Algae scrubber for 1,000ltr tank

[Skraag]

Hi Everyone,

We dived in at the deep end a few months back and bought a 1,000ltr tank to set up as a reef tank. It has a sump underneath and it did come with an algae scrubber, but having read up on some info here, it would seem that a) it's too small and b) not very effective, so we need to make a new one.

We've worked out that we'll need a screen that's roughly 264 square inches, so one that's 20" x 13.5" should do nicely eh? Based on 1W per square inch, we'll also need 264W of light; 2 x 150W cfls would give us more than we really need, but would it be too much?

Having looked on the internet, most of the cfls we can find are energy saving bulbs and are equivalent wattages, so not necessarily 150W; the only ones we can find that are genuine 150W are the enviro lamps for hydroponics; these are available in 2700k. Is this really what we need or will the energy saving bulbs be enough?

Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

You will want to use the new guidelines instead of the old ones. How much will you be feeding? And how big is the current one?

[Skraag]

Hey man, thanks!

Sorry, I'm confused; how much will I be feeding what?

Regarding the size of the old one, the screen size is roughly 9.75" x 13.5"; I think it was set up as a waterfall style scrubber, with algae growing on just one side; it had 2 x 18W energy saver cfls providing the light.

I'm thinking that a horizontal one would be more efficient for the tank, but I'm also wondering how to put it all together to make it easy to take the screen out to clean.

Also, does it matter where abouts in the sump it goes? At the moment, I have a filter sock in the far right compartment (I've read that once the scrubber is up and running I'm not even going to need this?), the next one was going to be for a protein skimmer, but from what I've read here, I'm not going to need one of these either, the third is currently going to be a refuugium (where I was going to put the algae scrubber) and the fourth compartment has the return pump (at the moment).

When I first set the tank up, I put some live sediment in the third compartment, but I've noticed now that it's pretty much all gathered in the fourth, so was thinking of swapping the return and refuugium compartments. Will it be ok to have the algae scrubber here at the end (this is the largest compartment of the sump), or does it need to go before the return to get the most out of it?

I could build an algae scrubber in the second compartment, but that would have to be smaller, so I'd probably need two screens; in which case, would I need three lights: one either side, with the third in the middle?

[Skraag]

I've got a 1,000ltr tank and am in the process of getting it properly set up, which will incorporate an algae scrubber (discussed in another thread), but I thought I'd start a new one here specifically about lighting.

I have some experience with growing plants (hydroponically) and although wattage is good for getting light penetration right down into the plants, it's actually the lumens that make the difference; at each stage of growth plants require different lumen levels. Surely algae is no exception?

If this is the case, then surely as long as you provide enough lumens, the actual wattage of the bulbs almost becomes irrelevant? I have seen some cfls online that are only about 18w, but they throw out 2100 lumens; two of these bulbs should be enough for algae when you consider seedlings and young plants will only make use of around 10,000 lumens; this would also minimise heat and evaporation issues; if you did need to up the lumen count, then four of these would probably do a treat nicely.

Everyone on here has way more experience than me with these things so your thoughts and opinions are more than welcome; needed in fact! :-)

[SantaMonica]

How much feeding the tank.

I'd use the one that came with it, and put a 43 watt cfl floodlight 2700k on each side, about 6" away. Or 43 watt spirals in big reflectors, 3" away.

Does not matter where it goes.

Don't need the sock or the skimmer, unless it were going to be a predator tank.

[Skraag]

But surely the one that came with it is too small? It wasn't an integral part of the tank, just something the previous owner had made (by a friend); he commented that he was always cleaning the algae off of the glass! Due to the way it was designed, it's not possible to have lights each side, which is why I was thinking of creating a vertical one.

Glad to hear that I can save myself a load of money by not having to bother with a protein skimmer; thankfully the filter sock only cost me £7, so that's nothing to worry about.

[SantaMonica]

Make a 2-sided vertical one then. Size it to feed 2 cubes because that's probably what you will be feeding.