the front you can at least have the front working well.

[jfenton954]

Is that going to be able to support my 75g tank? I shortened the screen to 7 1/2 x 10 inches.

[SantaMonica]

Well, sizing is a different question; read here:
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...ing-guidelines

[jfenton954]

Do you think I would be able to change the 1w leds to 3w in those bars?

[SantaMonica]

No the power supply will not work.