mcarroll
10K Club member
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- Jan 8, 2012
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If you have a small bio-load and an algae issue, something isn't quite right.
First, if you want a reactor, then that's a good one. I'm not sure how much need you'll have for it, but that at least answers your question about the reactor.
It sounds like you're just beginning troubleshooting of this issue and maybe you're first step was a bag of chemipure.
If that didn't help even a little, then upgrading seem like it could be throwing good money after bad.
I would pause to consider more options and angles.
Algae isn't even a problem per se, it's just that most folks are sorta self-trained not to like the look of it. Algae makes a great visual indicator of water quality, it can feed numerous herbivores, and it maintains favorable conditions for higher animals like fish. So be careful about making algae (or nutrients) out to be your enemy....there are much much worse types of algae which really like low nutrient environments.
If you have high nutrients in the water, the best thing you can do is grow A LOT of corals and use it up!
The next best thing you can do is grow a bunch of fast-growing green algae and have a bunch of herbivores to keep it all mowed down.
Really that should do it.
If it takes more than this, you probably have more research to do and still have plenty of tools at your disposal to throw at it, but this could also indicate that you could use a smaller bio-load in the tank, or that your coral population is too small.
It could also mean that you spiked the nutrient levels in the tank early on, causing the algae bloom in the first place.
It's important from Day 1 to keep changes to the system small and infrequent. (I.e. generate stability!!)
Big nutrient changes (up or down) are often followed with bad results....algae blooms being one of those results.
