Building an algae reactor.... I need some ideas

[Larry101]

Here the rundown, I am in the middle of building an algae reactor for my Fluval 13.5. I have everything hooked up, but my one problem is the pump I am using. The pump is a bit noisy and also raised the water temp by about a degree, even with the cooling fans turned on from the inkbird. My tank is running at 79.8 degrees which is way too high for my liking. I think I want some sort of external pump so that it is easier to isolate the noise and of course not put in heat into the tank. I looked around for one but I couldn't find one that has a 1/2 inch barbed end so that my current tubing that I have can fit. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations? Thanks!

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I can't recommend a pump but I would be fine with that temp. Are you sure the pump is the problem? Do the leds get warm? Which leds did you go with? I'm thinking about doing a chaeto reactor like this. Link?

 

[Larry101]

I can't recommend a pump but I would be fine with that temp. Are you sure the pump is the problem? Do the leds get warm? Which leds did you go with? I'm thinking about doing a chaeto reactor like this. Link?

Its the pump because I had the pump running all night without the lights on, and sure enough the temp went up from 77.5 to 79.8 with my fans running full blast when I woke up. As for the reactor I used the phosban 150 reactor and I used these lights from amazon

 

[Boxfish]

What pump u running? Gpa and head distance? Just watch what type of acrylic, my first try at reactor I crazed the tube because leds were against arylic I now have leds attached to egg crate cylinder that is larger around so leds are about 2" away. Leds against reactor might be adding heat. I used white accel leds from MD. Good luck.

 

[Crustaceon]

I wouldn’t bother with the algae reactor and would just increase water change percentage as needed. Why make things more complicated, increase maintenance, add another potential failure point and a heat source?

 

[Larry101]

What pump u running? Gpa and head distance? Just watch what type of acrylic, my first try at reactor I crazed the tube because leds were against arylic I now have leds attached to egg crate cylinder that is larger around so leds are about 2" away. Leds against reactor might be adding heat. I used white accel leds from MD. Good luck.

I am running some random pump from amazon with a gpa of 400 and a head distance of around 4 feet. I don't think it is the leds based on the fact that I just plugged it in last night and didn't have the leds on at all and the temp raised quite a bit. I just turned the leds on for a photo for the thread. But who knows maybe the leds will also add heat.

 

[Larry101]

I wouldn’t bother with the algae reactor and would just increase water change percentage as needed. Why make things more complicated, increase maintenance, add another potential failure point and a heat source?

I'm starting to agree with you, a bigger water change would be a lot easier, and would give me the peace of mind I am looking for with this. The heat is a major problem with this entire system.

 

[Crustaceon]

I'm starting to agree with you, a bigger water change would be a lot easier, and would give me the peace of mind I am looking for with this. The heat is a major problem with this entire system.

That’s what I would do man. It’s cool having extra doo-dads on your system but sometimes they cause more trouble than they’re worth, especially when there are easier and safer ways of accomplishing the same goal. You lose that one talking point when showing off your tank, but you make your life a lot easier by not having to deal with that piece of equipment. Novelty should always take a backseat to convenience and ease of maintenance. For my next build, I’m actually looking at ways I can run as few pieces of equipment as possible. I see the birdsnest of cords in my stand right now and it drives me nuts. I have ten things plugged in down there and that’s less than a lot of people are running. But it’s still way too many things to fail, add heat to the tank and route ugly cords everywhere.