New ATS user

[Roni]

Hi to all!

I am Roni from Croatia, and I will be a new scrubber user

First of all I would like to apology to you all for my future English writing, but English is not my natural language so I will type as good as I can.

I heard about ATS few months ago, but like most of you I also experienced stories that ATS is no good enough by people who represents skimmer sellers etc...

Few days ago I visited friend (user of this forum) and saw his beautiful tank which run without skimmer for 6 months now. Of course i couldn't believe my eyes
Then he pulled some cold beers and start explaining the story behind ATS

So to make this story little bit shorter... for last few days i was reading this forum (and some other forums) learning about ATS, and I totally decided to build myself one.

Current situation:
-tank is 360 liters (95 gallons if not mistaken) without sump
-skimmer
-bio pellet reactor
-i don't know parameters because i didn't measure them for long time
-i have 5 fishes (chromis viridis, 2 clowns, yellow tang, hepatus tang)
-some soft corals

Plans in general:
-build DIY vertical ATS with T5 lamps
-build it like close box (to be as silent as possible)
-put some more fishes in tank (I know i have to know how much I will feed them)
-put much more corals in tank

Questions:
-stupid question but... can ATS be my ONLY future filtration in tank, without any skimmer, DSB etc. ?
-If I don't know now how much food will I put in tank in future, is there any thing that can help my calculation of screen size?
-I read that much of calcium is added in general along with ATS usage, so question is can I run ATS and balling together?
-what about active carbon, do I need it? (it is not a problem because i have small reactor for it, it is only info question)
-What are benefits/not benefits of water changes if running ATS (I cant quite understand is it needed frequently as now or what)?


Thanks for help in advance.


P.S. When I will building ATS, I will post pictures, and some ATS log for sure

[Roni]

And one other question:
Can ATS be too big?
Maybe answer to this is that if ATS is too big then growth af algae will be poor, but I still want to check this.

And sorry if I make some questions that sound stupid, I only want to be sure before I make some mistakes and want to make ma ATS as good as possible. I am not lazy for reading and searching, but sometimes my English is not good enough for fully understanding what i read.

[SantaMonica]

Hello,

Yes a scrubber can be the only filter, without sand, or carbon. Should be fine without waterchanges as long as you as add Cal, Alk, Mag, and Str.

Not familiar with Balling.

Yes they can be too big. Get feeding estimates from fish people, and size accordingly.

[kotlec]

ATS is not related to calcium+alkalinity addition methods at all. You can chose one that you like the most.
Water changes cant harm but not needed if ATS is working well.

[Smitty]

You can always make your ATS "expandable" by having it big enough for future growth, but only cutting a slot in the PVC pipe that feeds the screen that is big enough for now. What I mean is, if you want a screen that is 10" long x 6" deep in the future, make your box big enough for that (10" long) but only cut the PVC pipe feeding the screen to 4" for now, so you can make it bigger in the future.

I hope you understand, I'm still asleep while typing. The numbers were just pulled from the air for an example.

[Roni]

I understand Smitty, thanks.

Thanks all for reply!

[Roni]

I have done some math calculating size of my screen, wattage, and pump flow. Will feed for now minimum of 2 frozen cubes per day, and sometmes will add some food for anemona (once a week) and some nori.
Acording to this link http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...ll=1#post13975 results should be:

screen size: 7x8 inches
lights: 2x 15w CFL (btw is this ok lamp: http://shop.emgd.hr/zarulje/kompaktn...00k-6000h.html)? I planned T5 lamps but it is complicated to find small ones here.
Waterflow: 250 GPH


And one other thing... do you have any idea from where to buy "Clear #7 Mesh Plastic Canvas". This is closest one I found: http://www.amazon.com/Artist-Plastic.../dp/B001DEGBIW. Keep in mind that I dont have different hobby stores here.

Is all this OK or i miscalculated some figures.
Thanks for help!

[Roni]

Option 2 for lights, LED-s.

This should be ok? http://www.aquastyleonline.com/produ...-3W-2800K.html
But how many of them on my 7x8 inches screen?

[Smitty]

For the CFL I would say yes. For the LED I'm not sure because they say that you need red spectrum LEDs. I would look at some of the build threads for LEDs to make sure you get the right ones.

[SantaMonica]

Screen: yes
CFL: yes, if you add reflectors
LED: no, get 660nm instead.