Re: Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everythin
Nice first try! The good news is that if you run it properly (cleaning, etc) it can only help, and it also did not take up any outside space. So it will certainly help the ammonia problems of your 200+gal predators, and will keep it very oxygenated. Four things you can do to dramatically improve it:
1. Use rough sandpaper/file on the screen so it is rough enough to catch your fingernails.
2. Lay a sheet of plastic canvas over it.
3. Add another light.
4. Remove that tube in the middle that is blocking the light.
Now for the other, unfortunate news: It is way way too small too properly handle the nitrate and phosphate demands of a 200+ gal predetor tank. The way is is setup right now, it is currently a weakly lit one-sided screen with low flow. Yes, it will remove some ammonia, and it will add oxygen, but it does not have the power to really help with nutrient issues. At 200 + 70 gal, heavily fed, plus whatever is in the sump, that small one-sided screen is going to fill up DAILY, once it gets going. 270 gal should have a 270 sq inch screen if double-sided, and 590 sq inch if single sided, and larger if heavily fed, and even larger if the light is weak. If it were me, a 270 predetor tank would have a 300 sq inch double-sided screen with a total of 300 watts of CFL light and strong flow. Yours is about 150 sq inches single-sided with 18 watts and low flow.
Predetor tanks have the strongest demand on a scrubber. So even the typical rule of 1 sq inch double-sided screen per gal, along with 1 watt CFL per sq inch screen, is low. I say all this, because your screen is going to fill up so fast that I doubt you will be able to keep up with it (probably daily). When you let it grow more than two days or so, the underlying layers are going to get shaded and die, and the nutirents are going to go back into the water, causing yellowing and clouding. And this of course defeats the purpose of the scrubber.
Is there any way you can reconsider using your sump? You could easiy (one day's work) and cheaply (less that $100) put a proper scrubber into your 70gal sump, completely hidden and quiet, which only needs weekly cleaning, and which would wipe out all nitrate, phosphate, and nuisance algae. Unfortunately, if I had to recommend one way or the other, I'd say don't use your current setup at all. It's just going to be a hassle, and it's not going to do any filtering.
Nice first try! The good news is that if you run it properly (cleaning, etc) it can only help, and it also did not take up any outside space. So it will certainly help the ammonia problems of your 200+gal predators, and will keep it very oxygenated. Four things you can do to dramatically improve it:
1. Use rough sandpaper/file on the screen so it is rough enough to catch your fingernails.
2. Lay a sheet of plastic canvas over it.
3. Add another light.
4. Remove that tube in the middle that is blocking the light.
Now for the other, unfortunate news: It is way way too small too properly handle the nitrate and phosphate demands of a 200+ gal predetor tank. The way is is setup right now, it is currently a weakly lit one-sided screen with low flow. Yes, it will remove some ammonia, and it will add oxygen, but it does not have the power to really help with nutrient issues. At 200 + 70 gal, heavily fed, plus whatever is in the sump, that small one-sided screen is going to fill up DAILY, once it gets going. 270 gal should have a 270 sq inch screen if double-sided, and 590 sq inch if single sided, and larger if heavily fed, and even larger if the light is weak. If it were me, a 270 predetor tank would have a 300 sq inch double-sided screen with a total of 300 watts of CFL light and strong flow. Yours is about 150 sq inches single-sided with 18 watts and low flow.
Predetor tanks have the strongest demand on a scrubber. So even the typical rule of 1 sq inch double-sided screen per gal, along with 1 watt CFL per sq inch screen, is low. I say all this, because your screen is going to fill up so fast that I doubt you will be able to keep up with it (probably daily). When you let it grow more than two days or so, the underlying layers are going to get shaded and die, and the nutirents are going to go back into the water, causing yellowing and clouding. And this of course defeats the purpose of the scrubber.
Is there any way you can reconsider using your sump? You could easiy (one day's work) and cheaply (less that $100) put a proper scrubber into your 70gal sump, completely hidden and quiet, which only needs weekly cleaning, and which would wipe out all nitrate, phosphate, and nuisance algae. Unfortunately, if I had to recommend one way or the other, I'd say don't use your current setup at all. It's just going to be a hassle, and it's not going to do any filtering.