Originally Posted by
Floyd R Turbo
Ok, back from giving the kid a bath. It was suggested that a system would be designed such that there were multiple small scrubbers all fed from the same system, such as a large tank with a 55g sump and a series of scrubbers all fed from the same overflow and split into multiple branches, with a common return pump. Each individual scrubber would have equal flow and different light configurations. So that is one possible idea.
Another possible idea would be to set up a series of smaller systems and different scrubbers.
However this is done, in order to be a controlled, I would think the most reasonable way to do without introducing too many variables is to eliminate the fish, rock, corals, sand, etc. Just have bare empty tanks and dose given amounts of nutrients equally to each system. This would initially be a low-cost and easily reproducible experiment, and a control group could also be easily used. Although it would hardly be real-world, I see it as the only way of growing algae under perfectly controlled conditions.
Otherwise, using the large single tank idea, you would have to make sure the tank was full of rock that was fully cured, and the system would have to have long-term stability, perhaps 6 months to a year of operation before the 'experiment' could start.
Although you could do a large bare tank and multiple small filters. However I wonder if there would be introduction of competition of species if one scrubber grew more efficient algae and out-competed another scrubber. Results would be skewed.