Re: New sizing guidelines
12 watts for 18 hours a day, 1-sided, handles 1/2 cube.
24 watts for 9 hours a day, 1-sided, also handles 1/2 cube.
Your 30 watts is a bit more than you need for 1/2 cube a day if you run it for 9 hours. But if you run it for 18 hours you can do 1 cube.
3 square inches of nori is about 1/3 cube. So you are wanting to feed a total of about 2 1/3 cubes. Thus, you do not have enough wattage. If your screen were 2-sided (with 15w on each side), it would handle twice the feeding with the same wattage.
If 30 watts is all you can use, and you have to keep it 1-sided, you'll need to run it for 18 hours to be able to feed 1 cube.
A good screen for your 30 watts would be 5 X 6, with a reflector so that all the light hits the screen.
Re: New sizing guidelines
hi santa monica
Quote:
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen)
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen)
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen)
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen)
10 square inches (50 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen)
5 square inches (50 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen)
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen)
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)
assuming that all the ats is well conceived, can handle all this
food in one day??
Re: New sizing guidelines
No, those are examples of the cube-equivalents of each of those types of food. Each of those lines equals one cube of food and a 12 sq in screen would handle 1 cube of food per day, or the equivalent thereof.
However if your screen is 8 x 12 = 96 sq in, then yes, you can feed each of the above amounts per day I guess.
Re: New sizing guidelines
floyd thank you very much :) , by the way take your advice and reduced the size of the screen 8-)
Re: New sizing guidelines
Ok, I'm new to this and I'm setting up a scrubber for my 36gal. I was going to do a 5x8 screen (40 sq inches) so I would need 40 watt on each side of the screen? or 20watt one on each side for a total of 40w? And I would be good on 1cube feed a day. This is a tank just starting cycle and am constructing scrubber now.
Re: New sizing guidelines
You can feed 3 cubes a day and use 20W per side. It would be best to get the scrubber in there ASAP. The scrubber basically makes the tank not go through the big spike of the cycle. My nitrates never went over 5PPM when I started my 40G from day one with a scrubber.
Re: New sizing guidelines
Great thanks kerry!!! I may reduce the wattage then and am seriously considering led's. I may just wait and see what SM comes up with with the Scrubber 2 for nano's. This tank is empty and I'm still planning things out and getting parts and pieces.
Re: New sizing guidelines
I really like the LED's on my nano. I will be switching all of them soon.
Re: New sizing guidelines
How much does the reflector play into the wattage necessary. I am thinking about a build of four 3x4 screens surrounding a 23w bulb. At nine hours a day would this give me about 4 cubes per day (way more than I need) or is the lack of a reflector going to lower the feeding numbers? Is the light still supposed to be 4" away from the screen or is that changed with the new screen size?
Thanks,
Bob
Re: New sizing guidelines
First, it's 1-sided. Second, you are losing light out of 2 of the 6 sides, so you are losing 1/3, and only getting 2/3 left over. Third, the bulb will be too close, almost touching.
Use 6 X 6 pieces, and make the box with them. It will still be 24w and 1-sided, but it will catch more light, except the top and bottom.
12w 2-sided 18-hours is 1 cube (standard example from guideline)
12w 1-sided 18-hours is 1/2 cube
24w 1-sided 18-hours is 1 cube
24w 1-sided 9-hours is 1/2 cube (same as 3/6 cube)
You will be losing one-third of your light, so you will left with two-thirds. Two-thirds of 3/6 cube is 2/6 cube = 1/3 cube. So you can feed 1/3 cube. Having open-sides really cuts into filtering. 1-sided really cuts into filtering too, compared to 2-sided.