Quick Algae Scrubber questions

[perpetual98]

Hey all! I'm about 35 pages into the 101 page thread on algae scrubbers and I'm contemplating building one for my new tank. At this point I'm leaning towards using a pump with the ATS instead of messing with my return lines, and I have a couple MJ1200 laying around. The display tank is a 40 breeder, with another 40 breeder sump that is about 2/3 full, putting me at about 60-70 gallons system-wide.

From what I've read I figured that my MJ1200 calculating for some head-loss/inefficiency, I would go with probably a 6.5" or so wide screen. Does the length of the screen really matter, provided it's long enough? The way my stand /sump is set up, I'd have to have the screen a decent distance from the top of the water level in the sump in order to get the lights mounted properly. If I were to have lets say a 6.5" wide screen, would it matter if it was 12"+ going down into the water?

Second question. How far into the "slit" does the screen go? I figured slightly into the inside of the pipe, but 35 pages in, I hadn't seen it answered absolutely.

Thanks!

 

[perpetual98]

Ok, 30 more pages under my belt and I think I've answered my own questions.

I just got water in the tank tonight and holy jeebers the overflow drain is loud. I may actually now plumb the ATS into the drain and see if that quiets things down. The wife might not be happy with the volume now.

I also found out that you don't need to factor in sump volume and whatnot, but it doesn't hurt. I think I will go with a 6"-7" wide screen and however long it needs to be to reach the water in the sump.

It also appears that the screen goes into the channel and can even go as far as all the way through the inside of the PVC.

 

[mgraf]

Or it can hang down below just slightly. As long as you can achieve a nice even flow across the screen. In my experience, once algae started to grow on the screen, when I had the screen ran inside the pipe, it began to sqirt water out randomly in any direction as the algae began to fill in the holes in the screen. Just a thought for you, whatever works.

 

[perpetual98]

thanks mgraf. I'm going to do some running around today looking for parts to build the ATS into my overflow. I'm concerned about noise. I spent a ton of time the other night trying to quiet the plumbing up because the wife wasn't too happy with the amount of noise coming from the tank. The quick math shows that a 7"x.125" slit actually would move more volume than the 1" schedule 40, but you know how much water cares about math.

 

[bad santa]

There's a new guideline for sizing the screen. You'll have to figure out how many cubes of food you'll be feeding everyday and that will determine your screen size.

As for your drain noise, look up beananimal or herbie systems. I run the beananimal and it is virtually quiet. The only time I have heard my drain was when I had 2 snails in my drain line.

 

[perpetual98]

I've already got an overflow, so there's not much I can do now. I think a lot of my noise was coming from the water and air in the drain line. I have 1" sch 80 pvc as most of my drain and I think it's my culprit. I replaced some with sch 40 and that helped, but the big thing I did was put a 1" to 3/4" coupler in the sump which slowed my flow down and allowed more water to stay in the drain. I'd rather not keep that though as we know critters can play mischief with stuff.

 

[perpetual98]

Well the first attempt was a failure. Just way too much flow through the drain line. Even with the end of the pipe tee'd down into the sump (I initially tried it capped) the water was basically shooting out of the slit in the pipe instead of what I figured should be a nice cascade down the mesh. I will try making a PVC "frame" of sorts and using a separate pump.

 

[spamreefnew]

I would still use the pump for the scrubber. find another way to solve noise issues. foam pipe insulation worked wonders for me