Algae scrubber what watt?
- Thread starter Duzzy73
- Start date
Way too much unless this thing is going to be huge. Here's a resource worth reading:
https://www.algaescrubbing.com/resources/categories/algae-scrubber-basics.1/
Duzzy73
Member
I ended up going with 50w 81led lights below
LED Grow Lights Full Spectrum 30/50/80W 81-312 LED Beads Easy Install For Greenhouse Hydroponic Growing Light Fixture 85-265 V Vegetable Greenhouse 2023 - € 24.99
I like this. Do you think I should buy it?
Duzzy73
Member
No but in the past I’ve used black tape to reduce it. Its roughly the same as the Clearwater(I think) ats, if it’s too much I’ll replace them with some usb ones
jason2459
Well-known member
My experience is the quoted wattage is not the wattage actually drawn. Little marketing misleading white lies. I'll see the wattage of the fixture listed by adding up all the wattage each LED can support. Like 5x 3watt LED fixture listed as a 15 watt fixture. But then the driver that comes with it will only push it like 6 watts.
Duzzy73
Member
Not s
Unsure how to work that out
Heres_doe_
Member
I’m trying to figure out how many watts myself
jason2459
Well-known member
What size screen? I currently have 23watts split between two sides on two different scrubbers of about 90-100 sq inches.
It's going to be a dial in thing too. Start lower to get started then ramp up over time. The screen will tell you if you've gone to much. It will go brown or yellow
Like this screen I over saturated.
Heres_doe_
Member
When you say start lower you mean hour wise or dimmable lights
jason2459
Well-known member
Could be both. Say 14 hours to start with.
With my latest scrubber start ups I just went straight to 20 hours a day with both. Which is what I normally run at. Some people I've seen run 24 hours a day. I've also seen references that algae "breaths". Producing oxygen with lights on and releasing CO2 when lights out. Either way I have been good with 20 hour run times.
When I say lower I'm mostly talking intensity of the lighting so as to not over saturated it and never get going. On one of my scrubber I started with 18 watts and so far holding at 23 watts. That screen is about 10x10 but not all of it is hit with light. Maybe 9x10 of it is. That kicked off well. My other scrubber I started at a higher intensity and you can see the result where the direct lighting is over saturated and yellow with other types of growth and the indirect edges are green.
I tuned it down to the current 23 watts and this was the result on the next harvest of that same screen. It's about 90 square inches I think. Just longer but shorter then my other scrubber.
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jason2459
Well-known member
And you can see the progress of both of my current ATSs from start to current here in my long running new member thread lol
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Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank
I used to have a lawn mower blenny years ago. I think it died in one of my tank moves or transitions. For some reason I never got another one again. I love these fish. I just added this starry blenny today. Canopy doing it's job. Cats would love to go fishing.
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