Please check my math and logic for a first scrubber build.

[b4tn]

I have a 75 gallon display with a 40b sump. It is a new mixed reef recently cycled with about 60 lbs of dry rock and 10 pounds of live rock. Right now only a few softies and a clown and chromi. I will be making a waterfall scrubber using 3/4" PVC very similar to the one pictured below.

I really dont see myself feeding more than 1/2 cube to 1 cube a day once I am fully stocked. Based on the screen size FAQ with 70 lbs of rock and 1 cube a day I am figuring to err on the high side and triple the 12 square inches to 36 square inches, either 6x6 or 4.5x8. The scrubber will be fed for now by a Maxijet 1200 with 1/2" line so I think it should be sufficient if I make the screen 4.5". Can anyone recommend what would be better 6" wide x 6" tall vs. 4.5" wide x 8" tall?

For lighting I will be using Home depot clamp lights with a 100w CFL on one side and a 12 watt LED grow light on the other. I want to experiment with the LED and if it doesnt work out I will switch to another CFL on the other side.

Here is the LED light I have
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o03_s00

And here is my plan that I will copy.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

The 100w CFL is probably 18 real watts. And the 12w LED might be weak, as come people have reported. But if you add them you get 30 watts, so a 30 square inch screen is a good start. If the rock was good, there won't be much growth for a while.

The shape of the screen does not really matter, so making it tall is fine as long as it catches most of the light.

[b4tn]

Thanks, I made it 4.5" wide and 9" tall half inch goes into the pipe and if I measured correctly 1/2" should sit in the water. It's currently running in a bucket of RO water. And seems to work well with more flow than I expected. The water breaks out into 4 different streams and does not flow off the mesh in a smooth sheet. Should I dial the flow back? Here it is.

[SantaMonica]

Well you can never have too much air/water turbulence, as long as things stay in place and the growth holds on, so leave it.

[b4tn]

Any tips to quiet it down? I may not be able to run one of these if they are this noisy since its in my living room. The screen sits about 1/4" under the water but the flow coming out in streams like this cause a ton of noise. I used a dremel cutting disk to make the cut.

https://flic.kr/p/A2YWQG

[SantaMonica]

Couldn't get the video to play, but what you can do is lay a sheet of plastic sandwich wrap over the pipe, all the way down to the water. Then once growth fills in, it will be even quieter.

Meanwhile you can also just turn down the flow.