Ok guys, since I am relatively new here it is good form to introduce myself.... Hi, I'm Stan (now that's been done onto to more interesting things). I have been reefing for almost 15 years or so and running fuge with macro most of the time. I spent lots of time thinking about the biological, chemical, and mechanical filtration issues of reef systems. The idea of ATS's didn't seem doable for me at the time that I put up my first reef (nor my second). But the time is coming when I will put up a new 105 rimless, if it ever gets safely. The first one was damaged in transit by a skilled forklift operator ;-) I am intrigued by the ATS now that LEDs are viable (still old school for DT). So I have been reading, thinking, and reading more. And now for my plans and please feel free to comment! Build an ATS! I understand the shortcomings of macro (caulerpa, cheto, etc). It seems to me that ATSs are more 'space efficient.' I have a CNC router and some acrylic skills so fabrication is not a big issue. I've built most every sump I used. What I envision is roughly a 48 sq. in, double sided screen (maybe 8" wide by 6" tall plus screen inside). Currently thinking of using a 8" heat sink with fins vertically to give me the 48 sq in light using 4 (maybe 6) 660nm deep red leds (probably steves leds) with 1-2 Royal blue on each side. The ATS will be plumbed with dedicated pump (probably mag 3 or 7 depending on flow). I'm doing this screen size primarily because I have "old" rock (most of it has been in my possession for 10-15 years) and have had GHA outbreaks in the past. With my current livestock, I feed 2 cubes/day (in separate tanks) and will move all livestock to the 105, so I do not anticipate a reduction in nutrient load in the future. I will run the red leds at 700ma and the blues at 700ma on separate drivers to dim blues. What have I not considered? What should I rethink?
Just catching up, this got posted right in the middle of the holidays The general plan sounds pretty good, just need to adjust the LED quantity. For a 8x6 = 48 sq in screen, you will want between 6 and 12 660s on each side. Just go with whatever works out for even coverage (spacing, etc). for the blues, you will not want to run these higher than 400mA or so. Also you could run them in pairs in parallel within the series string and forget about the 2nd driver. Also consider the hyper-violets instead of the blues, or maybe violets on one side and blues on the other. Don't use more than 1 full power blue (or 1 parallel pair) per 6 reds, you can use less, you really don't need that much blue. If you did 9 DRs and one pair of blues/violets on each side, that would probably be a nice setup. With 700mA DRs you will not need to run these more than 9 hrs/day, probably ever, since it's oversized. I would start out at more like 4-6 hrs/day just to avoid photosaturation, or use a diffuser and run 9 hrs/day.
Yes, I found an update on Reef2Reef concerning mininum 1 per 8 sq in and maximum of 1 per 4 sq in. I haven't bought anything yet and was wondering about the blue/violet ratio. I may back up a bit on the design and go to two screens 5x5 feed in a tee fashion. Now the question arises would two smaller screens @25 sq in (total of 50 sq in screen area) vs 1 screen at 48 sq in. Any thoughts? I have plenty of drivers (maybe a half dozen plus some LDDs) lying around from various DIY Reef LEDs, but the idea of running a string of DR and a parallel string (1-2) RB/Violet sure does cut down on the wiring!
Just that you will need more flow for 5" + 5" than for 6" or 8" (depending on the orientation). You could alternate screen cleaning, but then the freshly-cleaned screen would tend to get more flow than the other, so I don't know that there is an advantage to doing it that way or not. Light blockers would help keep the flow even though.
