question for my scrubber

[fishy_fish]

Hey to all :

Thx for letting me join the forum quite interesting. I have built a scrubber for my 29 gal reef aquarium i have read that i need a square inch of kniting screening for the ATS
12inch x 10 inch i put double screens so im asking its that good, bad any help apreciated sorry about my english happy reefing.

[SantaMonica]

How much are you feeding?

[Ace25]

Double screens are not needed nor recommended anymore, and a 10x12 screen for a 29G sounds extremely large, ie. you would have to feed A LOT of food in a 29G to require a screen that big.

[fishy_fish]

thats what i think to large the double screening its very close to each other its to fill a gap on the tubing where i put the screen im feedin right now one cube of frozen food and pellets ive been battling nitrates for long 2 years reef octopus skimmer water changes every week and nothing so what size its good for me ill be intalling tonight. Thx guys for the help.

[Ace25]

I wouldn't go any bigger than 6"x8" screen for a 29G. That should cover even moderate to heavy feedings for that size tank, and your feeding sounds on the lite side (not a bad thing given your situation). Unless the gap is extremely large in comparison to the screen, where all the water dumps out the first couple inches and doesn't reach the end of the screen, then I wouldn't worry if the screen is "sloppy" in the slot, algae will fill in the sloppy parts and even it all out. If the slot is so big the water doesn't make it to the end of the pipe, then stick with dual screens.

[fishy_fish]

thx guys il post a pick soon as i can time for some cutting to do

[fishy_fish]

Thx again im seting up a 75 gal too this month what size i need for that tank thx.

[Ace25]

I use a full size screen, 10x13, on my 75G and I think it is a perfect size for my tank.

[SantaMonica]

Scrubbers are now sized according to feeding. Nutrients "in" (feeding) must equal nutrients "out" (scrubber growth), no matter how many gallons you have. So...

An example VERTICAL waterfall screen size is 3 X 4 inches = 12 square inches of screen (7.5 X 10 cm = 75 sq cm) with a total of 12 real watts (not equivalent) of fluorescent light for 18 hours a day. If all 12 watts are on one side, it is a 1-sided screen. If 6 watts are on each side, it is a 2-sided screen, but the total is still 12 watts for 18 hours a day. This screen size and wattage should be able to handle the following amounts of daily feeding:

1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen), or
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen), or
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen), or
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen), or
10 square inches (60 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
5 square inches (30 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen), or
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen), or
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)

High-wattage technique: Double the wattage, and cut the hours in half (to 9 per day). This will get brown screens to grow green much faster. Thus the example above would be 12 watts on each side, for a total of 24 watts, but for only 9 hours per day. If growth starts to turn YELLOW, then increase the flow, or add iron, or reduce the number of hours. And since the bulbs are operating for 9 hours instead of 18, they will last 6 months instead of 3 months.

HORIZONTAL screens: Multiply the screen size by 4, and the wattage by 1.5Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen [60 lph per cm], EVEN IF one sided or horizontal.

Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.

Clean algae off of screen every 7 to 14 days, so that you can see the white screen material.