Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Well now that's interesting.
Algae Scrubber Advanced
- Thread starter maglofster
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Brummie
Member
Algae Scrubber Advanced
From personal experience, the more corals you add to a tank, the less "nuisance" algae you get. This eludes to the fact that chemical interactions may indeed affect the occurrence of DT algae. If you can detect N&P, but your nuisance algae is going away, then whether or not your running a scrubber, the reason for algae decline is NOT due to nutrient depletion. BTW - Algae can thrive in tiny amounts (undetectable by hobby kits)
From personal experience, the more corals you add to a tank, the less "nuisance" algae you get. This eludes to the fact that chemical interactions may indeed affect the occurrence of DT algae. If you can detect N&P, but your nuisance algae is going away, then whether or not your running a scrubber, the reason for algae decline is NOT due to nutrient depletion. BTW - Algae can thrive in tiny amounts (undetectable by hobby kits)
Last edited:
Brummie
Member
1) the horizontal string growth is preventing growth on the screen.
2) string under the screen? That's an old power cable Behind the sump
3) pump facing up from sump bottom, yes.
Pic shows the bare patches at the top (which coincide with some growth on the horizontal strings above) compared to the bottom which has no string cover;
However, these horizontal strings were always likely to have this effect, so no surprise really.
Chris Abbott
New member
any input on how to get my screen to change for this slime and red turf to the nice green growth I see on the screens here? I have a small patch of stringy ree turf developing in the display now. Should have taken a picture of last weeks but was short on time. Looked like shreck blew his nose. Solid yellow snot.
Brummie
Member
I'm starting to think that there's nothing wrong with perpetually brown growth.Perhaps it's similar to W Adeys experiments with the 3D screens in fresh water. Maybe a lower flow, 3D subsrate (horizontal) may be of benefit in cases where the dominant algae species is brown.
SantaMonica
Well-known member
Yellow growth is hard to describe, so pics are best. Could go one way or the other.
Chris Abbott
New member
The yellow is like what is above. lighter color areas come and go week to week. It hard to tell from the pics but the lighter color areas have a very slimy almost flem like consistency.
SantaMonica
Well-known member
Then it just needs a good cleaning all the way to the white screen, and then more/stronger lights.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Today, not yellow today but slimey for sure!
I would actually not scrape vigorously down to the screen. That is what you do with brown/black growth, which is high nutrient growth.
Yellow/slime is usually an indication of low nutrient delivery to the screen, or too much light for too long. But in your pics, it looks like the screen around the edges is green.
I have one screen similar to this. It grows green around the edges, and spongey/snot in the middle. When I scrape, the GHA is attached very well, and under the snot growth is nearly bare screen. This area is right in front of the line of half-power blues in the center of the screen. Thus, this is the area with the most intense light (because blues have a higher intensity). This started occurring after the tank was "cleaned up", meaning, N and P down under control. So the yellow stuff grows when the conditions for it to grow are right.
To encourage GHA to grow under it, what you might try is an intermediate cleaning where you just take the screen out and swipe off the yellow gooey growth. It comes off with a swipe of your hand, so no scraping. Give the screen a very brief rinse in tap water or tank water (pulled from tank) and re-install it and let it grow for 4-7 more days.
If you have a thin later of GHA, that generally won't block enough light to cause roots to decay and detach. So just remove the gooey growth and leave the GHA alone.
If in doubt, you can scrape in lines or a cross-hatch pattern and leave some in place. This will allow a bit more light to get down to the base for a bit longer. Particularly on a single-sided screen, you will want to do this for an intermediate cleaning.
Chris Abbott
New member
thx, for the tips. I will be back in a few weeks with an update.
Brummie
Member
salty joe
Active member
The 660nm are pretty much 100% PAR, so I'm thinking intensity could be measured with a PAR meter.
In terms of efficiency, anybody have any idea what a good starting point for PAR would be?
I am interested in maximizing growth/watt. The algae filter will have LEDs, probably 3W-IDK maybe 1W, spaced close together and close to the screen. I really like that spectrum can be chosen with LEDs and they are dimmable to dial in the light.
In terms of efficiency, anybody have any idea what a good starting point for PAR would be?
I am interested in maximizing growth/watt. The algae filter will have LEDs, probably 3W-IDK maybe 1W, spaced close together and close to the screen. I really like that spectrum can be chosen with LEDs and they are dimmable to dial in the light.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
I should measure my scrubber lights with a PAR meter one of these days, our local club has a $375 apogee meter that anyone can use.
I used one once when I compared an e-shine 50W bar to a Nova Extreme T5HO 2-lamp fixtures with 2x 2700K lamps in it. The peak in the middle of the LED fixture was way higher, but the coverage was not as even. with the LED (tighter distribution)
I used one once when I compared an e-shine 50W bar to a Nova Extreme T5HO 2-lamp fixtures with 2x 2700K lamps in it. The peak in the middle of the LED fixture was way higher, but the coverage was not as even. with the LED (tighter distribution)
Brummie
Member
Well, it's about time something vaguely resembling science occurred in relation to light / algae growth.
