First attempt at submerged ats-feedback pls

[clugo]

Hey, guys. I'm new the ats world. I have a 120 rimless and approx 30 gallons in my sump. I have 10 fish all small; 3 tangs, 1 angel, 1 zosters butterfly, 1 goby, 2 wrasses, 1 clown, 1 chromis. I feed them about 1 cube per day and about a 2 by 1 inch piece of nori every other day, but I'd like them a little more.

Today a built a submerged ats in my sump. Its about 1 inch under the surface of the 2 compartment of my sump water level and is lit by a CFL 2700k bulb. The packaging says its replacement bulb for 75 watts. My screen mesh is approx. 10.5x12 inches. I can add a maxijet to increase flow if necessary, but i thought Id be ok since the water is coming across that chamber.

I'd apprec your feedback. Again, its my first go around. I'm not sure if my screen is too large or not large enough. I don't think I need more lighting, but....

See the attached pics.

 

[Crusinjimbo]

I tried the horizontal approach in a sump chamber and it was slow to accumulate algae, like 4 weeks and just a green/brown haze on my screen. It worked on laminar flow with no additional pump support. I moved it to vertical inside the skimmer chamber, smack against the sump glass with 4 23w 2700k CFL outside shining in. Boom, screen covered in 2 weeks with a much more dense product. IMO, based on momentary experience, is that a horizontal rig consumes too much space in a normal sump compartment and it didn't produce well on laminar flow.

 

[clugo]

plan to add one or two long air stones underneath it to agitate the water as well. Would the the ned difference to work? I plan to use the space underneath it for more lr.

 

[Crusinjimbo]

My attempt was short lived so I didn't gather much data. I figure that even marginal ATS performance is better than none in terms of exporting nutrients. I think my lighting was not positioned properly and the flow at the screen was weak but I did get algae growing over the surface of the screen. Go for it and monitor the performance. Good luck!

 

[clugo]

So I made some changes.

I went with an upflow design. My screen mesh is 10x11 and has zip ties on it is. I 'm using two cfl shining through the side of my sump. I'm looking at these as my next lights: http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-LED...pectrum---ONE#. I think Santamonica referred them in another post

I also bought a tetra whisper 60 and installed long air stone across the bottom. Not sure how much air its rated for. Any thoughts?

I have two questions:
1. do i turn off the air pump off when the ats lights go off?
2. do lumens matters for ats light? I found a 60watt/2700k flood lamp at lowes but the lumen where low.

See the attached pics. I welcome suggestions. Thanks for your help.

 

[Crusinjimbo]

I too switched to an upflow submerged unit in the sump with 4 23w 2700k flos outside the glass shining onto an 8 x 10 screen. Air pump outside pushing air through the house wall. Much better growth but two issues, salt spray from the bubbler and algae growth on the sump glass between the lights and the screen, are pushing me to go to the waterfall design and LEDs. Again, working but a bit messy.

 

[SantaMonica]

Let's get some mean green

 

[Av8bluewater]

It's been years since I had one but I thought 5100-5500K was the best spectrum?
Depending on how you make it you can get messy salt creep with either one. Consider making an acrylic housing that covers the whole thing to keep salt creep from getting out and I would do black acrylic to keep stray light from getting out and making other parts of the sump get algae.
Just leave the pump running on a waterfall. If it's in the water upflow probably not necessary but wouldn't hurt.
Lumens don't matter. 60W is more than enough for a CFL. Consider a LED fuge light since the CFLs need to be replace about every 3 months. Ish.
http://www.reefbreeders.com/fuge-lite_leds.html

 

[SantaMonica]

2700 is the best CFL, but LED grow lights are best overall