+ Reply to Thread
Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst 12345
Results 41 to 42 of 42

Thread: Anyone use LED's for Lighting a Scrubber?

  1. #41
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    2,710
    Thanks for posting the pics. As far as LED panel arrays go, that's probably one of the better ones I've seen. Most of them like that are 225 LEDs and 14W so they're all way under powered. Next time I see someone posting a link to one of those, I'll point them to this one.

    For non-forced cooling stock fixtures, this is a pretty good one. I think the wattage is a bit on the low side overall, but that is made up by the use of bandwidth, it's about a 3.5:1 red:blue ratio which is probably a little high on the blue, and interstingly enough, this is a "B" band fixture. It uses 630nm Reds and 460nm Blues. Most "grow" lights use 660/460 which is a mix of A and B. So congrats, you're the first one I can recall using this bandwidth!

    Going by the new sizing and light guidelines, I don't think many people would be in the market to use this light though because not many have a need for a 12x12 screen (12 cubes/day) and if you were feeding that much, it would probably overpower the screen, just because there's not quite enough intensity. This is a very good example however of the usefulness of LED lighting on a screen that is too large for the feeding (I'm assuming here that you're not feeding 10 cubes/day or more). CFL and T5HO screens that are too large compared to feeding tend to grow yellow rubbery algae like mine currently is. So far, all the LED builds I've seen tend not to grow the yellow algae at all, which I find very interesting.

    Thanks for posting that info!!

  2. #42

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    16
    Just so there's no confusion, the lights that I posted the link to are NOT the lights that I bought. I meerly posted that to show what my lights looked like because someone was asking about a heat sink. Mine were purchased long enough ago that the listing is no longer on eBay and the seller I got them from does not sell grow lights anymore. Mine came packaged in a plain white box, like generic cigaretts, no instructions, no documentation, I have no idea what wavelength the LEDs are. I did look at to see that the ratio of red to blue is 3-1. The LEDs are encapsulated in plastic that is 8mm diameter.

    At peak production, I was removing 2c of algae from it every week. Now it has dropped to about 1c per week. I was getting a yellow band in the middle of the screen due to poor flow distribution. Over time the PVC pipe has warped and closed up the slot in the middle. I've been opening it up a little at a time with an angle grinder and cutting wheel when I've got it apart for cleaning. Looks pretty good now.

    I think I'm going to start feeding more since I've obviously got capacity that is not being used. I make my own frozen food and form it in ice "cube" trays that make a long cylinder shape to fit in a water bottle. Once frozen I cut them in half and feed one of those halves per day. Pretty close to 3 of the comercial sized cubes. My blue hippo tang is starting to get aggressive during feeding and I'm wondering if he needs more food to be happy. I had another blue hippo tang that was a big teddy bear and never bothered anyone but when he got to be about 9" I felt he had outgrown my 75gal., so I traded him to a LFS.

+ Reply to Thread
Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst 12345

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts