My 75G has been running for more than a year with an ATS as the only filtration (in addition to live rocks and a DSB). Everything has been working well with only fish and a few mushrooms. The only issue has been a few patches of brown diatom (or maybe cyno) on the sand bed.
Recently I added a few SPS frags and slowly lost them to STN. I thought lack of food was the problem and increased feeding to up to 32 ml of Brightwell Aquatics Reef Snow per day. This did not help with the STN but overpowered the ATS and the brown algae is now all over the sand bed and on some rocks as well. The algae on ATS turned from green to dark and slimy.
Strangely, throughout the whole time NO3 and PO4 have been undetectable using Salifert test kits. Then I found out about the Hanna Phosphorus ULR checker and got one. The PO4 tested out to be 0.07ppm instead.
Now that all frags are lost, I have stopped adding Reef Snow and am confident that the existing ATS will bring things back to the way it was.
While waiting for the existing ATS to work its magic I have decided to improve the design to better handle the feeding necessary to keep SPS.
The new design will have a few improvements over the existing one.
1. Can fit more bulbs while spreading them out over the screens more evenly.
2. More flow.
3. 3D growth.
4. Less bubbles.
Unfortunately due to space limitation T5HO is out of the question. So the design is based on CFLs.
Here is the new design.
[attachment=0:39v1i045]With cover.jpg[/attachment:39v1i045]
[attachment=1:39v1i045]Inside view.jpg[/attachment:39v1i045]
Two single sided screen with usable screen size of 13.5" x 9" each, which is about the same as one double sided screen with 120 square inches.
Lighting is by 5 23W stick CFLs, with a total wattage of 115W. The part on each bulb that actually emits light is about 1.5'' wide and 4" long. The bulbs are spread out as much as possible. The screens are about 3" from bulb surface, which should be far enough to avoid burning the algae.
Flow will be from a Herbie overflow with about 1,000 Gallon/hour. This can be throttle back a bit if it turned out to be too strong.
The side panels of the screen compartment are about 7" high to allow 3D growth and access to the screens without the need to take out the ATS box from the sump. Since the lower halve of the ATS will be in the sump, but above water, if the water level in the compartment goes over 7" it will just flow over the side panels into the sump.
The pipe fitting will be 1", if I end up with enough space to fit reducing bushings I may reduce the pipes to 3/4" after the tee. I read somewhere in the forum that higher pressure in the pipe is better, but I am not sure if this change makes any difference.
Another thing I am not sure is how to size the drains. To allow 3D growth I should have some water above the drain, would a 1" bulkhead allow that to happen or a 3/4" one should be used instead? Should the water drain out as gravity flow or full siphon?
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