DIY macro algae reactor

[Marty.H]

I had been thinking about one of these for a while a macro algae reactor but the prices for these units seem crazy for what they are so went about making one.

It consists of a second-hand TMC500 pellet reactor (Thanks Shane) and a £10 waterproof 5m strip of 12v led's 300 in total and daylight spec 6000-6500k

I got them and wrapped them around the reactor followed by a several rolls of insulation tape and there we have it DIY macro algae reactor I'll see how it goes

And here it is fitted to the tank

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[SFish]

Nice

You do know red light grows algae better then white right? That's the only thing I would have done different.

 

[Marty.H]

Nice

You do know red light grows algae better then white right? That's the only thing I would have done different.

It's funny I tried red over my sump and it was not brilliant yet when I had a 6500k spotlamp it grew like a weed in my sump.

I'll see how growth goes if not I'll swap the LED's out for white and red

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[SFish]

They use all red or red and a small amount of blue on a lot of ATS. Don't know if there is a certain intensity of red but grow lights seem to work well. I do know that distance makes a difference.

 

[Marty.H]

Have checked the reactor tonight 8 days later and I'm impressed

How it started

And after 8 days this so it's clearly working well

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[EmLakes]

Awesome! I am thinking of doing the same as we have a reactor currently hooked up to a live rock tank with nothing going on in it. Just need a light strip and some macrophyte. Have you noticed a difference in nitrates or phosphates etc?

 

[Marty.H]

Awesome! I am thinking of doing the same as we have a reactor currently hooked up to a live rock tank with nothing going on in it. Just need a light strip and some macrophyte. Have you noticed a difference in nitrates or phosphates etc?

My last test on nitrates was about 11 days ago and was at 25ppm I tested last night and at 10ppm I honestly cannot see how it could of pulled that much nitrate out of the system

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[iced98lx]

Watch to see if you burn any LED's out with that insulation tape on there, not sure how much heat those generate and need to radiate out. Also wonder if it will impact the structural integrity of the reactor negatively...

 

[Marty.H]

Watch to see if you burn any LED's out with that insulation tape on there, not sure how much heat those generate and need to radiate out. Also wonder if it will impact the structural integrity of the reactor negatively...

It will be interesting to see but if the reactor fails it's no big issue for me as it's inside the sump so would only leak back into the sump.

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[iced98lx]

I don't think you'd see a catastrophic failure, but I wonder if you'll see hazing or stress cracks from the heat after some longer period of time. Good build though, I think it's a great way to grow macro.

 

[softieatheart]

Marty, could you update us on how this is working for you at this point?

 

[Marty.H]

Marty, could you update us on how this is working for you at this point?

Hi

Sorry for the slow reply I no longer have the tank I sold it my mate who copied my idea did have issues with cracking he then mounted the lights into alloy channel on the outside and this sorted the issue

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