L2 algae scrubber installed on 40 gallon sump. This is how much algae has been collected on the screen by day 29. Later, Ted
Nice bracket! Just checking, have you tested your power-off water level in the sump to make sure it doesn't rise up above the bottom of the scrubber?
I was running the lights 10 hours a day at night............the L2 has out performed my DIY scrubber in 29 days compared to 240 days on my scrubber . Ted
Yes I did check the level of the sump with power off I have 6 inches between the surface of the water and the bottom of the L2...........I was surprised at the weight of the L2, I might of beefed up the bracket if I had known. I,m keeping an eye on the bracket, just in case !!! I,m noway as good as you working with Acrylic as you are. Ted
It looks pretty good to me, the only thing I might suggest adding is a tab on the top part so that something hangs down the outside of the sump to keep the bracket in place in case you bump it. Otherwise, it looks good - joints look like they are well bonded, material is thick (looks like 3/8" to me - good!). Some projects like that are pretty simple, versus building a watertight box which is a little trickier, and then making it really small make it more tricky, because every small error is magnified. I don't get much feedback from people, but it's usually good feedback! Can you post any pics of your DIY scrubber for comparison?
I was trying to decide if some of that algae was brown or yellow. Kind of looks brown, you could bump up the time on for an hour extra each day and see what it looks like next week. If its yellow turn it back down.
Part of me wants to say "leave it be" for a bit, just let it mature. I have had several people give me feedback that their screens are reaching the point of what most would consider "maturity" a lot faster since I started doing the 2-stage roughing up process, but with that said, I don't get much feedback so it could be other factors also. Regardless,I think that screens are considered minimally mature by the "filled in holes" rule. The screen will continue to mature and the tank conditions (or "set point") may also shift, which means your screen growth could change or shift over time. Trying to make too many adjustments during this time frame can lead to false assumptions. I don't think I've changed the photoperiod or flow rate on any of my scrubbers in over a year. I did let one of my units run waaaaaaay too long, when I scraped the screen it all came off, no holes filled in - but the growth was thick! That's happened before, so I know it will come back.
Green in the middle , Brown next section and yellow on the edge...........The edges ( 1/4 ) was where there was no water flow when it was first fired up..........Ted
My main problem is that the LED panel was orientated wrong, should be rotated 90 degrees and the LEDs are grouped to close together.............
Top view looking down............each individual LED panel was inserted into the pockets numbered #1 and #2...........these were held in place with double sided tape.you could insert a diffuse lens in the pocket which I did........
The small white fitting was my overflow drain........The longer grey and white fitting was the normal drain with a bag tied on the bottom to catch whatever algae broke loose..
Sorry I had already cleaned the screen.........you can get a indication of the pattern by the colors ..the center never did get any algae as the LEDs were to bright, if you tried to adjust for the center then it screwed up the periphery of the screen..
Mine are similar to that but I use a 6.5x7 inch screen with 6 LED's per side. I bet if you make the screen smaller (maybe 1" per side) is would grow a lot better. Not a bad DIY build at all.
