algae scrubber flow

[pskelton]

FYI, my tanks nitrate was at 160 PPM due to overstocking and undersized skimmer. That was 9 months ago. Nothing I was doing was touching the nitrate (Lots of water changes) I was at my wits end and finely decided to try a scrubber. After installing the scrubber I stopped water changes and eventually pulled the skimmer off my system. I have not done a water change in 9 months and my tank is very healthy. N and P are solid 0 and I feed my tank like crazy.

Disclaimer: Not saying that this is the best way to run a system its just what I have done.

 

[Gandolfe]

The bulbs on my ATS are 26 watt 2700k CFL(same as 100 watt so the box says) one on each side of scrubber, I have no wet/dry bioballs.filter sock etc... I have close to 200lbs of rock and 100 lbs of sand which makes about a 3" bed(when my engineer gobies leave it flat,which they never do constantly moving and stirring it up). I did a 40 gallon water change sat and am going to do another 40 gallon change this morning(mon) My levels this morning were still at .25 PO4 and 30 Nitrate but my alk was only at 7DKh my calcium was at 460 yesterday

 

[pskelton]

The bulbs on my ATS are 26 watt 2700k CFL(same as 100 watt so the box says) one on each side of scrubber, I have no wet/dry bioballs.filter sock etc... I have close to 200lbs of rock and 100 lbs of sand which makes about a 3" bed(when my engineer gobies leave it flat,which they never do constantly moving and stirring it up). I did a 40 gallon water change sat and am going to do another 40 gallon change this morning(mon) My levels this morning were still at .25 PO4 and 30 Nitrate but my alk was only at 7DKh my calcium was at 460 yesterday

You need 1 watt per square inch of actual CLF watts. Not their equivalent. The 100 watt label on the box is just a selling point and is not considered for our purposes.

 

[Gandolfe]

the bulbs light up my living room at night now coming from the back of my stand...LOL I have to go to target in a bit i'll see if they have higher wattage bulbs

 

[pskelton]

42 watt CFLs are available but they are very big. They may not work with your current reflectors. You may be better off adding an additional 23 watt bulb on both sides if you have room.

 

[Gandolfe]

well i just sucked out a bunch more of the algea,cleaned a bunch from my sump, and changed 40 gallons of water, see how the numbers look tomorow...LOL found i still had an astrea snail..it was covered in algae but still alive, just blended in i gues it had enough to eat without moving for a couple of days and the algae grew over it..LOL even tho it's not really funny(but still kind of)

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

FYI, my tanks nitrate was at 160 PPM due to overstocking and undersized skimmer. That was 9 months ago. Nothing I was doing was touching the nitrate (Lots of water changes) I was at my wits end and finely decided to try a scrubber. After installing the scrubber I stopped water changes and eventually pulled the skimmer off my system. I have not done a water change in 9 months and my tank is very healthy. N and P are solid 0 and I feed my tank like crazy.

Disclaimer: Not saying that this is the best way to run a system its just what I have done.

Its been 9mo??? holy moly, and i thought i was crazy going 6mo a couple times. But now i have a lot of coral so i have to replenish the elements in there. I'm assuming FO/FOWLR right?

 

[Gandolfe]

well, added some instant oceans natural Nitrate remover and a quart of phosphate sponge(treats 120 gallons), see how that works..nitrates were at 20 and phoshate was reading .25 lowest chart goes in api test kit. i guess i really don't know how my PO4 numbers truly read. added 2 koralia 1 powerheads at the bootm acros the sand yesterday, not enough flow to move sand around but good enough to keep a constnt moving across it. i now have a 3200 GPH powerhead at the left top, a Koralia 1 pointing down across back of Tank on the left side of tank, a 1250 GPh at the top and 2 koralia 1's at both sides on the bootm on the right side. I also have a closed loop at each end with a riser in each corner hooked up to a 3600 gph Mag drive pump, and a a closed loop in the middle with 5 risers hooked up to a 1000 GPH quiet one pump..think i have enough flow along wiuth my mag 7 return pump