Help...

[karlhh]

I've been reading allot about algae scrubbers and was wondering about the general rule of one square inch of mesh both sides per gallon of water. I have a 220 gallon saltwater tank with very limited space under it. The biggest size sump I could fit through the doors was a 20gal long in which I can run with only 4 inches of water so when we have a power outage the sump fills to the rim but dose not over flow. Over half of that is taking up with bio balls. what im getting at is I only have room in the sump for a screen 7 inches wide and 27 inches long and maybe only lighting on one side. living in the tank tank is just one fish but its a 43 inch Tessalata eel which I had for about 16 years now. I'm using Mardel 5 in 1 test strips and Nitrates read over 200 ppm my last water change was about 4 months ago and was only 60 gallons I have no efficient way to do more and larger water changes and looking for other alternative to lower nutrients. I did research on vodka dosing but seemed to risky.dose anybody think I will benefit with a scrubber this size with just a eel??

[SantaMonica]

A scrubber can indeed replace your waterchanges, and bring your nitrate and glass-cleaning way down. And a wide-but-not-tall size is actually better for filtering, because you flow a lot of water through a 27 inch pipe (1000 gph or so). But as you've probably figured, your screen would only be 189 square inches, which would be good two-sided, but marginal if one-sided. So, you either need a high-power scrubber in a small space, or you need to use a regular scrubber external to the stand.

Main question: Can you run 400 watts of lighting?

[karlhh]

What consists of a high-power scrubber? To get more room I can get rid of the bio balls which take up 3/4 of the sump but afraid of the tank crashing. I have a 4 inch crushed coral bed with only about 50# live rock. The light I have in mind where I can get locally is Bright Effects daylight 90 W but it only uses 26W 6500k 1200 lumens. Maybe two on each side. The pump I have is a Rio 3100 (750 gph). To run a remote scrubber away from the tank the wife would not go for as she is a neat freak unless I pipe it in the garage about 40 foot away.

[SantaMonica]

Rephrase: Can you afford to run 400watts of electricity? 200watts?

Also, how much vertical space is there between the top of the sump, and whatever is above it?

[karlhh]

Yes 400 watts with been on for say 18 hours a day for 30 days should be around an extra 25$ a month. That I can afford. The space I have from the water line in the sump to the top is 30 inches and 11 inches wide.

[SantaMonica]

No... the space from the top of the sump, up.

[karlhh]

21 inches from the top of sump.

[SantaMonica]

And how much room front-to-back, is there in the cabinet once you close the doors?

[karlhh]

22 inches back to front.

[SantaMonica]

Pics of the sump please