Clear Tide's Algae Reactor Owners

OhMatic

New member
Clear Tide's Algae Reactor Owners
Could you please share your experiences with the use of your algae reactor? What water flow do you use? What have you done/modified to improve its performance?

I have an old algae reactor laying around. I stopped using it due to its non user friendly ways (the build up of algae on the inside tube, etc) and my algae scrubber was pulling soo much more out.

I would like to put the Algae Reactor back to use, but remembering all the wing nuts.... I want it to perform better than what I remember.
Thanks in advance...
 
Curious how these work with clear housings. Obviously like the AARID, just wonder if a clear unit has any downside.

Corey
 
The only downside I have seen is the light escape...
I like the clear though, easy to see whats going on inside.
I just made a curtain like devise to contain the light when not viewing.
 
I built my own and wrapped it with that aluminum ducting tape (not the cloth tape) to keep the light in. That part worked fine, but since I also wrapped the light string around the outside, heat transfer has been problematic. dropping the light down the middle is a better design.
 
I made a DIY centrally light reactor and the Clear Tide's reactor is centrally light.
I added a fan to the reactors light tube and that fixed the heat issues I was having.
 
I built my own and wrapped it with that aluminum ducting tape (not the cloth tape) to keep the light in. That part worked fine, but since I also wrapped the light string around the outside, heat transfer has been problematic. dropping the light down the middle is a better design.


Dropping the light down the middle induces heat transfer into the water column. That is why I like my build. I also used led lights with aluminum housings for heat transfer away from the reactor.

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My central lights also have an aluminum "heat sink". I put a fan on the heat sink which blows air down the center of the circular heat sink and back up out the light tube via the outside of the lights/heatsink.
 
I built my own and wrapped it with that aluminum ducting tape (not the cloth tape) to keep the light in. That part worked fine, but since I also wrapped the light string around the outside, heat transfer has been problematic. dropping the light down the middle is a better design.

How could having the lights on the inside be a better design than outside for radiative heat transfer? I feel like if they are on the outside you have a much larger contact area to disperse heat
 
I'm not saying one is better than an other. There are many ways to skin a cat.
I opted for inside lights. I get algae growth on the inside of the reactor similar to the display tank but worse cleaning algae off a small internal removeable cylinder is easier for me than cleaning the inside of a bigger cylinder
 
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