New here and new tank

[Jay1st]

Hi all,

Love this ATS and S.M. for pushing people tu use it !

I am putting in place a new small reef tank, it's a 50x50x50 (in centimeters) with a bow front and has a sump in its back, like a Red sea max, but with a 150w MH light.
The water content should be around 95 liters and 10Kg of LR.
And of course I am seriously thinking of fitting an ATS to it (in IT).

Main goals and benefits from what I understand:

_Mechanical filtering is done bay algae (no floss)
_Chemical filtering as well (PO4, NO3, etc....and no SKIMMER)
_Added O2
_Cooling when fan added (with 150W MH on a small tank it's very good)
_Less water changes to remove harmfull stuff.

So my questions are:
_If I use a the benefit of cooling the tank with the ATS, I'll need to add RO water to compensate, and if there is less water changes I need to add Ca+Mg, so can I compensate with direct TAP water ran through a carbon filter (to remove chlorine and other stuff) to avoid using kalk water ?

_What screen size should I use to have the best system ,and flowrate ?
_the tank is empty for the moment and it will be started withing the next weeks, so I understood I can start straight with an ATS rather than Skimmer and floss, correct ?


Thanks for the help and long live MS !

[Jay1st]

I've done some calculations:


35Gph per inch => 52 Liters per centimeter
1 square inch per Gallon => 1.7 square centimeter per Liter
0.5W per Gallon => 0.13W per liter

So, if I'm right, for my tank:

15 Watts of light is more than enough
200 square centimetrs of surface as well (171 by calculation), a 10Hx 20L mesh is a good size, with a 1000L/H pump.

Correct ?

[worley]

Don't forget that's 1 square inch per gal lit on both sides, so if you're lighting it on one side only then double that.
As for the water, there were a few people who were going to try just that, using tap water as top-off instead of RO, but I'm not sure if anyone has tried it yet.
Also, don't expect to get 1000l/h out of a 1000l/h pump, a reasonable guestimate would be 1/3 to 1/2 of that (300-500l/hour) once all the pipes/screen are on, so take that into account too (I didn't on my first scrubber and suffered a little due to lack of flow over the screen).

[worley]

P.S.
Going over with lights and flow by a little won't hurt, e.g. a 20-22W bulb or next size up pump would help

[SantaMonica]

has a sump in its back, like a Red sea max

Pics would help. Need to know if the sump really is "below" the main tank, or if it's just a section "behind" the tank.

_If I use a the benefit of cooling the tank with the ATS, I'll need to add RO water to compensate, and if there is less water changes I need to add Ca+Mg, so can I compensate with direct TAP water ran through a carbon filter (to remove chlorine and other stuff) to avoid using kalk water ?

Well the kalk top-off would fix the Ca and Mg, and the top off, and the pH. That's what I do. Using Tap would be an experiment; since your tank is new, you could try it and see if anything new dies. One problem would be chloramines if you have them; I don't thing carbon removes them (I think you need a DI), and I'm not sure airing out the water will remove them either, like it does with chlorine. Would be a good question for a water expert.

What screen size should I use to have the best system ,and flowrate ?

This will depend on your tank layout. If your "sump" is not a real sump, you'll need a scrubber like one of these:

the tank is empty for the moment and it will be started withing the next weeks, so I understood I can start straight with an ATS rather than Skimmer and floss, correct ?

Yes

15 Watts of light is more than enough

That's fine for the small screen. If single-sided, you'll want about 50 square inches (313 sq cm). That would be 5 X 10. But like Worley said, more light is better.

[Jay1st]

HI, tnx for the replys.


The "what I call sump" is on the same level like the RSM.
And the first picture shows exactly what I have in mind.
For the screen I'm going with 10x12 times 2, so I can alternate the harvesting, and they will bet lit on one side only.
That will be a new experiment for me to run skimmer-less....

And I'm going to use RO water finally, to remove the nasty stuff, and the contents of tap water do fluctuate over timle.



PS: Is there any other tanks with similar setup that started w/o skimmer straight with ATS ?

[worley]

PS: Is there any other tanks with similar setup that started w/o skimmer straight with ATS ?

Yes, I started my 6'x2'x2' without skimmer, I've still not finished my new algae scrubber yet, but the one from my old 3x2x2 is running on it and has kept it going (with a little algae on the glass, but 0 amonia/nitrite and very low nitrate) for 3 months and that's with a mixed fish/coral (hard and soft) reef.

[SantaMonica]

Many many many. Several on here, and hundreds across the different forums, if you want to take the time to find them.

[kcress]

I'll never use a skimmer. On my new design I'll be basing it on a TScrubber. I don't see a natural analog to a mechanical skimmer so it must be possible to run a system without one. At least that's my philosophy. :mrgreen: .

[worley]

Marine tanks have been around a long time before skimmers were in use. They certainly helped, but the algae scrubber does a much better job in my tank. They work in completely different ways, but the scrubbers work a lot better if correctly designed/built and maintained.