Turf Algae Scrubber Lamp???

LED's sound interesting to say the least. I like the idea of the power consumption & reduced heat to say the least. Where did you find LED's in that K? I havent looked into LED's for an ATS. Any links of build pictures would definitely be greatly appreciated. I am looking to redeisng my sump/ATS so could be an extra step to the process.

 

Actually you aren't really trying to promote turf algae with vertical screen. We really want GHA (green hair algae) as it's the most efficient for this purpose.


The two new members (floyd r turbo and srusso) are very well known on other forums for there contributions to the algae scrubber community, there is a 2000+ post thread that Srusso started a couple years ago on RC that shows tons and tons of long term research. The average of all those answers and experiments was that 3k and lower bulbs grows GHA the most effectively and GHA is the best for nutrient transport using this method. (the thread is called Algae Scrubber Basics and it's stickied under general interest>advanced topics on RC.

 

exactly why I was asking about background & links. I'm not a big visitor of RC for reasons we wont pull the thread off topic with, but I'll have to swing over that way & check it out.

 

The only consideration is that LEDs may still not provide all the spectrums that CFL does. So far, no one has gotten as good results from led that they have from CFL of the proper kelvin.

LEDs can be very specific in what color is dialed in. This is both good and bad, good in that as we learn more about what types of plants/coral use what spectrums we can dial in to those wavelengths, bad because we don't know all of those wavelengths yet.

 

I would have linked it directly, but I'm not sure of the policies of linking to a competing forum.

Personally, I don't think using 6k is "wrong", but I have been convinced that sub 3k CFL is more efficient for our purposes with an Algae scrubber.

 

Sorry, I was on the train when I posted this. Didn't mean for it to sound short.

Here is the FAQs of the algae scrubber site

Algae Scrubbers • View topic - ALGAE SCRUBBER FAQ (August 2010)

Scrubber Lighting:

"Q: What kind of light do I need?
A: Experience has shown that at least a 23 Watt Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulb, of the 2700K or 3000K (“warm” or “soft”) color, works best. One on each side of the screen, about 4" from the screen, and pointed to the middle of the screen. And note that 23W is "at least", unless it's for a nano. These CFL lights have also shown to only last about three months before their power drops off, even though they "look" fine. T5HO bulbs have also shown tremendous scrubber growth, although they are more difficult to design and build; their spread of light from side to side is superior to CFL bulbs. There is an upper limit to CFL bulb size; CFL bulbs in the 45 watt range are at the top, whereas anything higher than that will tend to “cook” the screen in one spot. If you must have more than 45 watts per side, use two smaller bulbs instead. The lighting just needs to be spread out more evenly, and not so concentrated in one spot. If you use CFL bulbs and they are not floodlights (which have built-in reflectors), be sure to get "CFL reflectors" so you can reflect the light to the screen."

 

That was one BIG informative read. I want to say thats been updated since my first read, so giving it a good re-read now. thanks for the link.