New ATS

It's the lit area that's important, if you got an area of screen partially lit, I would consider this a biodiversity benefit. Others would not agree. You will get some growth on the lower bit, but nowhere near as much as under the lights.

I increased the height by 7" in order to get the lights horizontal to the screen today. I did increase the screen length, but that is more to keep everything from splashing, the bottom of the screen won't have much light hitting it.

Here is an update after 1 week. Starting to get something on the screen which is good. I know it takes a while for things to really heat up. I'm guessing about a month before I see any noticeable growth but sooner would be nice.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...2012Update.jpg

You can try squeezing the reflector so that it fits the shape of the screen.

Well, I did have to take the skimmer offline in order to fit the ATS into the sump and now I'm having an explosion of hair algae/bryopsis. I'm hoping the screen starts kicking in soon to help reduce this (which is one of the reasons for me putting in an ATS to begin with).

Your screen will not filter much until it's mature. The explosion of HA and bryopsis indicates that you have some high nutrients or it is leeching from the rocks, or both. Ask Srusso about the bryopsis issue, if it really IS bryopsis, you need to get N and P down to rock-bottom zero to choke it out.

You should address the light reflector issue to as SM mentioned, you want all that light on the screen. I like the smaller ones for a skinny screen.

It isn't excess nutrients. I only feed about 1/2 a cube every other day and the fish all devour it within seconds. I've always fought P in my tank but N has been zero the entire time (but I do have issues with algae so it could be consuming it).

I'll work on the reflectors.

Ok, I know I don't want to have macro algae in my sump at the same time as the ATS but I'm affraid of what will happen in my DT if I take everything out of my system (already had to take the skimmer out, but If I remove the macro I can probably move my ATS and put my skimmer back in). Thoughts?

Also, when do you want to try and clean the screen for the first time? It has been almost 2 weeks running and I see the beginning of algae forming but not a lot.

Thanks!

you need to clean weekly, but at the start it is very light. run room temp tap water at slow-medium flow and pass the screen under it, and rub it gently with your fingertips, that's it. Scrub the top edge where the screen goes into the pipe to keep that clean and scrub the slot itself.

Tanks always get ugly before getting better. This is where most people who try scrubbers give up and think they're a bunch of hype and don't work. Blame the ATS for all their problems. When in reality those problems were always there lurking and waiting for the opportune time to show themselves. As Floyd stated, nutrients are starting to leach out of your very pourous rock.
If you manage to hang on and be patient through the change. You'll be very satisfied with the results.