new and new tank

[rayn]

I was recommended to come and look over here and have decided to try one of these after seeing the impressive results shown. I currently have a 120 that I am battling HA on and am in the process of setting up a new 400 gallon tank. I will read through some more build here, but just wondered if there was a size of scrubber per size of tank? I haven't found anything stating that yet.

[kerry]

Hello Rayn, did you come from myfishtank? The size of the screen is by the amount of food you feed. Here is a link with this info. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1579

[Doompie]

Welcome,

Good you are interested in the ATS.
Ever since my tank started, I won't ever ever want to use a skimmer again in my life.
Especially after reading what it actually removes, and what more benefits you have with the ATS.

I really only enjoy the hobby since, never have to worry about anything actually. Just keep the feeding up, and enjoy. Cleaning is done in 15 minutes for me.

But to answer your question.

The new sizing guidelines are based on the feeding regime. that you can find here

The old ones where according tank content. 1 square inch of screen material for every gallon. more specs, as stated in this topic

Quick Guideline, using gallons:

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

Note: If your scrubber is 1-sided instead of 2-sided, you'll need twice the wattage (or you'll need to feed half as much) in order to make up for the inefficiency of 1-sided screens.

[rayn]

Thanks for the replies. It was recommended by a fellow on reefers paradise. He added one to his tank and likes it. If one will clean up my 120 and keep it from being a problem in the new tank I would be thrilled.

One other question though. I notice that a lot of these tanks are reef, could one be used on a fowlr tank as well? Here wouldn't be a bunch of coral, but you never know. Or would this work better in conjunction with a skimmer in that instance?

[kerry]

Yes Sir!! You sure can.

[SantaMonica]

Works on any tank. If you have large fish-only, you could also run a skimmer to remove the food particles. Or you could just leave them in and watch the clean up.

[rayn]

That is great. I have the one reef, but am heading towards more predator type fish and there generally aren't a bunch of corals in there as I was thinking fowlr as they are generally messy eaters.

[SantaMonica]

Don't let predators stop you from having corals just because of the food. You should only be limited by the predators eating the corals.