The Amp'd-Up ATS

[Amphiprion]

uggh, finally got mine pumping water today and found that i cut the slot an 1/8" too long nad it blows water out the hole. Also hadnt thought about it until I put it in my fuge but the lights dont fit inside the fuge with the scrubber. my water level in my fuge must be alot lower than most because I notoce most people have thier lights just above the rim of the tank and mine would have to be about halfway under the rim. Which also may not be good in a power outage. Ugg i guess I'll have to redesign my baffles to raise the water level in my fuge and redesign a new stand for the ATS. Shoulda thought of that before I cut up all that plexiglass.

All of these things were ones I had to consider when building mine. Luckily, my sump is large and extremely simple, which allowed me to get away with a "dirtier" retrofit.

 

[Jstdv8]

I made my screen 10" accross and my fuge area in the 55 gallon sump is about 15" so I thought it wouldnt be a problem. i jsut need to change my baffles so I get the water up higher in the sump i think that way the lights are on the outside of the tank in case of emergency. Was so excited to get it going too

 

[Markushka]

this is a very good ats build write up. I noticed your screen was much finer than the one i had, and it consisted of two layers. another difference is room in the sump, I'm working with a 20 gallon hex, whilst you have a 55. I may consider to do a screen if I ever build a larger tank, but its just not practical in my current system.

I have been toying with the idea of algae filtration in a cold water set up i've been planning for a while. It may be very beneficial there since feeding and consequently nitrate build-up would be heavy. It could reduce the need for frequent (2-3 times a week) WC.

 

[Amphiprion]

this is a very good ats build write up. I noticed your screen was much finer than the one i had, and it consisted of two layers. another difference is room in the sump, I'm working with a 20 gallon hex, whilst you have a 55. I may consider to do a screen if I ever build a larger tank, but its just not practical in my current system.

I have been toying with the idea of algae filtration in a cold water set up i've been planning for a while. It may be very beneficial there since feeding and consequently nitrate build-up would be heavy. It could reduce the need for frequent (2-3 times a week) WC.

Thanks. It's actually a 40 breeder, so while it is only 36" long, I get that 18" width, which was perfect for this project. That made it much, much easier for me.

Before the current screen died, I was feeding 1 cube of frozen fish food 2x daily, along with pellets. At night, the corals got one full cube of frozen coral food (rotifers and calanoids) as well as about 5-6 squirts of liquid life coralplankton--so a fair amount of food, but with nonexistent increases in either nitrate or phosphate.