massive project

[dirk_brijs]

Currently designing a 1400gallon system with a 1060gallon DT
would like to connect it to an ATS system if possible.
Am in the drawing stage of it all and here some drawings of the ATS station
The individual screens will be 47" x 13" which gives 611sq inch per screen
It will consist of 4 screens which makes a total mass of 4 x 611= 2444sq inch of screen
I believe according to the 35gph flow per inch of screen width I will be needing a 1600gph flow per screen.
One pump will feed 2 screens so a pump of 3500gph per line of 2 screens should do the trick.
Flow will come from a 160gallon sump through 1" PVC plumbing and will flow out into a 170gallon refugium through 2" PVC overflows.
About the lighting I am not too sure on what kind of lighting to use and how many watts???
I have space in between every screen to place T5 or CFL bulbs though due to the hight of the screens 13" this might not work.
Was thinking of placing 2 T5 bulbs horizontally between every screen so each screen has 2 T5 bulbs on each side.
Advice please?
Improvements on the overall design?

[dirk_brijs]

some measurements

[SantaMonica]

Good first layout, except for the lighting like you said. You should start with the lighting, and design the screens around that. I like the long pipes; they will filter a lot of water per hour quickly.

The length you have is good for 48" T5HO bulbs. But the height, at 13", will need more than 2 bulbs. You will want a bulb every 1.5", so that the light-power will be strong enough to power green growth. This would be 8 bulbs, but at least 7. Without this dense lighting, you'll just get a big screen full of brown growth. So it's better to go with a smaller screen if needed, so that you can keep the lighting densely packed.

Your system size of 1400 gal would need 1400 total watts for high filtering for a reef tank. 700 total watts for average filtering. Anything in this range is capable of being the only filter. A breeder tank, or highly fed predator tank, would need more.

T5HO's that are 48" are 54 watts. Starting with this in mind, assume you wanted 1400 total watts; this would be 28 bulbs. You have 5 lighting units, so that would be 5+ bulbs per unit. Now we are close. The outer lighting unit will be (presumeably) reflected inwards, so you only need half the bulbs in those compared to the inner ones. So if you put 5 bulbs in each outer unit (10 total), you have 18 remaining bulbs for the inner units, which is 6 bulbs each. Not bad, although 7 or 8 is best.

What I would do, is reduce the total screen area so that you can pack the bulbs tightly in all areas, thus assuring more green growth in a smaller space, instead of a larger space with brown. I would only do 1400 square inches, which really would only need 3 screens at 470 square inches each. At 47" long, they would be 10" high, and need only 6 or 7 bulbs for dense coverage. Plus you would only need 4 lighting units. 28 bulbs divided by 4 units is 7 bulbs each, perfect.

Redundancy will be important, so the more separate pumps, and separate lighting circuits, the better. Figure that if you lose a pump or lighting circuit, the tank will still be fine temporarily as long as you have at least 400 watts still operating. So figure what will happen if you trip a breaker, or lose a pump, and make sure that there is still at least one screen with at least 400 watts on it.

Your design is good, in that you have two pumps. If you reduce the size like I said, you'll only have 3 screens/pipes, which could be fed with one big or three small pumps. Of course three is safer, but one is simpler.

[dirk_brijs]

the new designs are done.
So 3 screens of 46.5" x 10" which gives 3 x 465sqI = 1395sqI of screen
each screen will be fed with a 6000Lph (1585Gph) pump
on the drawings you see the light set up pretty clear I guess with 2 stations of 7 T5 of 54W and the 2 outside light stations with 5 T5 of 54W each.
This giving a light capacity of 2 x 7 x 54W + 2 x 5 x 54W = 756W + 540W = 1296W Total light
again water will be fed through the sump and will drain through 2 2" drain pipes into the Refugium.

[dirk_brijs]

some more details

[SantaMonica]

Looks good. Clean one screen at a time and you'll have good constant parameters.

[dirk_brijs]

will have a skimmer on stand by though lol

[inkidu]

To roughen that much screen I would suggest you take a look at this link.

It would be much easier and much less time than if you would do it without a tool.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=496 (http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=496)

Hope it helps.

Good luck

[dirk_brijs]

will most likely be using a PVC style musquito netting with 2 or 3 layers sown together.
Wouldnt need any roughening up as it is pretty rough from itself and holes a good size I think for algae to attach to.