kcress's Turf Scrubber build.

[kcress]

Yes I just came to that conclusion myself.
I have 0.022A x 10.5V x 33 = 8Watts over an area of 9.5x12" = 114sqin
That equates to about 10w/square foot.

Sunlight at noon is about 85W per square foot. If you throw out half that as being the wrong colors we would still want about 40W on a square foot.

I need about 4x more power. Dang.

diy; Those are absurdly over priced. $50+ for one LEDunit that's only a 1/2W?!? You can buy 1/2W LEDs for about $1.20.
But thanks for the link.

[big-Ern]

kcress,
Check the link again, Its 100pieces of the 1/2watt leds for $53 so 0.53 each with free shipping. Seems pretty reasonable. And they already have huge viewing angle so you can get them up closer to screen.

[diy]

Check the link again

[kcress]

The pages are all distorted!!
Oh yeah, I sure missed that! Makes more sense now. ops:

I think I'll try some. Need to sort out which. They have a bazillion! :P

[Desktopflame]

I'm not even going to try to pretend that I understand electronics but how about these?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/45-LED-MOONLIGHTS ... dZViewItem

Just found them surfing ebay. Am very interested in gettin a scrubber going myself. Preferably with LED's and as I have no knowledge on electronics I would have to purchase ready made ones like those I have linked to. Would these be any good?

[worley]

Good idea, but nowhere near enough LEDs/light and expensive for the light output

[Desktopflame]

Good idea, but nowhere near enough LEDs/light and expensive for the light output

Oh well I was hoping I could buy a couple of sets of those for each side of the screen and that would be fine! I did say I don't know anything about electronics!
Would that still not be enough?

[kcress]

Yeah and the blue there isn't what you want a whole lot of anyway. My ineffective scrubber has a lot of blue now.. You need way more red than blue.

I am also coming to the conclusion that for leds you will want about 45W worth. This is no small amount. I could be off and 30W would do but until I try 40W and see the growth I can tell.

[kcress]

Instead of waiting to get a new LED setup going I'm switching to conventional. I just pointed three CFL at my screen. This way I can get some turf going will I get a new hotter LED panel built.

So I have (2) 19W CFL spotlights pressed up against the acrylic and one 29W curly-cue in a clamp-on about an 1inch from the plastic.

I'm tempted to point my 70W MH up against it.

BTW: On removing the LED panel it was evident that algae has started growing over the entire screen. So I think the LEDs will work if they just get brighter!.

[big-Ern]

kcress, sorry it didn't work for you. I was really hoping it would.

I think you had to be real close. I doubt that you need 40W/ft2. Did a quick light search so my data may be wrong but: sunlight at earth surface when sun at zenith and no clouds roughly 100W/ft2. Visible makes up 43% so 43W/ft2(almost dead on with your number). Red and blue make up small percentage of that so should be much less than 40W. Someone please correct me where I am wrong, I really want to know.

Side note. While some of the LEDs such as the ebay strips linked earlier may not be as bright as one would like to get 0 trates, would they not provide a good enough source in a tank with high trates? A tank loaded with trates will grow the algae almost on its own. And forcing it to grow in a place you can easily remove gets them out of your tank. Could bring trates way down. Once low enough the lower light combined with lower trates will make it difficult for algae to grow. But if it is going to grow in tank wouldn't it continue to grow in scrubber where light source is so much closer.
Obviously everyone would prefer zeros across the board but they could still be very usefull for someone looking to save on bulb/ballast replacement, water changes, and size.