New DIY ATS build for 120g

I am new to this forum and I have been reading quite a few of the threads from other members and I have decided to move forward with a DIY ATS build. I am hoping to get some advise from those of you that have been doing this for a while now.

First some background: I currently have a 120g built into the wall of my living room. My fish room is the adjacent room behind the same wall that holds the tank. I have a custom built sump from synergy which is ~50g. Pretty standard sump stuff, 2 filter socks, Reef Octopus Skimmer, external Iwaki return pump. I have another external pump, a pan world, that I was using to drive an activated carbon reactor and a GFO reactor. The entire system is controlled with an Apex. In the tank I have various LPS corals, a RTBA, a fox face, coral beauty, 6 line wrasse, 4 blue green chromis, a yellow eye kole tang, a cleaner shrimp, and several snails. I have ~100 lbs of live rock and the bottom is covered with ~2" of sand.

I have had this tank up and running for 2 years now. In the first year or so I had a nice growth of beautiful coralline algae that covered most of the live rock. As the 2nd year progressed I started seeing less and less coralline algae and more and more green algae. The green mat of algae now covers most of the rocks but i can still see a bit of purple in a few spots. I typically do a 30% water change once a month. Phospate reads about .03 with a Hanna checker, I need to check nitrates again but if i recall in December when I checked it last it was about 10ppm. My water source is a BRS 5 stage RODI unit. I feed once per day with a about a cube maybe less some days because I have been trying to limit the amount. I dose BRS 2 part as well.

I have been reading a bit about the great "sand or no sand debate" and I am wondering at this point if the sand is becoming a nutrient sink. At any rate I am planning to do a DIY build of an ATS here soon. I am trying to figure out what size screen I need and how many LEDS I should use. There is so much information out there and so many opinions it gets a bit overwhelming. That is what led me to your forum. You all seem to be very successful with ATSs and I think sticking with this forum will give me the best chance of success.

 

So I ordered some parts for my LED fixtures last night. I figure I will try to put those together before I finalize plans for the scrubber box. I ordered the LEDs and drivers from LED Group Buy; Exotic deep red 660nm and Exotic hyper violet 430nm LEDs. Ordered 2 Meanwell LPC-35-700 drivers from Rapid LED. I plan on putting something together closer to the L4 size.

 

I have most if not all the parts I need to start building my new ATS. I thought I would post a pic of the quick diy version I made that has been running for 2 weeks now. It is actually growing some nasty brownish hairy algae. I was pretty pumped to see it actually working so I am real anxious to get going on my build.

 

So here is my lighting plan; looking for feedback...
I ordered 2 Makers heat sinks (1 for each side) both 12" long. I now have 12 Cree 660nm LEDs and 2 Exotic 430nm LEDs for each side. I am wondering if I should have ordered 4 430s for each side but I can always add more if needed right? I plan to wire the 660s in series and the 430s in parallel. I have 1 driver for each fixture however I plan to only use 1 of the drivers to start with and split the circuit between both sides to only run the 660s at half power. I saw in one of Turbo's videos he had done that by adding a splitter to the driver connections. I just have to figure out how to do that.

 

Got a good start building the new scrubber today so I thought I would share. Be kind, this is the first time I have built anything with acrylic.

So I started this project because I am a firm believer that you can save money if you diy. I think that is true for the most part, and in this case I decided to make my diy ATS as close to Turbo's as I could. By the time I bought materials, new table saw blade, acrylic glue, etc I think it's a wash. If you're asking yourself build or buy... Buy is the answer. I would like to thank Bud for putting this forum together and sharing all the knowledge, it's really great.

All that said, here is what I have so far.
This is the ATS box that I finished today, complete with removable lid and false bottom. One of the pictures has a heat sink in place so you can see what that looks like.






This is how I plan to lay the LEDs out on the heat sink. I hope to get at least one of the fixtures done tomorrow.

 

So I got both fixtures put together today but I cannot get the blues to work. I don't understand what's wrong with my wiring. The Reds all work fine now that I figured out how to wire them in series. When I plug the fixture in I get all reds but no blues. Help!

 

I think I fried the blues on one of my miss wired attempts. When I wire it that way I still get no blues and the Reds look like they are half on. If I take the blues out the Reds are fine.

 

Made some progress tonight. Posted a couple videos

Started up for the first time to check flow and for leaks


Added light fixtures (no blues yet, waiting for new ones from LED groupbuy


I haven't figured out what to do with all the wires hanging above the open sump. That makes me nervous. Any suggestions?

 

Anxious to see how it works!

 

So I got the new ulta violet LEDs from LED GroupBuy and tried to wire them in again last night. I am still struggling and I think I fried them again. After looking at @Turbo 's images that show the wiring for a parallel run I thought I understood what I was doing wrong. I wired them in but at first only the new UV LEDs lit up. I changed a couple wires and then nothing lit up. Changed something again and now back to only the reds light up. I am not sure what is going on but I have having a real tough time with the UV lights. They are Exotic LEDs rather than Cree like the reds and I know the reds have a lower forward voltage, could that have anything to do with it? I thought maybe when I soldered the LEDs in that I grounded one of them but that wouldnt explain why both UVs are not working. Sorry for the rambling here but I am struggling to figure out what is going on.

 

I appreciate the help.
The parts list is as follows:
12 Deep Red - Deep Red - 660nm
2 Hyper Violet - Exotic Hyper Violet LED - 430nm
The driver is a Meanwell LPC-35-700 constant current - Mean Well LPC-35-700 constant current driver - Rapid LED

Wiring Diagram