DIY waterfall ATS build

[cnmcalpi]

My diy waterfall scrubber. Built from a used mag5 pvc acrylic and knitting screen. Running one 45watt cfl and 8in reflector. Will be running another cfl and reflector this weekend probably on a 20 or so hour cycle. 9*12 screen. May have to start feeding heavier to get good growth since my nitrates are almost zero. Enjoy!

[SantaMonica]

You are losing a lot of light sidways; if you can get a larger reflector and bend it to fit the screen, it would help.

[cnmcalpi]

Yeah, Ill work all that out in time. If I bend the clamp at a 90 then I can get it nice and square. Ill fiddle with it when I get the other light and the timer saturday.

[kerry]

Thats good start Sir. You do have a huge screen though, its for about 9 cubes a day. How much are you normally feeding? You only need 12" per cube so a 6x6 would do 3 cubes. Larger is not better for an ATS.

[cnmcalpi]

It looks as if I'm going to have to feed alot, especially to get my nitrates up to a level that the alga can grow and export the po4. Which is okay, I plan on this being sps dominated. I will have to fiddle with the balance between the skimmer and the ATS. Maybe put the skimmer on a timer or something. I got a 4 way dj switchplate in yesterday that I will use to control all of this stuff at least manually.

[kerry]

You have plenty of nitrates and phosphates even if you cant detect them on a test kit. I show no nitrate and barely delectable phosphates but I still grow algae like crazy on my screen. You only need to feed your livestock, do not feed the screen. If you happen to start to get more livestock and your scrubber cant keep up then add to your screen, I have done this with little zip ties. If you feed 3 cubes your screen needs to be as such to get get good long, thick, 3D growth. Little stringy algae on a screen to big does little filtering. I only say this because there is a system that works and I dont want to see any fail or have to do things a second time when they could have been successful the first time. The proper light and screen size is essential and there is not way of fooling it. Also a side note, even before my scrubber days I had better SPS growth and health with out a skimmer, latter I learned that the skimmer pulls the corals food from the water column.
Kerry

[cnmcalpi]

So I should cut it? Its gonna make horrible noise...

[Brent1128]

If you are feeding 3 cubes then you should be fine as long as 36 sq inches of screen are getting adequate light. I was told at one point its ok if your screen is too big (like making it long enough to reach the sump water so its quiet) as long as a portion of it is adequately lit.

[cnmcalpi]

That makes sense. The lower portion wont get a ton of light. Probably wont do much.

[kerry]

I have seen people cut them into a "V" pattern (after the effective feeding size) due to having to much screen because it was way up over the water level. I have also seen folks use acrylic or glass to make a ramp for the water to hit to make it quieter. Regardless what you do you need to get it as close to the feeding size as you can so your are successful. The farther out of the feeding to screen size you are the less filtering ability you have.