Advice for a 2200 liter display tank, Scrubber v1 or wait for v2?

[mmb]

Hello,

I'm a long time lurker on this forum (years) and read most threads. I am a firm believer of scrubbers and experimented a bit on my current tank (2200 liter display). Unfortunately the way my sump is now leaves me with little space to do it properly.

I have decided to take the plunge and redo my tank completely (new rock work, new plumbing, new sumps, new filtration). For filtration I'm going full ATS, no skimmer.

I have read most build threads over and over and the design i've come up with is basically the same as the SM100, only bigger and modular. The basic unit will be 2 standard 10x13 screens lit by 5 x 660nm 3w LED's and 1 x 450nm 3w LED per screen per side (so total of 24 LED's per unit). I chose the LED's based on the excellent work of ace25 among others. I'm planning at least 2 of these units (so 4 10x13 screens total) but will leave plenty of space to size up to 3 or even 4 units. I went with modular as it's easy to extend (simply add more units) and I like that I can clean one while the others keep working. Also part of the design is ease of cleaning, basically the acrylic box with the slotted pipe and screens can be slided out of a cabinet (lights stays in place) by simply closing a ball valve and disconnecting two pipes (which are conveniently located at the front). Hard to describe in text so will post pictures later if I go this route.

So my question is basically if this is the best way to proceed (based on current experience and best practises) or if its better to wait for SM's version 2 of the design?

Thanks.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Read the basics sticky under Algae Scrubber Talk, go to the end (updated)

4 10x13 screens can handle 40 cubes/day. Way overkill unless you're planning on constant drip feeding coral food.

[mmb]

I've read it, including the new guidelines cubes of food/area. And yes, 40 cubes is indeed a lot, i doubt I will feed that much. On the other hand this is a pretty big tank (about 600 gallon display) and running in the same system will be several frag tanks. Total system volume will be close to around the 1000 gallon mark. The idea of constant dripping coral food (using a mini fridge) is also appealing, as long as there is a means to export excess nutrients. Other than that I'm a fan of Borneman (heavy feeding) so 20 or even 30 cubes daily once the tank is fully stocked and matured is not unlikely.

I will probably start with just 1 unit (2 x 10x13 screen) and cleaning 1 screen every other week. As bioload increases (and thus feeding) it's likely that I will add a second unit and clean a whole unit every other week. That's also a reason to go oversized so i can go 14 days between cleanings. I do maintenance every saturday morning so on even weeks i clean the one unit/screen and on odd weeks the other.

Or am i overlooking some drawback to having an oversized screen? Upon re-reading the faqs I agree that 3 or even 4 units (for a total of 6/8 10x13 screens) is total overkill, but one initially (2 screens) working up to two (4 screens) as the tank fills up with livestock seems only slightly too much to me.

My only experience is with small supplemental ATS next to a big ATB super cone skimmer so any thoughts are much appreciated.

So back to the original question, is the santa monica style vertical waterfall two sides illuminated still the best approach or will V2 be very much different?

[SantaMonica]

As long as it's modular and you can only have one unit running to start, it should be ok. I have the equivalent of two of your 10 X 13 and can feed about 50ml of thick coral food per day, plus 10 sq in of nori per day, plus a 3 inch silverside per week. This is less than half of the natural food on a reef, however, so your four units might let you get to a realistic reef amounts.

For your case I don't see an immediate benefit of waiting for the new scrubber; the benefit is mostly space savings, and you seem to have plenty.