Mike Edwards123
New member
Not sure if this is the best place to post this but I am in the beginning stages of resurrecting my Eco Wheel algae turf scrubber. Been sitting dry for 12 years or so after a move but time to restart. This is a algae turf scrubber on a wheel powered by a air pump. Think of the wheel as a 2 foot diameter and 2 foot wide paddle wheel. Algae screen is attached to outside circumference of the wheel that is spun around by the water/air circulation. The light was a panel of cfl light which was 2ft by 2 ft that sat on top of the wheel. I am looking to see what would be the best led replacement. Lots of info here that I will need to read but looks as if a red and blue mix is the latest trend
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
My rule of thumb that I have followed and recommended has been 660nm Deep Reds and 440-445nm Royal Blues. For the DRs, quality does matter so don't go cheap. I get Philips Luxeon ES from Steve's, he gets a specific bin that seems to work well.
I also get teh blues from Steves, but you might also consider using the True Violet he offers. Very much recently, one user replaced his blues with the deep violets and got great results.
As far as a ratio goes, I've stuck with two blues running at 350ma for every 6 deep reds running at 700ma and that seems to do well, but even that might be too much blue. So you really don't need a lot of blue.
I also get teh blues from Steves, but you might also consider using the True Violet he offers. Very much recently, one user replaced his blues with the deep violets and got great results.
As far as a ratio goes, I've stuck with two blues running at 350ma for every 6 deep reds running at 700ma and that seems to do well, but even that might be too much blue. So you really don't need a lot of blue.
Da Maui life
New member
Floyd, What would you run the true violet at, and how many? Same as the blues.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
I can't say with any certainty based on my own experience, but based on what others have told me they run them at 700mA along with the rest of the deep reds. I would suspect that this would be OK to do. I compare 445 RBs & 420 Violets to 630 reds & 660 deep reds.
The 630s and 445s will be of higher intensity, at least to our eyes. I know that based on my conversations with people in the hydroponics grow-light industry, that 630s have roughly 3x the intensity over 660s (at least, for what the plants "care about"). However it seems that this is way too much intensity for algae scrubbers. My experience with running 445s at 700mA vs 350mA showed me that 700mA RBs would easily cause photosaturation, but this was not the case with the 660s at 700mA.
Since a deep violet is on the other side of the blue spectrum, it would make sense that you would be able to run them at 700mA, the same as you can run a 660 at 700mA and not cause saturation (at least not in the majority of cases).
In fact, one person who tried this was running 700mA on 4-660s and 3-420s on each side of a screen that is about 6" x 6", roughly. But, he was also running 3 royal blues at full power on the same screen, so maybe that is not a very good assumption to make.
For now I would stick to a 6:1 DR:violet ratio, if running full power. If running a 2-sided screen, I would recommend offsetting the violets such that they are not directly across from each other.
When I get a chance, I'm going to modify my personal unit such that it runs 2 violets per side, but in parallel such that they run 350mA (current divider). I also have another unit running on another tank with 2 arrays of 6 deep reds and one full-current royal blue in the center, I will swap those out for violets as well and then I'll have 2 different scrubbers to monitor
The 630s and 445s will be of higher intensity, at least to our eyes. I know that based on my conversations with people in the hydroponics grow-light industry, that 630s have roughly 3x the intensity over 660s (at least, for what the plants "care about"). However it seems that this is way too much intensity for algae scrubbers. My experience with running 445s at 700mA vs 350mA showed me that 700mA RBs would easily cause photosaturation, but this was not the case with the 660s at 700mA.
Since a deep violet is on the other side of the blue spectrum, it would make sense that you would be able to run them at 700mA, the same as you can run a 660 at 700mA and not cause saturation (at least not in the majority of cases).
In fact, one person who tried this was running 700mA on 4-660s and 3-420s on each side of a screen that is about 6" x 6", roughly. But, he was also running 3 royal blues at full power on the same screen, so maybe that is not a very good assumption to make.
For now I would stick to a 6:1 DR:violet ratio, if running full power. If running a 2-sided screen, I would recommend offsetting the violets such that they are not directly across from each other.
When I get a chance, I'm going to modify my personal unit such that it runs 2 violets per side, but in parallel such that they run 350mA (current divider). I also have another unit running on another tank with 2 arrays of 6 deep reds and one full-current royal blue in the center, I will swap those out for violets as well and then I'll have 2 different scrubbers to monitor
Da Maui life
New member
I'm currently looking at building a one "˜cube' scrubber 'like' the L2. Thanks for answering my questions.
