Scrubber build

Thank you both for all the information. For the next fixture I will again wire 10x red leds in serie. And I will leave enough room to add violets (and connect these to a seperate driver), if I would like to give this another try some time. Unfortunately there is no good source for quality leds here in the Netherlands. I am looking for a supplier in the UK. Importing from the US is very expensive.
I also ordered 50x titanium m2 screws and nylon washers.

Thank you for your explanation and help Turbo, I am very thankfull and who knows maybe I can spread the word here in the Netherlands for you.



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I started a topic on a Dutch forum to keep track of my progress: www.zeewaterforum.info.

The url of this topic is also included. Unfortunately it is not accessible for non-members.


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So far so good

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I also added 2 marine pure blocks. I believe the ATS removes. no3o4 in the right amounts. But just in case no3 rises a bit I would have the opporunity to add a bit of carbon for denitrification.

I am also thinking about growing phytonplankton as this becomes much more interesting now without any skimmer pulling out the plankton. I guess this promotes the microfauna and improves conditions for nps corals. The marine pure blocks would serve as a great place for the pods to hang out.

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Update. 9 days of growth.

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Yes it is growing ok. I do notice the deeper layer on the canvas is a dark green color. Is this because the light does not penetrate deep enough? (not enough light or maybe due to a lack of hyper violet leds?)

last time the algea appeared a bit more "cropped", this time a part is more "stringy", this part was under more flow as the scrubber clogged a bit. Is that what changes the appearance of the algea?
no3 is 4
po4 is 0.03

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Yes the leds are running on full intensity. It are just 10 leds on a 30cm heatink to cover a 42 cm wide scrubber. Grow on the edges is thin. I notice the algea clogs the pipe halfway and prevent water from reaching the far end of the scrubber. (you see a bare spot in the screen, maybe some aIgae detached/died). Eventually there was a lot of water running down the scrubber at the start of the screen. Maybe this resulted in the string-like growth pattern. Anyway, the next heatsink will light the entire screen for more even growth. Maybe I should consider making the scrubber narrower as it would promote 3d growth if algea can reach the sides of the box to hang on to. Like I see from videos of your scrubbers. I also notice more bright green growth underneath I wonder if this is due to the violet leds. I could buy a 350mA driver for violet leds and run them on 50% power by default. Better some violet than nothing at all right?

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Hmm that is really narrow. maybe I'll stick with a bit wider scrubber then and harvest a bit more often. Currently the scrubber is 12cm wide. For now I'll keep everything as it is and will use some black acrylic for the new scrubber. I do like to see what is going on so I'll probably use transparent arcylic primairy. A black false bottom would also be better. What do you think about mirror plexiglass turbo? Is it safe to use? If it is safe to use it would be a nice addition to light the algea from multiple angles.

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This week the scrubber did not work well, I think this is due to photosaturation. I increased the period from 20 to 22 hours. This week hardly any growth. I have cut the lighting period back to 19 hours and gently scraped the screen. Hopefully the algae will return. Apart from that the holder for the pvc bar broke.

 

I found the problem. The pump was laying on its side cutting back the flow to the scrubber dramatically (50% or so) Apart from that the drain clogged a bit. I flushed the system en placed the pump on its back. I noticed not much growth so figured out something must be wrong.. the sand is also colouring a bit so there is enough waiste

 

Indeed, it is something I will change for the next design. The false bottom should raise 1 cm. And some components will be black acrylic to block the light a bit.

I recently ordered m2 titanium skrews for mounting the leds to the heatsink. however m2 is really really small, the nylon rings have 2mm edge and I think I touch the metal of the star anyway and shortcircuit stuff.. so I ordered m3 and m4 nylon skrews.. too see if this would work better

 

I ordered some nylon machine skrews (m3 & m4). I'll make sure the holes are nicely tapped and lubricated. The scrubber is still doing well; the growth is minimal but it is green and no3/po4 are not rising. I seems like po4 is at 0.03 and no3 2.0... is it possible to drop even lower? What it your experience with this bud?