Problems with my DIY ATS

Is your drain pipe submerged? It needs to be submerged by about 1/2" all the time. The drain must be able to act as a full siphon in order to drain properly.

The SM100 was wider than yours and would run fine - loud, but fine. That was one of the secrets of making it work - the drain pipe has to be submerged.

 

I would not clean every 7 days, not at first. Also I would not run the lights for 16 hrs/day, my experience says that is too much light on a bare screen - there's not enough algae present yet to "take" that level of light.

If this pic above is prior to cleaning, then I would knock it back to 9 hrs/day and let it grow for 14 days. Snap a pic at 7 days and 10 days and post here.

 

Lets back up a step:

Pump head loss chart:

http://www.marinedepot.com/Eheim_Un..._Aquarium_Pumps-Eheim-EH1046-FIWPSBUF-vi.html

I calculate the vertical head + 24" for the slot pipe. That gets you pretty close. For the Eheim 1250, at 3' head, that's about 230 GPH, so 230/12.5 = 18 GPH/in, which is low, but I've run a scrubber at that flow rate OK (it was my first T5HO unit) so that's probably not the primary issue. But it would not be a bad idea to try to get more flow, in general

That being said, what are your N and P levels, and do you have any tank algae issues?

How much do you feed?

How big is the tank?

 

I can't really tell for sure, but in those first 3 pics, is that bubble algae or are those air bubbles? They look like air bubbles. This the attached file, the first one with the frag that has receded, that kinda looks like bubble algae but again it's not really clear.

The other think I forgot to ask is about the lighting - you said you have 6x 660nm and 1x violet per heat sink, 2 heat sinks - so is that one heat sink per side? Got a pic?

If that's the case then I think it could be a few things: your screen is a bit oversized compared to the bioload, and then the lights are running for too long. Initially, this can cause a delay in maturing of the screen. Also if you have very low N and P, running high intensity and long duration can easily result in photosaturation. This is where you are at I believe.

If you are running the LEDs at 650-700mA, then see if you can make it so they run at 1/2 of that current. If you have a standard driver, you can just wire both arrays in parallel so that the current gets split between them (and run 9 hours/day).

Once the screen fills in, then you can extend the photoperiod longer at this current level and you won't get photosaturation. Photosaturation is related to intensity generally, but it is related to intensity and duration for a brand new screen.

How long have you had the tank set up?

 

You can connect 2 strings of LEDs in parallel by wiring the (+) side together, and the (-) side together, and then connecting the driver.

Right now you probably have all 10 in a series string, correct? So the (-) terminal of the last LED on one side is connected to the (+) terminal of the first LED on the other side.

What you would do is connect a wire to each of the (+) on the first LED of each array, then tie those 2 wire to the (+) driver terminal. Do the same with the (-) on the last LED of each array, then tie those wires to the (-) driver terminal.

The driver in this case must be a constant current driver. You should not be using a constant voltage driver anyways, but it never hurts to point that out. If you have doubt about what your driver is, post a pic...I'm guessing you know what you have

Anyways, if it's a 700mA driver, then 350mA will go to one array, and 350mA to the other array, or pretty close to that. The sum of the currents in each "branch" will equal the total driver current - this is called a "current divider" and it the same concept as putting 2 blues in parallel like I have done, except you are doing it with an entire string of LEDs.

 

Yes, that's correct.

What brand/model driver are you using?

 

yup found it here

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...m-alloy-shell-belt-led/825213_1806116265.html

the only thing I see about it that I would want to know is the "40-60V" rating, and the aliexpress link doesn't help. If "40-60" means 40V minimum, then that means if you run it at less than 40V, it might act funny - like it might start flickering the LEDs on and off. Some drivers require a minimum load on the output side to work correctly.

If you have 14 LEDs running on it right now (12 deep reds and 2 violets) then you are probably running a total voltage drop right near 35V on the whole string - you can find out by placing a volt meter across the + and - of the driver leads where they connect to the array.

If you then split these 2 fixtures apart and wire them in parallel, then you have 1/2 the total voltage drop, so you would be closer to 17-18V. The driver may work OK, it may not. I don't think that it will ruin the LEDs, but I'm not sure...I'm not an LED driver expert, just an Electrical Engineer (not an Electronics Engineer, I lean on others for that insight)

 

Yes, as long as your LEDs are rated for 700mA. I use these on my scrubbers in this manner all the time.

Check out the video I just posted last night

https://www.algaescrubbing.com/threads/announcement-revised-led-boards-and-drivers.637/#post-5187

2nd one - I run 2 arrays with 16 LEDs each in parallel. I do the same thing with 2 arrays of 8 (the L2)

 

If you can't diffuse the light in front of the blues, then yes I would temporarily bypass them. They have a motif intensity and thus can cause photosaturation = no growth.

What it comes down to is, how are tank conditions?

Also you aren't feeding a ton, so growth might not be huge due to that. Extending the photo period may or may not help - depends on how mature the screen is. But extending it in the middle of the growth cycle is the right thing to do. Then back it down after cleaning. That will ensure less chance for photosaturation.