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My LED scrubber! :D

Discussion in 'Algae Scrubber DIY' started by RickCranium, Oct 3, 2014.

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  1. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    Yup, upside down. Not the worst thing but the boards are offset down about 1/2" so that the center of the screen it lit.
     
  2. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Well I was planning on pulling it out to perma-plumb my feed to it this weekend anyway. I'll fix it while it's out. Glad you were paying attention!! I'm missing a banner btw :D
     
  3. Steve Lane

    Steve Lane New Member

    Looking good there!........how do I get the Strawberries growing on mine?
     
  4. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Thanks! but what strawberries?
     
  5. Steve Lane

    Steve Lane New Member

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    ^^ this took me a while to get! Where did this pic come from though, not posted in this thread (strawberries in the drain)
     
  7. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    My imgur gallery from post 7. Good eye Steve! I'd send you some but they'd probably be rotten by the time they hopped the pond.
     
    Turbo likes this.
  8. Steve Lane

    Steve Lane New Member

    We have a few over here....obviously not as big as they grow in the states ;) but they`re tasty enough.
     
  9. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Ok! It's all fixed. Can't wait to see the growth now! I remember why I flipped it now too. I made a ring with PVC that sits on the top of my sump and the L2 goes hangs down into the sump from the PVCs on the top flange? of the heatsink. The dial rests on the PVC on that side but it doesn't seem overly heavy. I just take care to make sure it's dialed at 100% after I move it.

    So back to my original scrubber for a minute. Bud, I know you've mentioned the idea of leaving the lamps on low and running them 24/7. Now that my DIY scrubber is moved over to my QT I'd kind of like to try that. Do you think the Expressions LTD (one per side) is low enough wattage to get away with that?
     
  10. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I would take that one step at a time, because you don't really know where your saturation point is until you pass it and your screen growth reverts or turns white.

    So increase your photoperiod by 2-3 hours, and see what happens over a few days. Maybe a growth cycle if you have the patience. Then add a few more hours, etc.
     
  11. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Well I threw caution to the wind and went for it... I sit right next to my QT DIY scrubber with the expressions LTD LEDs all day every day so I figured I could check it daily without it being a huge hassle. So far (day 5) nothing but green. I don't have a timer on this one and it was becoming a pain so figured I'd try it and see. I've been doing some electrical work on the house so there have been a couple of hours of off time but nothing substantial. I went 24hrs right after a cleaning so I was curious to see if it'd fill back in or not. The screen is completely covered in green again.
     
    Turbo likes this.
  12. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Back to my L2. I think I may have too much light and wanted to get an opinion on it. I have what can only be described as hanging reef curtains in my L2 scrubber. The algae is thick, mostly green and only attached at the top. So I have what look like curtains of algae that can be pulled aside to reveal a yellow mat with not much growth in it. Tested phosphate twice with Hanna ULR and got 4 & 11 so normalized to .012 & .033 respectively. So probably somewhere in that area is the real number. So phosphates are good but it doesn't look like it should to me. Bonus, it's super easy to pull off. No scraper required
     

    Attached Files:

  13. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I can't say I've ever seen that before, but you're right, it looks like a curtain growing from the top. How long did you let it grow before cleaning? It almost looks like you went too long and the lower layers got blocked and died off
     
  14. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    I cleaned it when I flipped the LEDs so weekend of the 14th so ~2 weeks. Just double checked my dial to make sure it didn't get changed by my holding bar it's at 12 o'clock full light. Like I said phosphates are low so not concerned but more of an oddity. Wanted to make sure it's not a sign of impending doom.
     
  15. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    You might back it off to 1 or 2 o'clock position.
     
  16. RickCranium

    RickCranium New Member Customer

    Done! Will update the thread in a few weeks.
     

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