is my ats compatible with my system

[skyshrimp]

Ok so I just finished setting up my ats yesterday night on my 75g w/15g sump. I removed my filter floss, skimmer, and carbon from my system. The ats is hooked up to my drain from my display. the return is more than 545 gph at 7ft and I have it at 4ft. On one side of the ats I have 150 watts of energy saver spiral bulbs. They are rated 23watts but equivalant to 75watts. So my question is do I need to do more to my ats or am I ok. I made it get rid of my hair algae problem and waiting on results. Oh yea the screen size is 10widex13long and I ruffed it ip pretty good.

[SantaMonica]

So you have 46 total watts, on 1/2 of 130 square inches = 65 sq in. Best would be 1.0 watt per sq in; yours is 0.71

Not bad, although 65 square inches is a bit small for a 75, and one-sided is less powerful than two-sided.

If you are feeding low to average, it should be ok, but it will take a while to get the nuisance algae out. If you want to speed up the nuisance algae removal, and be able to feed a lot, make the screen two sided with a 42 watt curly-Q spiral bulb on each side, in a big reflector...

http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CFLbulbs.jpg

[skyshrimp]

Thanks I was wondering if you have any links to those kind of lights and reflectors I cant find them in my lfs anywhere and what size is good.

[SantaMonica]

Hardware or home improvement store.

23, 33, 42 watt

[skyshrimp]

Is my screen of the correct size for proper filtration, if not what size should it be?

[SantaMonica]

Tank Size Guideline:

0.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon MINIMUM [0.13 watts per liter].

1.0 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon for HIGH filtering [0.26 watts per liter].

1.0 square inches of screen per gallon, with bulbs on BOTH sides (10 x 10 = 100 square inches = 100 gal) [1.64 square cm per liter]

2.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if vertical but lit on just ONE side. [3.28 square cm per liter]

4.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if HORIZONTAL [6.56 square cm per liter].

1.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon if HORIZONTAL [0.4 watts per liter].

18 hours of lights ON, and 6 hours of lights OFF, each day.

Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen, EVEN IF one sided [60 lph per cm].

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

Clean algae off of screen every SEVEN (7) days NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK.



Feeding Guidline:

Each cube of frozen food you feed per day needs 12 square inches of screen, with a light on both sides totaling 12 watts. Thus a nano that is fed one cube a day would need a screen 3 X 4 inches with a 6 watt bulb on each side. A larger tank that is fed 10 cubes a day would need a screen 10 X 12 inches with 60 watts of light on each side. If you feed flake, feeder fish, or anything else, you will need to blend it up super thick, strain out the excess water, pour it into a cube, and see how many cubes it is.

[skyshrimp]

Ok I changed the bulbs I had from the 20 watt energy saver curly cue bulbs to some 45 watt floodlight bulbs on each side of my screen. But the problem im having now is that the new bulbs look alot less brighter than the energy saver bulbs. I looked at the boxes on each of the bulbs and noticed this. The lumens for the 45 watt flood lights are 330, but the lumens for the 20 watt energy saver curly bulbs are 1200 lumens. So which do i use or do i still need to find another set of bulbs to power my ats screens?

[SantaMonica]

You got incandescent spotlights by mistake. Throw those away and get CFL curly Q spirals (not spotlights), and big reflectors.