Help with gravity return on scrubber

[McCLaw]

Hi All

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to ATS's :)

A few months ago I read about ATS and created a small one in my 1400L marine tank.

It has worked wonderfully, the only problem is that is is quite noisy so I had to build a new one that is seperated into a different room (SO hates water noises ;) )

I built the new scrubber using a plastic bin and odds and ends that I had lying around.

The bin is 80cm by 40cm approx.

I then added a 1cm feedpipe connected to a 3000L/hour return pump and added two 1cm gravity feed return pipes back into my tank and one 1.5cm graviry fed return pipe back int the sump.

When I started the system, the scrubber started filling up with water :S

It seems that the returns are not filling up with water completely and that they dont feed water back into the tank quick enough.

Any idea what I can do to solve this?

This is the tank as it looks now :o
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010103.jpg

This is the Return pump for the ATS
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010104.jpg

A Close up of the algea
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010101.jpg

Full tank shot (Notice all the green)
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010099.jpg

Pipes goin out from fishroom to MArine tank on other side of window
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010097.jpg

Inside of scrubber
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010096.jpg

Feed from tank
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010094.jpg

Three return pipes
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010093.jpg

Pipes from ATS on left to tank on right
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010092.jpg

ATS Side
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010091.jpg

Pipes going in to Top of tank
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/24052010090.jpg

ATS Build in progress
http://www.guppies.za.net/ATS/22052010088.jpg


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SantaMonica]

To view the above pics, right click on them and "view image".

I reposted the important one, below: The pic of the scrubber.

Well, to save you some time and frustration, you are going to have to rebuild it. The problem with the current one is that the lights are two weak, and too far away from the screen, to do any good. Your plumbing/draining problem is a different problem, easily solved by having the drain line run straight down to your display (no ups and downs... only down).

I know you said that your previous worked wonderfully, but if it did, there would be no green in the tank. But regardless of the previous one, the current one (pic below) is not going to do any filtering for a 350 gal tank. You have plenty of room outside the house, so why not get another plastic box and do one that will work good even when your tank is stocked.

You have very little stock, so you can go with the minimum lighting: 0.5 watts/gal = 175 watts. You need 350 square inches of screen lit on both sides; either a single big screen, or two smaller ones like your current one. I would get another new box, make one 24" wide screen that is 14" tall, and use CFL floodlights attached through holes in the sides (look through the examples for ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26)


A 24" X 14 screen will need at least 4 bulbs on each side, in order to give fairly even coverage of light. It's not nearly as good at T5HO, but much better than one big bulb in the middle. So each side of the screen needs about 85 watts, so each bulb can be about 23watts or 19watts:

http://www.buylighting.com/23-Watt-R40- ... 1r4023.htm (http://www.buylighting.com/23-Watt-R40-Compact-Fluorescent-Flood-2700K-p/tcp1r4023.htm)

[McCLaw]

To view the above pics, right click on them and "view image".

I reposted the important one, below: The pic of the scrubber.

Well, to save you some time and frustration, you are going to have to rebuild it. The problem with the current one is that the lights are two weak, and too far away from the screen, to do any good. Your plumbing/draining problem is a different problem, easily solved by having the drain line run straight down to your display (no ups and downs... only down).

I know you said that your previous worked wonderfully, but if it did, there would be no green in the tank. But regardless of the previous one, the current one (pic below) is not going to do any filtering for a 350 gal tank. You have plenty of room outside the house, so why not get another plastic box and do one that will work good even when your tank is stocked.

You have very little stock, so you can go with the minimum lighting: 0.5 watts/gal = 175 watts. You need 350 square inches of screen lit on both sides; either a single big screen, or two smaller ones like your current one. I would get another new box, make one 24" wide screen that is 14" tall, and use CFL floodlights attached through holes in the sides (look through the examples for ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26)


A 24" X 14 screen will need at least 4 bulbs on each side, in order to give fairly even coverage of light. It's not nearly as good at T5HO, but much better than one big bulb in the middle. So each side of the screen needs about 85 watts, so each bulb can be about 23watts or 19watts:

http://www.buylighting.com/23-Watt-R40- ... 1r4023.htm (http://www.buylighting.com/23-Watt-R40-Compact-Fluorescent-Flood-2700K-p/tcp1r4023.htm)


Hi

Thank you for the response.:)

The tank looks the way it does becaue I had to shut down my first algea scrubber due to noise issues.

It was looking alot better when the scrubber was running. :)

On the lighting issue, I have searched for those globes in south africa and couldnt find ones with the correct K rating.

I agree that the light in the middle is too far away, I will remove it and add 2 30w cool white (Brilliant for growing plants so should work just as well for growing algae) T8's (3400k) an inch away from each screen.

I already have 1 30w T8 cool white about an inch away from the screens on the outside. (will add another 1 on each side) Not easy to see in the pics.

That will give me 60W per side of each screen. If this isnt enough i can add another on either side, or go with sylvana 30W (Alot more expensive though) Cool whites cost about 2 USD in south africa, sylvana costs about 50 USD here.

If this works I'll post about it in this thread :)

On the piping for the return:

Basically I do not have the option of going down immediately.

The water has to travel from the scrubber through the window and then down into the tank

First bit of travel is almost horisontal. :(

[SantaMonica]

couldnt find ones with the correct K rating.

Then just use "warm whites"... they are the same thing.


T8's (3400k) an inch away from each screen.

Won't work. The problem is not how near the T8 is. The problem is how far the edges of the screen are from the bulb. No part of the screen should be more than 4" from any bulb, and preferably not more than 3". If you are going to use linear bulbs like T8, you need multiple one, spaced 3" apart, or 2" for higher power.

Having just a single T8 that is 1" from the screen causes you to reduce total filtering so that the part near the bulb does not burn. But then the rest of the screen does not have enough light. The light should be such that you get thick green hair growth from the top of the screen to the bottom.


Basically I do not have the option of going down immediately. The water has to travel from the scrubber through the window and then down into the tank

Then raise the scrubber up higher.

[sklywag]

SantaMonica. Being from South Africa doesn't kind of impress you a little that he's on this site here in Ca? I see a lot of UK brothers here, but South Africa? That's kind of cool for some reason. Sort of like Mars.

[SantaMonica]

There is a big concentration of reefers there... enough that they have two big reef forums just for them.