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Thread: Help me design a scrubber for 300gals

  1. #1

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    Help me design a scrubber for 300gals

    Well I'm thinking of running a scrubber on my 300g tank. Now a few questions

    Can I use the pump as my return pump and have scrubber drain into tank
    Can I use normal 4ft fluros for lighting? I'm thinking 160w or something.

    Also all I can find for the scrubber is gutter mesh which is that black soft flexible stuff. I can prolly get some acrylic sheeting but it's 12mm.

    Im thinking quite a long scrubber what happens if water flow is to low? Think my current dump pumps is approx 1000gph

    Tank will have lots of coral and not 2 many fish.

    Also will this totally replace my reefigium? And be my sole form of filtration. Allowing me to run a tiny sump.

    I will keep my skimmer just in case and to run when adding large amounts of livestock.

  2. #2
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    First question is how much you will feed.

    A skimmer does not remove any ammonia from livestock.

  3. #3
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    Definitely size based on feeding. your system will be much smaller unless you drip-feed a ton of coral food continuously.

    Go LED if you can T5HO and CFL is sooooo last year. You will be hard pressed to need any T5HO over 24" though just FYI. You would have to be feeding a lot of food to need a screen that wide anymore.

    I would not use the gutter mesh. Do what you can to get the plastic canvas, order online and pay the shipping, it's 100% worth it. I'm guessing that you're outside the US?

    I wouldn't count on a 'tiny' sump, because you will need some area to take care of microbubbles from the plumbing or the scrubber. Making a high-flow sump that is too small will result in a lot of bubbles in the tank (I know). But you can reduce the size considerably when compared to what you need for a skimmer/filter sock/etc sump.

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    yea im in australia what color leds and how many what physical size should my scruber be?

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    Nutrients "in" (feeding) must equal nutrients "out" (scrubber growth), no matter how many gallons you have. So...

    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 (60 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
    5 square inches (30 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. For LEDs, try half of these watts.

    HORIZONTAL screens: Multiply the screen size by 4, and the wattage by 1.5Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen [60 lph per cm], EVEN IF one sided or horizontal.

    Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.

    Clean algae off of screen every 7 to 14 days, so that you can see the white screen material.

  6. #6

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    I was planning to make a much larger screen. I might make mine 48" x 12" and use fluoros to light it a twin on each side giving me 160w

  7. #7
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    How much food

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    fully stocked id be lucky if i fed 2 cubes per day.

  9. #9
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    4 X 6 two-sided screen, at at least 12 real watts on each side for 18 hours, or at least 24 real watts on each side for 9 hours.

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