Talk me into, or out of, an algae reactor

[footballcs12]

Kind of on the fence about using an algae reactor or just continuing my gfo,gac reactors. I constantly run just a small amount of gfo due to my busy work and family life for a little more wiggle room with maintenance. Setup is a standard 75 gallon tank, 20 long sump, with a nyos 120 skimmer. Only a clownfish in the tank with a mixture of lps and sps, nothing crazy.

So I guess the question is, do I keep things the way they are, or get rid of the gfo and change that portion to an algae reactor?

 

[ryeguyy84]

Is what you're doing now working?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[tdhnry]

What's your PO4 at now?

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[footballcs12]

Is what you're doing now working?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Seems to be to an extent. Theres a newer kind of algae than what I've had before showing up that I'm posting for an ID tonight as well though

 

[footballcs12]

what's your po4 at now?

Sent from my sm-g973u using tapatalk

.04

 

[footballcs12]

Bump

 

[bshow24]

I've run both, and both do work, just depends on your husbandry capabilities and what you want to do.

The reason I chose macro over GFO in my current tank - natural vs chemical filtration, and it also gives my pods a place to be since I'm running bare bottom for the first time and don't really have a refugium.

With either, you're going to need to clean or change out every few weeks, so that process doesn't change. But with macro, there's not really an "expiration" of it, whereas GFO if you don't keep up with changes it can cause some issues for your tank.

 

[footballcs12]

I've run both, and both do work, just depends on your husbandry capabilities and what you want to do.

The reason I chose macro over GFO in my current tank - natural vs chemical filtration, and it also gives my pods a place to be since I'm running bare bottom for the first time and don't really have a refugium.

With either, you're going to need to clean or change out every few weeks, so that process doesn't change. But with macro, there's not really an "expiration" of it, whereas GFO if you don't keep up with changes it can cause some issues for your tank.

Yeah the gfo seems to have more of a process to change it out too. Remove reactor. Open up, clean out, measure, rinse, make sure its air tight, put back. Whereas the algae is more just open up, take some out, close. Right?

 

[bshow24]

Yeah the gfo seems to have more of a process to change it out too. Remove reactor. Open up, clean out, measure, rinse, make sure its air tight, put back. Whereas the algae is more just open up, take some out, close. Right?

You do want to clean the algae of detritus. I usually take mine out and dip it and slosh it around in the water buckets from my water change. Overall, probably a little less time but not by much.

 

[ClownReef®]

Algae scrubber IMO

 

[Crusinjimbo]

I used several configurations of ATS over the years and each out performed GFO or whatever other NO3/PO4 extraction technique I’ve ever tried. It takes a bit of time to get it dialed in but once configured the only recurring cost is, ah, almost nothing compared to a container of rust (GFO). ��