Algae Scrubber Basics

Don't really know much about LEDs. Not sure what type of fixture will work. Can't seem to find much on e-shine other then their web site. I've see two people use these not sure if they are ok but they look like the same thing I was looking at.
 

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SFish said:
Don't really know much about LEDs. Not sure what type of fixture will work. Can't seem to find much on e-shine other then their web site. I've see two people use these not sure if they are ok but they look like the same thing I was looking at.
Click to expand...
If you read this it has 225 leds. Then a little lower it says 14w. So if you divide 14÷225 it equals .06 per led. You need leds that have at least 1-3watts per led.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
None of those are any good. EDIT: ninja'd by jerseypete

Look at the total wattage, then the total number of LEDs. Divide wattage by LEDs. If you are well under 1.0, walk away.

14w / 225 LED = .062 per LED, these are worthless. EDIT: ninja'd by jerseypete AGAIN

Let me qualify that. You will grow algae with this light, but since the light is so huge, you would think "can use this on a big screen" which you can, but that screen will be severely underlit, meaning, your 10x10 screen which is - according to the feeding guideline - 8.3 cubes/day capacity will be light-limited by the 14W light on each side to roughly 1 cube/day.

So you are wasting a lot of energy on flow and using up a lot of space, where you could instead make a small screen with the same wattage of light and get the same (filtration) result

This post

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23906862#post23906862

is the LED lighting guideline

Tony C thanks for the link! I didn't know that thread was running. Posted in it, for anyone interested.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24454229#post24454229
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
Tony C thanks for the link! I didn't know that thread was running. Posted in it, for anyone interested.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24454229#post24454229
Click to expand...

Floyd, glad I could help. I've learned so much in the short time I've been here, especially about ATS from you and a few others. I'm still in the early stages of my reef experience, still gathering up knowledge and putting cash aside until I make the big splash into SW. BTW, anyone ever tell you that you look just like Johnny Carson? :lolspin:
 
First of all thanks all

Not sure how to estimate how much food I would feed. 8 cubes does seem like a lot.
 
Does anyone know how to keep algae from growing on the walls on an upflow bubbling ATS? In other words, keep it on the screen, and not on the sides? It's blocking my light, requiring scraping well before the screen is full enough to harvest.

The walls are clear...should they be black only with holes for light?
 
If you get much over about 2x what you feed, then the algae starts to spread out more across the screen and it seems that the growth doesn't get as thick, and sometimes doesn't grow green very well, but instead grows more light brown or yellow & gooey. I believe this is because the algae is in essence getting starved because it's spread too thin.

But you have to take all factors into account - mainly lighting and screen size in this case, but also flow to an extent.

So if you have an oversized screen but you only light part of it, and the amount of light you use matches up with what you "should" or "would" use if your screen was properly sized, then I would not consider your screen to be oversized, but rather, underlit, or something like that. Call it "technically underlit" but since the lighting matches the load, it's still proper. hard to put into words

jerseypete in your case, adding extra screen to the bottom is not adding active growth area so I wouldn't even consider that part of the calculation.
 
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Floyd R Turbo said:
If you get much over about 2x what you feed, then the algae starts to spread out more across the screen and it seems that the growth doesn't get as thick, and sometimes doesn't grow green very well, but instead grows more light brown or yellow & gooey. I believe this is because the algae is in essence getting starved because it's spread too thin.

But you have to take all factors into account - mainly lighting and screen size in this case, but also flow to an extent.

So if you have an oversized screen but you only light part of it, and the amount of light you use matches up with what you "should" or "would" use if your screen was properly sized, then I would not consider your screen to be oversized, but rather, underlit, or something like that. Call it "technically underlit" but since the lighting matches the load, it's still proper. hard to put into words

jerseypete in your case, adding extra screen to the bottom is not adding active growth area so I wouldn't even consider that part of the calculation.
Click to expand...
Thanks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
If you get much over about 2x what you feed, then the algae starts to spread out more across the screen and it seems that the growth doesn't get as thick, and sometimes doesn't grow green very well, but instead grows more light brown or yellow & gooey. I believe this is because the algae is in essence getting starved because it's spread too thin.

But you have to take all factors into account - mainly lighting and screen size in this case, but also flow to an extent.

So if you have an oversized screen but you only light part of it, and the amount of light you use matches up with what you "should" or "would" use if your screen was properly sized, then I would not consider your screen to be oversized, but rather, underlit, or something like that. Call it "technically underlit" but since the lighting matches the load, it's still proper. hard to put into words

jerseypete in your case, adding extra screen to the bottom is not adding active growth area so I wouldn't even consider that part of the calculation.
Click to expand...

But increasing feeding is easier than increasing export... just feed more until you're in balance. Right?
 
I think most tanks tend to be underfed :)

I have an unusual summer problem though. My tank, body is in my garage. We live on a lake in TX & even with netting, screens, and a monster zapper, I still have handfuls of small bugs getting sucked in. 400W Blue/UV led + 1.2KW MH... I use a net like pool cleaners.

Short of completely sealing the garage, and asking my wife to park outside and never opening the door, there's nothing that'll stop them.

It's the tank's third summer and the ATS has mitigated the usual algae issues that the 'insect injection' usually causes, but my three week export has turned into a two week export with almost 2x growth. I've started cutting back my heavy feeding.

My wrasses have become surface hunters and my yellow has a thing for big mosquitos...

I hate feeding less, but by mid-summer, I may be down to 1/2 feeding level and need to export weekly. Hard to imagine that I'm competing with nature...

I may have to add an external sunlit ATS... Maybe a 2' X 2' acrylic box on the roof?
 
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