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Thread: My first attempt

  1. #51

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    Re: My first attempt

    Well I've gone and bought 4x 18W PLL 4 pin 3500K bulbs so I'll see if it makes a difference.
    I've also just got two panels of glass cut to replace the plastic I had between the lights and the screen, so it should be easier to clean.

  2. #52

    Re: My first attempt

    You could try replacing one side with your new lights and see which works best. It could be that a mix of both produces the best growth.

    Cheers,

    Pat. Pending

  3. #53
    kcress's Avatar
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    Re: My first attempt

    That's 2 years of rated bulb life. Especially the typical crappy bulbs you normally find.

  4. #54

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    Re: My first attempt

    Yes, I guess they're on much more than they're designed to be.
    These are good quality Phillips bulbs, I've replaced one side with the 3500K bulbs, the new ones are General Electric bulbs.
    They actually look "peach" coloured compared to the 6500K bulbs heh

  5. #55

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    Re: My first attempt

    A few things...
    Firstly, no noticeable difference with the 3500k bulbs after a few days.
    Secondly, I think I know why my scrubber hasn't yet got my nitrates to 0, they've been fairly constant at 5-8ppm with no water changes for 3 months. I think it's lack of water flow, the rated output of the pump is 1200L/h (317 US G/h) see:
    http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/14/OR%20line/ (it's the OR1200).
    The screen is cut at 8" wide, which should give slightly more than 35G/h per inch
    There's about 1m head to lift the water from the pump to the top of the scrubber, which puts the output at about 700L/h (185 US G/h), however, I got a bucket, and held the pipe with screen in at the same height and measured the time it took to fill 10L (1min 40 sec = 100sec = 0.1L/sec = 360L/h = 95 US Gal/h)
    less than 1/3 of the rated flow. This is likely to do with the 1m head, the fact the pump is 3 years old and that there's pressure on the pump from the feed pipe that holds the screen. I may try and enlarge the slot slightly to lower the pressure (there's more flow at the far end of the pipe on the opposite side from the feed).
    I may also add another pump and try and hook it up as well =)
    I think that accounts for the slightly poor (it's still amazing that I've not had to do a single water change in 3 months) results.

    SantaMonica: Is your 35G/h per inch rule based on actual water pumped, or rated values?

  6. #56
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    Re: My first attempt

    It's actual water going through the slot.

  7. #57

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    Re: My first attempt

    Thought as much, going to try and increase it, I'm fairly sure that's the reason it's not 0ppm nitrate yet.

  8. #58

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    Re: My first attempt

    Well, I've managed to increase the flow by a reasonable amount, I have yet to measure it though.

    A few things I've done to help:[list][*]Increased the size of the slot that holds the screen in the pipe by another 1mm or so (for a second time)[/*:m:1qdeia3h][*]Cut 5x 1" cuts going 90 degrees to the slot, spaced evenly 1" away from each other in the middle of the slot (1 in the middle, 2 either side)[/*:m:1qdeia3h][*]Cut the flexible pipe feeding the scrubber from the pump in half so there's nearly no slack[/*:m:1qdeia3h][*]Moved the pump closer to the top of the water to decrease the head height needed to pump the water, therefore increasing pressure and flow (the water line can't drop in this case as the "sump" sucks water from the tank and overflows back in).[/*:m:1qdeia3h][/list]
    Due to the slots in the middle, I'm now noticing that the increased flow at the far end of the screen (the other end from where the water is fed in) is no longer more than the rest of the screen, it's pretty even all the way along, and also the water flow on each side is more even. For some reason, probably due to the angle that that slot was cut, there was higher flow on one side of the screen than another, this now seems pretty even.
    Lastly, algae growing at the top of the screen shouldn't affect the flow so much, and shouldn't block it as easily, again, due to the slots. Time will tell, but so far, I'm not getting any splashing from these perpendicularly cut slots.

    As for lights, I have seen an improvement in the type of algae growing and in the overall amount of growth since changing bulbs to the lower 3500K colour temp. I've been getting more hair, macro algaes, some interesting dark green very very long hair-like algae (6"+ long). The cyanobacteria is nearly completely gone along with less brown slime algae, both in the tank and on the screen.
    And best of all, still no water changes, nearly 5 months on, with good calcium, dKH and PH. I've easily saved the price of the equipment used to make the scrubber from not having used an entire bucket of salt, and everything in the tank looks more healthy than I've ever seen in a marine tank I've kept before, I'm loving it, and so is my girlfriend!
    I'm still making some incremental changes to my design, I'm in the process of replacing the clear plastic sheets protecting the lights with thin glass, easier to keep clean, cheaper, scratches less (but damn, I've got a lot of cuts on my fingers, as I forgot to get the edges smoothed, so will have to do it myself).

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