Growth over and under proves my point. The algae gets "burned" and won't grow, however, you can see really nice growth where the light/flow area is more in favour of flow than light.
Seriously, save yourself some time. Buy stronger pumps. I wasted 3 months with low flow.
Ok. So Santa recommends a Eheim 1262 for a 22" slot in a 3/4" pipe. (thats what he's using for his SM 100) Thats 900 gph flow. I'm using a 1" pipe and a mag 9 (again 900 gph flow). I'm not doubting you or arguing, just trying to figure out how to approach this. Can I get more than 900 gph out of the 22" slot in the tube? I'm thinking it might already be pressurized? If so what pump do you recommend?
I decided I'm going to cut another tube tonight and widen out the slot a bunch. I'll probably cut 2 more tubes one 2x the thickness it is now and one 3x so I can see what the water flow is like with each. If its too wide for the flow it will sheet in one place I think and leave one side dry.
I'm currently using a 25mm (1inch) pipe with a 4mm slot. It's 32 inches wide. This is fuled by the largest Tunze Master electronics after head loss aprox 6,5k lph. (it's rated 8,3k lph without loss). Mine is fed with the return of 2x32mm (1,5 inch) durso pipes.
In my experience I would go even bigger for flow. Offcourse you can reduce light, but that is also reducing the potential of the scrubber. Honestly, it's a totaly different world from my old Deltec HLP 5250 (5,3k lph without loss) to this one, and I could even go larger. It works as intended, and let me tell you this. You will get growth, yellow in a week or so, and you will be "happy" but for me, again, the difference in yellow and green (without adding iron) is just massive. I had a 180gallon DT full of algae and dying SPS. After 2 weeks the only algae growing is the ones on my scrubber and my SPS are alot more happy. I also added some GAC to remove possible toxins from the dying SPS and this stopped my RTN almost instantly. Algae did not kill my SPS thought, but the "debris" of large accumulated biomass through cycling with the nonworking (not enought flow) scrubber.
Go for a 1200 gph pump at least, and even 1500 gph. You will be happier.
Sounds like you are not turning your lights off for 6 hours.
I got the barbs from:
http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/barbed.php
P34INBA-3/4in PVC Insert x 3/4in Barb
I just re-cut the slot to be 4 mm. It was closer to 2.5 to 3 mm. Probably 2.5 mm. So its like 5/32 inch thick now (little bit larger than 1/8). I had assumed it was 1/8th before but i realized I had a think kerf blade in.
Santa: Thanks for the source info. My lights are off exactly 6 hours a day atm. Have been that way since start up.
I'm thinking it was a flow issue. Flow seems to be marginally stronger now. But not double or anything. I cut another test slot 6 mm wide but it was spraying water everywhere. The 6mm slot did flow more water though... just all over the place.
Santa: Think I should turn off 2 lights per side till I get algae growth then turn them back on to see what it does? Maybe reduce the photo-period to 16 instead of 18 hours?
I took a short video of the flow. Please excuse the sloppy wood scrubber.. its just a prototype for me to play with the parameters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUGHp06eRGQ
Hard to say if it's enought, but I do still think you'll find that you need even more.
I'd say just let it grow and see what happens. The first days are always variable. If it's going to fill in, it will fill in. If you are going to reduce light, always shorten the period instead of removing bulbs; you always want strong light when it is on.
I'm going to shorten the photperiod to 16 hours. I ordered a mag 18 which should be stupid flow. I'll see what happensOn the plus side the over and under part are getting nice and black and slimey
Beg to differ. The less photoperiod won't make it better overall. You want the scrubber to be optimal, and for that to happen you will need stronger flow. If the flow is "too strong" widen the slot to let it flow freely
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