Do Algae Reactors Work, And Worth It?

[SantaMonica]

Build yourself an upflow scrubber. No room needed above the water.

 

[Smarkow]

Build yourself an upflow scrubber. No room needed above the water.

My thought on this would be that *most* DC pumps are quite than *most* air pumps.
I say this with experience with Cor, Vectra, and Varios, others may be different?

 

[cwk84]

Hey guys it’s been a while since I started using my algea reactor. Initially I thought that it’s not going to make a dent in my nitrates but it actually eliminated nitrate to undetectable levels. It’s quite a pain becuase now I’m dealing with pale looking corals. I’ve tried feeding them with Red Sea’s AB but that didn’t do the trick. I’ve tried removing the algea all the way down to the bottom of the reactor but it grows so fast that I can’t keep up with it. I’ve tried running it only for a couple hours a day but that didn’t help either. I’m on the brink of shutting it down completely. I don’t know what else to do expect maybe dosing KNO3.

 

[xiaoxiy]

Hey guys it’s been a while since I started using my algea reactor. Initially I thought that it’s not going to make a dent in my nitrates but it actually eliminated nitrate to undetectable levels. It’s quite a pain becuase now I’m dealing with pale looking corals. I’ve tried feeding them with Red Sea’s AB but that didn’t do the trick. I’ve tried removing the algea all the way down to the bottom of the reactor but it grows so fast that I can’t keep up with it. I’ve tried running it only for a couple hours a day but that didn’t help either. I’m on the brink of shutting it down completely. I don’t know what else to do expect maybe dosing KNO3.

Have you tried decreasing the photoperiod in your reactor?

 

[cwk84]

Not by much. Went from 10 - 8 hours. Should I go lower? Maybe 6 hours?

 

[Eric23]

For those of you running algae reactors do you have the output before or after your filtration ? I was running mine into a filter sock to catch all the particles that come out of it but now I'm thinking I should just let it dump into my sump after the filter sucks so that it all goes to my display for my pod loving fish to get ?

 

[SantaMonica]

My thought on this would be that *most* DC pumps are quite than *most* air pumps.

Yes but if you make a waterfall scrubber it will need to be up high away from the water so that the metal-case LED lights don't corrode. See LEDsafety.org for info.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Any consensus on which light strip to use?

 

[trmiv]

Sorry to bump an old thread but looking to see how people with the Skimz reactors are doing? BRS is having a nice sale today and I can get the MBR127 for $147 so I’m really thinking about it.

Currently I don’t have any nutrient issues in my 9 month old Reefer 350 but this isn’t my first tank so I know they are coming. In my past tanks I used refugiums but I don’t want to deal with the mess anymore so really tempted to pickup this skimz and have it on hand for when I see more nutrients. Plus I’d like to start feeding more anyway.

 

[Forsaken77]

I can't speak first hand because I never set up the Skimz, but BRS told me little pieces of chaeto will escape the reactor. Ulva would also be a good option without the little pieces escaping.

And just an fyi, the people that reviewed it, complained that the o-ring was a pain because there's really no groove for it to sit in.

 

[SantaMonica]

Ulva will try to attach, however, to the inside surfaces.

 

[JT2418]

Really like the skimz reactor with the pump I. The bottom just don’t want to waste my money if I don’t really need one

 

[Afrashz]

Here is the algae reactor I made out of an aquamax I wrapped a red and blue Led strip around the outside of the reactor then covered that with black Vinyl. It's pretty small so it fills up quick, I put in around 1 inch of chaeto at the bottom and it will be completely full in a week. I turn it on whenever my tank lights are off so about 14 hours a night.

This reactor is enough to give my 120 gallon system stable no3 and po4. I no longer need to dose carbon or run GFO. Obviously mileage may vary.

Inside

One week's growth

Hey what pump did you use to run this? I’m using the small aqua max reactor.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good work on making this and these do work well.

 

[SantaMonica]

just don’t want to waste my money if I don’t really need one

That's one way of thinking about it; kinda like if you really need a truck, if your car is big enough. However another way of looking at it is switching to a truck entirely, such that you don't have to wonder about your car being big enough.

 

[Mountainreefer4339]

Here is the algae reactor I made out of an aquamax I wrapped a red and blue Led strip around the outside of the reactor then covered that with black Vinyl. It's pretty small so it fills up quick, I put in around 1 inch of chaeto at the bottom and it will be completely full in a week. I turn it on whenever my tank lights are off so about 14 hours a night.

This reactor is enough to give my 120 gallon system stable no3 and po4. I no longer need to dose carbon or run GFO. Obviously mileage may vary.

Inside

One week's growth

Seems like fantastic results! Could you tell me specifically what equipment and parts you used? I would love to duplicate this for my tank. Thanks!

 

[Mark Novack]

I saw the 389 euro price tag for a nice big one and gaped. But is it more expensive in the long run than dosing or changing unreasonable amounts of water or installing cumbersome DIY (I don't have the remains of something to a good one and acrylic cylinders are not cheap) systems? And the growth! And its natural! And as large as it is it would fit perfectly into my cabinet, neatly too.

No luck with biopellets. No luck with NoPox. I'm not hot to try an external nitrate reactor with anoxic flow and feeding. But growing weed in a cylinder sounds like fun! I cannot see why it would not be the best choice for nitrate and phosphate control. Growth rate shoud naturally equal waste production as long as the limits are maintained. I'm not planning on 172 fish anymore. That is for the guppy tank.

I have a fifteen gallon fancy guppy tank with over 100 guppies (cannot be counted, only extrapolated by counting the fins and dividing by two) maintained by a small flat snail that I am not familiar with and its original Jewel bioflow 300. The snails are very essential and number in the thousands but they are so small and flat that they present no ugliness. Where they came from is a mystery. No living plants ever went in.



Mark

 

[CasperOe]

I also made a algae reactor, used a Phosban 550 and amazon led grow lights and wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape to keep the light in here's some pics.

Did it work for you?

 

[SantaMonica]

What do you think... growth, or sediment?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Growth. It will get better with time.