totall newbie here

[dapex]

Hi all, I have had a marine tank for the last few years but due to time and money constraints its got the stage where I either need to sell it or find a better way to look after it. My skimmer bust last week and I cant afford a new one and I then found this site. I have to be honest and say I am pretty crap at my handyman skills and so I am seriously worried about getting this wrong and making a total mess of the whole system.

Mt tank is a 5x2x2, what size screen do I need, my return pump is an or3500. Mt tank has 2 weirs which feed down into my sump, in order to keep this as easy and as cheap as possible I would ideally like to have the scrubber in the sump and just let me current weir piping feed it, does this sound feasible to you guys??

I know I can read this forum and should be able to get an answer to these questions but to be honest I am scared of getting it wrong... Would you mind answering my questions so that I know I am getting the correct answers??

One more question i have just thought about, bearing in mind the running cost of my tank is giving me a headache (simply not earning as much as I used to) can I use low energy bulbs (the household type) or will they simply not do the job?

I will ask the wife to do a diagram of my current setup tomorrow and try to attach it to this post then.

Cheers for taking the time to read this..

Dapex

[Rawr]

5x2x2 (feet?) is a 156 Gallon tank(590L) or somewhere around that. So thats 156 square inches if you make a vertical scrubber or 300 horizontal. Just go with the vertical one it really isn't all that difficult. You'll only need a sheet thats like 10x15(inches) or whatever size that fits better in your sump.
I looked up your pump and it appears to do about 928 gallons per hour or 3500 lph. I didn't find a flow chart for it to see how much flow it'll still have after 4~5 feet of head. So you may need to get a separate pump if you want to keep the 35 gph per inch on the scrubber. But you can always upgrade this later without having to change much in the design. And I believe most ppl are using the low energy types(CFL) It would be better if you can find them around 3000k spectrum.


Q: What kind of light do I need?
A: Experience has shown that at least a 23 Watt Compact Fluorescent (CFL) floodlight, of the 2700K or 3000K color, works best. One on each side of the screen, about 4" from the screen, and pointed at the middle of the screen. And note that 23W is "at least", unless it's for a nano. These CFL lights have also shown to only last about three months before their power drops off (even though they "look" fine). T5HO has also shown tremendous growth, although they are more difficult to design and build, however their even spread of light from side to side is superior to CFL bulbs. And recently, it has been found that there is an upper limit on CFL bulb size; CFL bulbs in the 50 watt range are at the top, whereas anything in the 60 watt range is too much. If you must use 60 watts or more, then use two smaller bulbs instead. The lighting just needs to be spread out more, and not concentrated so much on one spot. And whatever wattage you use, always get a "floodlight", which has the reflector built-in. If you already have bulbs and they are not floodlights, be sure to get "CFL reflectors" so you can point the light at the center of the screen, and not waste any.

Heres the FAQ that should answer most of your questions I know alot of the units may need to be converted but I feel the FAQ is almost idiot proof :D
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68)