Redoing ATS

[Danny_B]

when i set up my tank a few months ago i just heard of algae scrubbers and i kind of "winged" it. my design now is 2 drains going to sump with a 2 full width/length plastic canvas ziptied on the bottom and sides, attached to the drain pipes kind of like a filter sock (screen on each side) and light on each side (23watt each). it grows algae, starting to get green, keeps nitrates at zero, buts its too big a little too noisy (not too bad) and not efficient.

So now im going to re do it.

System is:
29 gallon with 10 gallon sump (drilled 3 holes at top middle, left rear and right rear) 1" plumbing
rapidled lighting 12/12 cw/rb cree 3w
mixed reef lps/sps
2 occ clowns
1 6 line
1 starry blenny
1 hectors goby
1 goby shrimp pair
sally light foot
cleaner shrimp
peppermint shrimp
CUC

sps
lps
maxima clam

I dont feed alot, because there aren't big fish.
id say 1/4 cube or 3 pinches of flake per day
not adding anymore fish.

Pump is a rio 10hf and i filled a gallon jug several times, it takes 15-17 seconds for a gallon jug to fill on the stop watch, 240 gph measured.

my plan is to run one drain as the main, with a gate valve to tune it in to a siphon to quiet things. the second drain will be backup incase of a clog. algae scrubber will be run directly off the main drain. I was going to make a 6" wide screen in the 1/8" slit. rough up with hole saw. From the top of algae screen the to the water surface in sump will be 10.5".i plan on running the lights on both sides. plan is 2 x 27 watt cfls in the 3100k flavor.

Any problems, questions or tips?

[SantaMonica]

Size it according to feeding:

An example VERTICAL waterfall screen size is 3 X 4 inches = 12 square inches of screen (7.5 X 10 cm = 75 sq cm) with a total of 12 real watts (not equivalent) of fluorescent light for 18 hours a day. If all 12 watts are on one side, it is a 1-sided screen. If 6 watts are on each side, it is a 2-sided screen, but the total is still 12 watts for 18 hours a day. This screen size and wattage should be able to handle the following amounts of daily feeding:

1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen), or
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen), or
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen), or
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen), or
10 square inches (50 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
5 square inches (50 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen), or
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen), or
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)

High-wattage technique: Double the wattage, and cut the hours in half (to 9 per day). This will get brown screens to grow green much faster. Thus the example above would be 12 watts on each side, for a total of 24 watts, but for only 9 hours per day. If growth starts to turn YELLOW, then increase the flow, or add iron, or reduce the number of hours. And since the bulbs are operating for 9 hours instead of 18, they will last 6 months instead of 3 months.

[Danny_B]

I've read that. Thanks. However I am putting 240gph through it. So it needs to be 6" ish inches wide. I'm not going to try to light the entire vertical space. So that is a none issue.

[SantaMonica]

Keep the screen small, so it all gets bright light.