Algae Scrubber Advanced

[SantaMonica]

It will grow, especially if the material has been roughed up. Needs light though.

[infusionluke]

Anybody ever give any thought to a automatic cleaning system for their scrubber? I was thinking something along the line of a ultra high pressure car wash system... Thoughts?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Very complex but I suppose it's possible. Lots of things to consider. you don't really want to pressure wash a screen, you want to leave algae behind. That leaves scraping, and how do you automate that (create pressure, etc). Then, how do you keep the liquid from going into the tank and discoloring the water? How do you collect the algae? Takes me literally 5 minutes to clean my scrubber so to me it's not worth it

[salty joe]

I finally got my algae scrubber up and running. It has two screens that are 7"X14". One lit by 450nm blue and the other lit by 660nm red. Each side has 40 3W LEDs that are dimmed down to about 25%. The water flows up through the screens. The photoperiod is 4 hr., one side is always on. A month ago, I added a little so so live rock to introduce bacteria and algae. I've been feeding the tank fish food. I have 50 lb. high quality live rock coming in a week. My hope is the alga and bacteria can keep up with ammonia. Just in case, I have Prime.

If interested, here is a thread of the algae filter build. Some very knowledgeable and generous reefers helped make it happen. I could not have done it without them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2455743

First pic is red screen-I got about 3/4 cup algae. There are a couple patches of algae that are kind of stiff with strands maybe a little less than 1/16" in diameter. The strands crush easily. The rest is hair algae. The other pic is the blue screen. I got about 1/4 cup algae. I'm going to wait till the new rock has been in the system for awhile before switching over to all red LEDs in hopes that maybe a deep water species of algae takes hold on it.

[SantaMonica]

Nice to see a red-blue comparison.

[hk855]

So I'm going to put a scrubber on my new 15x15x48" peninsula tank and looking for a few tips. Tank volume is 47 gallons and probably another 15 for filtration. It's going to be mainly LPS and some SPS, Zoas and a clam or two. I travel a lot and plan on setting up an auto live brine (or possibly copepod)feeder that is in turn fed by live micro algae(also for the clams, probably t isochrysis), and then some mysis and pellets to round out the nutrition. So I will have a lot more nutrient input than most standard reef tanks. I am building this on a peninsula "breakfast counter" that divides my kitchen from the living room and running all the filtration to the center of the cabinet bellow that measures 22x22x28.

Enough about the tank, I want to build an ATS based off a 10.5x13.5 screen, fed by my siphon overflow and lit on one side. I could make the screen smaller but was planning on 10.5 wide x 10 long and lit with LEDs. This would give me 105 in2 or about 4.25-4.5 cubes a day one sided, a lot for most small tanks but I would like to go overkill on size bc all of the brine shrimp and algae water would end up in the tank. This would make for great coral and clam growth but lots of nutrients. So I have no problem with screen space and water flow for 10.5" isn't a problem. Lighting is where Im currious where I should go. I have a few old mean well drivers for 48v, 700mw and 1050mw. I could use 16-18 red LEDs and 2 blue, on the 700 or two parallel strands on the 1050, what would you do and why as far as led strength and screen size? I was thinking about running something like a UFO LED from amazon for $70-100 but it seems to be better to just buy quality leds and a heatsink instead then build an enclosure for it. Anyone with amazon led experience?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Here's what I've found best. Go with 700mA and run 2 parallel arrays, so you get 350mA through each. Use Hyper-violets instead of royal blues, and wire those in parallel within the series string so that they only get 1/2 of the current of the reds. You need very little blue-violet, but it does help. Run at about 6-8 hours/day, depending on your initial results

Switch the configuration to series arrays when you get a good base of growth.

Better way: wire all in series (still violets in parallel within the series string) and put on a dimmable driver. Dim them down to 30-40% initially and run longer hours, like 12 or more. Adjust dimming up as screen matures until you find a place you like and that grows well, hours & intensity.

Paralleling arrays on 1050 is your call - if you lose one half of the array, you lose the other half right away, unless you have some fast-blow fuses in place. 525 mA might be too bright initially.

[hk855]

Thanks, how many LED's should I use of each? I recall it should be half of CF lighting, and that should be roughly 1W/square inch so is 1/2W of LED per square inch right, that just seems like a lot of light. I will probably run them in parallel on the 700mA blalast at 1/4W/in2 and if need be change it to series, haven't yet figured out how I'm going to hang the lights but probably hang them on some kind of T track with a roller so I can move them out of the way to get to the screen and fine tune intensity.

[Floyd R Turbo]

here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...2#post23906862

For a DIY Array, I go by spacing: one 3W Deep Red on each side for every 4-8 sq in of screen. Going by "wattage" gets confusing because a 3W DR actually only draws 1.68W at 700mA.

If you can, do the higher quantity and run at reduced current, you get better coverage that way.

[Chris Abbott]

Has anyone found a good option for a factory made red led lamp? lots of options just not sure if a great option has surfaced in my months away from the forums.
Just not into the diy option atm.

