Algae Scrubber Basics

[Scrubber_steve]

False.

I had 2x50w red grow lights before and the algae didnt grow at even half the speed. Try it yourself.

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Yeh, 50W of just red would cause photosaturation

 

[Scrubber_steve]

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Not really. I ran red LED on one side and blue on the other... growth was almost the same. I don't really know where the color discrimination came from but flow and surface condition had a much greater effect on growth. Try it.

Try just blue on both sides.

 

[karimwassef]

the light on each side was directional, minimal bleed through.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/7C149274-801F-4A99-B9D1-B6A4C3ED6B80_zpslw9ytt6r.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/7C149274-801F-4A99-B9D1-B6A4C3ED6B80_zpslw9ytt6r.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 7C149274-801F-4A99-B9D1-B6A4C3ED6B80_zpslw9ytt6r.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/CDDF4B00-743E-4B80-86FD-96F4C18F6762_zpswop3roal.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/CDDF4B00-743E-4B80-86FD-96F4C18F6762_zpswop3roal.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo CDDF4B00-743E-4B80-86FD-96F4C18F6762_zpswop3roal.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/7675FABD-AD46-416A-B1A9-EF1ED0B48BF0_zpsizhvxvop.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/7675FABD-AD46-416A-B1A9-EF1ED0B48BF0_zpsizhvxvop.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 7675FABD-AD46-416A-B1A9-EF1ED0B48BF0_zpsizhvxvop.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/F146A5CB-D1F7-47CE-8D8C-4EC682064CAA_zpsmci8ft5p.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/F146A5CB-D1F7-47CE-8D8C-4EC682064CAA_zpsmci8ft5p.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo F146A5CB-D1F7-47CE-8D8C-4EC682064CAA_zpsmci8ft5p.jpg"/></a>

 

[SantaMonica]

Any reason the bottom flooring of my scrubber is almost growing as much or more than my screen is?

Light might be too bright, until the screen fills in more to absorb it.

I had 2x50w red grow lights before and the algae didnt grow at even half the speed

Because there was too much light.

 

[SantaMonica]

Weekend growth photos

 

[Fishbulb2]

Sm drop1.4

Sm drop1.4

Hi everyone,

Well, I just received and set up my Santa Monica 1.4 DROP scrubber. It looks really nice. I just used a pump that I had lying around which was a Tetra Whisper 10G air pump. It's really small. Will this work at all with a small air pump or do I have to go larger. I really like how quite the pump is. It's currently quieter than my skimmer.

FB

 

[fuzzyfred101]

Light might be too bright, until the screen fills in more to absorb it.



Because there was too much light.

What wattage led would you recommend? I'm using a crappy cf bulb and it's not working to well.

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[karimwassef]

http://ysleo.blogspot.com/2008/05/?m=1

 

[SantaMonica]

Tetra Whisper 10G air pump

If this is the one then it's a bit small....

http://www.tetra-fish.com/Products/aquarium-air-pumps/whisper-air-pumps.aspx

The 4 bubblers (for the 4 textures walls) each should get good bubble flow. Use that pump for now, but try to get the larger 40 or 60 pump.

What wattage led would you recommend?

LED lights can be 1/4 to 1/2 watt per square inch of screen.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Seven days growth. 6" x 4" screen; 5 x 660nm red LEDs at 8 Watts total each side

 

[karimwassef]

plain white light

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg"/></a>

 

[Scrubber_steve]

plain white light

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo BE7FC0D9-0A2D-4BB3-87DC-0EAAEE174222_zpsujujxcft.jpg"/></a>

No such thing Karim as plain white light. Plain white light has the full spectrum,
Including RED. The RED is what your algae utilized to grow, as well as some blue. My previous point was, the watts used to generate the other spectrums is a waste, as indicated by the Chlorophyll light absorption spectrum chart i supplied,,, post 9837. There is simply no argument.

 

[salty joe]

I used 450nm on one half of my scrubber and 660nm on the other half. Two one sided scrubbers that alternate. I had really fresh rock, so I feel there was a variety of algae types.

Hands down, the red grew a lot more algae than the blue. I ditched the blue and replaced it with red.

 

[karimwassef]

I know what white light is. When I compared the growth rates on white LEDs with blue or red, the difference was negligible. I run bigger systems so power use is important to me, but my results with 100W "white" puck were as good as 100W red led matrix.... same algae weight (and yes, I weighed the batches).

The algae was different, by the way. The white side was darker green and had more variety - red, purple, etc... but weight was ~ the same.

I found that flow and media had a lot more impact.

 

[SantaMonica]

Hands down, the red grew a lot more algae than the blue. I ditched the blue and replaced it with red

Yes red always wins. These tests have been done a few years ago.

The white side was darker green

The algae is getting less PAR on the white side, causing darker growth. You could probably get the same darker growth with reds of half the wattage.

 

[karimwassef]

I didn't. I had a red side and a blue side... same results.
No question red is important and that green is wasted.. but red is not the only frequency that works.

I accidentally had UV LED on a corner of the overflow and that seemed to have explosive growth.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I didn't. I had a red side and a blue side... same results.
No question red is important and that green is wasted.. but red is not the only frequency that works.

I accidentally had UV LED on a corner of the overflow and that seemed to have explosive growth.

Hi Karim; your red side / blue side set up isn't that at all in reality & cannot be considered useful as an experiment to determin which is the better spectrum for growing algae.
Firstly, your red side not only flooded over to the blue side of the screen, the red penetrated through the screen to the algae on the 'blue side'.
Secondly, your 'blue side' also had 50% CW LEDs, which have the red spectrum, also shining directly onto that 'blue side'.

Salty jo, on the other hand, had two seperate scrubbers, both illuminated on one side only, one using only blue LEDs & the other using only red LEDs. His results would be considered useful. His results showed that the red was much more efficient.

Blue & violet light is used by algae to photosynthesise, but people in the know typically will use either one blue, or one violet LED to six red LEDs, & they run the blue or violet LED at half the watts of a red LED, otherwise the blue or violet tends to cause dead spots.

 

[Horace]

Light might be too bright, until the screen fills in more to absorb it.



Because there was too much light.

I seriously doubt that it was too much. The algae was very dark. Not the light yellow you see when it's too intense

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[Scrubber_steve]

I seriously doubt that it was too much. The algae was very dark. Not the light yellow you see when it's too intense

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Hi Horace; your screen looks to be about 8" by 6", so your 50 Watt fully red spectrum LED light unit would give you a bit over 1W of red spectrum per square inch of screen.
The most effective wattage, for fully red LED, is about 0.27 to 0.4 Watts per square inch of screen. So your 50 Watt red light unit was way too much.
When the wattage, or intensity is too high this causes photo-saturation, & photosynthesis ceases. No, or little growth.