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fauxjargon
05-14-2011, 11:17 PM
I am in the process of setting up a 40 gallon breeder. The tank will be a lightly stocked soft coral tank with 2 or 4 t5ho over the display. As far as fish, I am thinking of 2x sebae clown or 2x bengaii cardinal and an orchid dottyback. I plan to feed everything heavily.

This will be a low tech low energy low cost reef (or at least to the extent a reef tank can be any of these things).

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=280 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=280)

This guy uses (very successfully) a horizontal ATS lit by the main display lighting. If I were to build a setup like his, what sort of light would I need? I know that according to the faq, I am supposed to have 4 watts per gallon, or 160W. However, the guy in the link has a 100 gallon tank with 2x400w metal halides - in order to reach the 4 wpg lighting goal, half of his light would have to end up in the trough. So he has less than 4 wpg on his horizontal ATS. Furthermore, I want the back of my display to be darker than the front, which this would help quite a bit with.

I would likely build a trough about 3"x32-35", basically the biggest 3" trough which will fit inside a 36" tank. I will use a Maxijet 600 or 900 to provide flow. This will only involve simple plumbing and less than 6" of total head loss, which means that a MJ 600 will provide >150 gph and the 900 will provide >210 gph. Which one should I use?

Also, how would I light such a trough? I was thinking 1xt5ho or 1 overdriven t8 normal output would work - with an acrylic splash guard, it should be within 3" of the water flow if not less.

If I do this I will post pictures and results.
Rumpy Pumpy
05-15-2011, 04:14 AM
I had a horizontal scrubber built into the top of the tank which was similar to what you're proposing.

It worked well enough but started to have problems with condensation (it was inside the hood) so I took it down.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=584&p=4789&hilit=hood#p4789 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=584&p=4789&hilit=hood#p4789)


I'm planning a new tank at the moment and am considering building an enclosed, above the tank, scrubber which would be vertical and hang on the wall behind the tank, discharging directly into it (via a outlet pipe). It would be one sided and quite low profile and could be disguised by hanging a picture in front of it.

Something like this

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2010-2/1353183/scrub.JPG
fauxjargon
05-15-2011, 09:40 AM
Rumpy Pumpy, I like your design. The only problem is that I was hoping to use a pump I already have for this scrubber - the biggest I have is a MJ1200, which will not provide enough flow to support a screen wide enough to use linear fluorescent tubes.

I'm not too worried about condensation, my scrubber trough will be set up so that a fan blows air across the scrubber and out of the canopy to achieve evaporative cooling.

But your scrubber did work in the sense that it kept nutrients in check?
SantaMonica
05-15-2011, 11:09 AM
Horizontal is 1.5 watts per gallon, not 4
Rumpy Pumpy
05-15-2011, 12:17 PM
But your scrubber did work in the sense that it kept nutrients in check?


Yes it did.

The only things I'd do differently if I was going to build another horizontal one would be to not use ceramic tiles for the screen (which I suspect released silicates which fed diatoms), and I would enclose it with a clear lid to prevent splashing and salt creep.
fauxjargon
05-15-2011, 02:26 PM
Horizontal is 1.5 watts per gallon, not 4

Do you think that if I use a t5ho inside a parabolic reflector I can get away with using a single 39w tube for 40 gallons? Or even a t8 with a parabolic reflector (32 watts) Based on information from www.theplantedtank.net (http://www.theplantedtank.net), t5 (and t5ho) has much better watts-to-lumens efficiency than curly-q bulbs.
SantaMonica
05-15-2011, 02:49 PM
Yes linear bulbs are better than curly, but it's because that all parts of the bulb are near the algae.

Watts is watts, the more the better, up until you burn. 1 watt per square inch seems to be workable for most people.
fauxjargon
05-15-2011, 03:10 PM
Yes linear bulbs are better than curly, but it's because that all parts of the bulb are near the algae.

Watts is watts, the more the better, up until you burn. 1 watt per square inch seems to be workable for most people.

Well, my screen would be 3 inches wide with a flow of at least 50 gph/in - it it worth trying with 1xt5ho 39w over the screen? Even with very narrow parabolic reflectors I can't fit more than 1 properly reflected t5 in that space.
SantaMonica
05-15-2011, 04:42 PM
Yes 3 inches is ok for one bulb.