With the turff or HA being such an efficent filter and adding such a larg ammount of food to the system, I can only imagine what the real nutrient level is in our tanks to make the scrubber grow like crazy.
Considering food levels in our tanks, you'll be surprised to learn that the most well-fed tanks in the world, including mine with its new continuous feeder, have nowhere near the amount of food ("nutrition") floating in the water as a real reef does. We can only try more and better ways of putting more and more food into the water, in order to try to get to natural levels. The limitation, up until recently, was the excess Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate ("nutrients") that built up. These have been dealt with with mechanical filters (skimmers, floss, socks) which remove the food before it breaks down into "nutrients", but then you are back to not having enough food. Scrubbers, however, only remove the Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate ("nutrients"), but leave all the food ("nutrition") in the water. This gets us much closer to to natural food levels, but still falls short (just try to keep some NPS, and you'll see). So current scrubbers are like the beginning of the automobile; much better than a horse, but with much improvement and experimentation needed in it's ability to remove even more Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate.
Its a low power light yes...but its meant for growing plants indoors.
If I ran this verticle down the length of my screen do you think it would work better than the standard lights people are using?
Totally depends upon the wattage, and if you shape the screen so that it follows the shape of the light. The light needs to be at least 23W on each side of the screen (mine has 48W on each side). Truthfully, I'd get more powerful T5HO ones.
Does this safely replace a skimmer? Or are people still on the fence?
Most people are totally for, or totally against, replacing the skimmer. Buts skimmers and scrubbers don't do the same thing, so ones does not "replace" the other. Skimmers remove food, scrubbers don't. So if you need to remove food, like in a FO or FOWLR predetor tank where the fish have no need for food particles, then you want a skimmer. But if you are trying to keep food particles in the water, and remove Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate instead, then you want a scrubber.
Can I over stock my tank if I got a larger than necessary screen going?
Every single aquarium in the world is "overstocked" already, compared to the ocean. So instead, it's more of a question of "can I have more livestock, without nutrient problems, if I have a more *powerful* scrubber?". And the answer is yes. But it must be more powerful, not just larger. A larger screen, without more light, does no good. The little plant-grow light you posted is certainly not part of a "powerful" scrubber. 100W of plant-grow or 2700K on EACH side of of the screen, would be a starting point. And for your 125, a large screen would be 250 square inches. 200W on each side, with lots of flow, would be "powerful".
I also question skimmers and pods....that's a bad combo right?
Correct. When the skimmer comes on, the pods go goodbye.
I use a 24/7 light schedule. I had planned to buy a timer for it but I am really reluctant to since I am getting such good growth.
After thinking of your situation, I've realized even more, exactly what's going on. Yes you maybe getting great growth, but remember your nutrients are not zero. What's happening is that the nutrients are so high that new algae grows quickly on the outer layers, but the inner layers die and go back into the water (because of the long time between cleanings). So normally, you'd see non-growth areas near the bulbs if you run them 24 hours, but with yours, it's never the same algae on the outer layers. Instead, the outer layers are always new, and thus they have not had time to become "burned out" with 24 hour lighting. So the outer layers are growing and removing nutrients, and the inner layers are dying and putting back nutrients. Kinda robbing Peter to pay Paul. The way it should work, is that algae near a 24 hour bulb starts growing less, since all algae needs a rest. Remember, the goal is zero Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate. The goal is not how much you can grow. If you go to cleaning 2X per week, and put the light on 18 hours, you should get your nutrients to zero in a few weeks. As nutirents come down, the screen will fill up slower, and maybe later you can go to weekly cleanings. But if algae is growing so fast that it does not burn from 24 hour lighting, then it needs to be cleaned more often.