[Crusinjimbo]

I have been using these for a few years with good success. I have been using three on a one sided screen for 2 1/2 years without fail.

http://www.expressions-ltd.com/Algae...grow-light.htm

[MaccaPopEye]

I am waiting for 2 of the 20W versions of these lights to arrive.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251248529710...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

This will be my first scrubber so hopefully they will do the job. I like DIY but I dont like to mess with electrical. I couldnt find much on pre made lights apart from the ones from expressions ltd and another kind of LED multi-chip spotlight like the one I got but thinner however it had a bit of dead space below the reflector I didnt like so I went with these ones.

When they arrive I will build the acrylic box so it fits them nicely and post updates on how it all goes (probably on the beginer thread as thats where I belong for now :P)

[WAfrican]

Looking for some insight on my new build if anyone would like to join in and give some tips. Hoping to make a ATS in my c2c overflow.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2548243

[Floyd R Turbo]

The other guy was trying to direct you to the Algae Scrubber Basics thread, not this one (other sticky)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1977420

Go to about post 7200 and scan for the posts by karimwassef

[chimmike]

Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo

The other guy was trying to direct you to the Algae Scrubber Basics thread, not this one (other sticky)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1977420

Go to about post 7200 and scan for the posts by karimwassef

yep, my mistake

[PIPSTER]

I have a HOB skimmer, which is clear, so I want to try to use the upflow of the bubbles to my advantage to "internalize" a DIY ATS, or UAS, really.
I have a reef octopus style skimmer.
I have bought and roughed up the screen, and placed it vertically into the flow of bubbles, and have a brood style lamp shining on it.
My skimmer grows algae on the insides already because of the light, and I have to clean that off periodically, but I'm hoping it will take off on the screen.

Is there any reason this wouldn't work?
Any suggestions to improve it?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Skimmer bubbles are very fine and these don't cause vigorous and random flow across the algae mat. So it may or may not work. It might grow algae but the same screen in the same tank in an environment with larger bubbles would probably do better.

[WAfrican]

I know its been done in the overflow before but nothing i see seems to be fine tuned and is just done based on a whim and as an experiment. Would my design be plausible and could it even be just as successful? http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2548243

[SantaMonica]

I have a HOB skimmer, which is clear

Just put an air bubbler under it and it will grow great.

[PIPSTER]

Originally Posted by PIPSTER

I have a HOB skimmer, which is clear, so I want to try to use the upflow of the bubbles to my advantage to "internalize" a DIY ATS, or UAS, really.
I have a reef octopus style skimmer.
I have bought and roughed up the screen, and placed it vertically into the flow of bubbles, and have a brood style lamp shining on it.
My skimmer grows algae on the insides already because of the light, and I have to clean that off periodically, but I'm hoping it will take off on the screen.

Is there any reason this wouldn't work?
Any suggestions to improve it?

It is growing algae (GOOD).
I still have some algae growing on my sand in the DT (BAD).

Do I just keep everything going as is, and wait it out, or do I need to cut the lights in the DT more for awhile?
I run blues only leds on lowest setting from 1pm to 8pm, while I run the HOB skimmer\scrubber lights 7am-9pm.
There is some morning sunlight that breaks through the window blinds for the first few hours, but is not direct light into the tank.

[SantaMonica]

The light brown growth on sand is usually the first to leave. Especially if you have some sand-sifting fish. I'd just leave it.

[Jade5051]

I need to power up 54w of LEDs for my UAS. Can anyone please tell me what the actual output of this driver is on a 120v circuit?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321734010019...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321734010019...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[Floyd R Turbo]

These are all constant current drivers. Similar to a Meanwell LPC driver. It puts out a constant current, and the voltage output matches the associated drop for the string that it is connected to.

For instance, the 40W driver is meant to power LEDs that run at 1200mA. According to the listing, is also needs to power between 30 and 36V of drop. That means if you have a string of LEDs and each of them has a 3.2V drop when operating at 1200ma, you would need to use 10 LEDs. 10 x 3.2V = 32V total drop. At that voltage drop, you would have 32V x 1.2A = 38.4W of power provided by the driver.

If you had 9 LEDs, the total voltage drop would be 28.8V, which may or may not work. because, it's from China and you just don't know.

Now, a Meanwell driver, like the LPC-35-700 is designed to output 700mA with a maximum of 35W of output, which means 35W / 0.7A = 50V (minus 2V internal requirement so 48V) but it also can go down to 9v, so you can hook up a couple or you can max it out, and it's made with quality components so you can actually push it to the max without it smoking.

Personally I would just use 2 LPC-35-700s, much safer for relatively little additional cost...just saying, chinese junk is exactly that, I don't trust it. They use the absolute cheapest electronic components and minimal failsafes. Like, protection against overheating, thermal runaway, or improper user-made connections.

[kenneth wolfe]

I love the 50/50 mix..[IMG][/IMG]

[kenneth wolfe]

[IMG][/IMG]