Explosive Chaeto Growth or my imagination???

[edreefer]

So I made myself a DIY chaeto reactor... I want to get a way from using GFO to control phosphates and use a more natural approach.

Had an extra media reactor, bought a full spectrum led light strip, attached it to the outside of the reactor with leds facing in and hooked it up with a pump. Set up the timer for the lights to work on a reverse schedule to my main display.

Nitrates 1.5 and Phosphates 0.18 at the time of starting the reactor.

Here's the reactor:

I put it into service Monday evening 10/05/2020. I got a hold of a hand full of chaeto. Here's the pic of the size of it when I fired it up:

Here's a picture of it yesterday afternoon. It really stretched out:

And this is a pic of it this morning. I can even see growth overnight:

I have not moved the reactor at all. I'm very surprised to see how much growth there has been. It has at least doubled in size in only 4 days. Have you experienced similar results?

Tested phosphates last night and they were down to 0.13.

I use hanna checkers.

 

[Alaeriel]

Looks awesome! Following thread to recreate (copy) your design in the future :3

 

[edreefer]

Looks awesome! Following thread to recreate (copy) your design in the future :3

Thanks for the feedback. I'll post the details of the build and light purchased if you're interested.

 

[JPM San Diego]

Very similar results. I have a rectangular section in my sump lite with an 18 inch Finnex 24/7 LED light. I confess I didn't have much luck with the thicker species of chaetomorpha I bought on line. I was able to get a skinny species my consultant called "angel hair" chaetomorpha. It must love my tank because it packs that section every week. I had the lights on 24/7 and it drove my phosphorus (Hanna checker) to 0!!
I had to back off on the light to 12 hours (reverse photoperiod) to keep the phosphorus above 0. I still have not been able to raise my nitrates. I am an old time saltwater aquarist and have a hard time saying I wish my nitrates were higher

 

[G Santana]

That chaeto is doing it's intended job, and doing it FAST.
Awesome!!!

 

[edreefer]

Very similar results. I have a rectangular section in my sump lite with an 18 inch Finnex 24/7 LED light. I confess I didn't have much luck with the thicker species of chaetomorpha I bought on line. I was able to get a skinny species my consultant called "angel hair" chaetomorpha. It must love my tank because it packs that section every week. I had the lights on 24/7 and it drove my phosphorus (Hanna checker) to 0!!
I had to back off on the light to 12 hours (reverse photoperiod) to keep the phosphorus above 0. I still have not been able to raise my nitrates. I am an old time saltwater aquarist and have a hard time saying I wish my nitrates were higher

That's good to know. Are you running anything simultaneously? GFO? Dosing?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

How much flow is going through that? Could either be very fast growth or the flow is making the chaeto pull apart and appear larger. ~Shaun K.

 

[edreefer]

How much flow is going through that? Could either be very fast growth or the flow is making the chaeto pull apart and appear larger. ~Shaun K.

Being fed by an Eheim Compacton 300 pump. The flow comes from the bottom to the top. Relatively low flow in my opinion. I asked myself the same thing, except that it has grown upwards (away from flow) and downwards (towards the flow). Also, it wrapped itself completely around the center pipe (white) that feed the water from the bottom.

 

[Alaeriel]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll post the details of the build and light purchased if you're interested.

Please do!

 

[edreefer]

The light I used was a daylight full spectrum light I found on Amazon:


I wrapped the entire length of the light strip around the reactor leaving approximately a 1" space between each wrap.

To attach the light, I used a hot glue gun to secure the light in place at each end and every 3/4 turn around the reactor. I paid close attention to glue in between the leds and not directly on top of them.

The light is not waterproof, so I wrapped it with clear heavy duty 3M shipping tape to make it water resistant at least. I wrapped it in such a way that it overlapped itself at least 1/2" and wrapped from the bottom up so any water that would fall down would run down with minimal resistance (like the shingles on a roof).

I left the light on for a few hours on high on the counter to test how hot the assembly would get. A little warm to the touch, but nothing seriously hot. Considering the reactor itself would serve as a heat exchanger, that was not too concerning.

Almost a week into service and looking good thus far, and serving its purpose...

 

[edreefer]

Id say a good approximation is that the chaeto has tripled in size in 1 week.

Last pic from today:

 

[Anubisxii]

Cheato can have explosive growth, I got a golfball sized piece and it was the size of a softball within a few days a month later it was 7 times that size, it will grow quick of it has nutrients and light. I got better about my nutrient export and growth has slowed. Tank has never looked better and everyone is happy.

 

[edreefer]

Ok. So i decided to harvest today. Its been 8 days.

Take a look at this...

Now, I need to figure out how to make my corals grow at this rate...

 

[92Miata]

I run one thats a 3.5" aquamaxx bioreactor - the pump clogged last week (it had a little sponge prefilter inside that i didn't realize) - and my phosphates went from .03 to .20 over the course of the week.

Cleaned it out last night - ripped out the prefilter - 12 hours later and I'm at .15 and dropping.

 

[John08007]

Something to be cautious of, and keep in mind. I looked into building one of these out of a 2 little fishes reactor. While researching it I found that they have cracked from the heat of the light. So, you may want to position this so that if it did crack you don't empty your tank onto your floor.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Ok. So i decided to harvest today. Its been 8 days.

Take a look at this...

Now, I need to figure out how to make my corals grow at this rate...

This is so cool dude!

 

[JPM San Diego]

That's good to know. Are you running anything simultaneously? GFO? Dosing?

I was running GFO before the chaetomorpha took off. I stopped using GFO when phosphorus dropped to zero and never resumed it. I use the reactor for my carbon. I am dosing the tank with RedSea Ca, Mg, All

 

[Yevoc]

I added a reactor to my 54g when I had an active hair and bubble algae issue. It when from a handful to a full reactor in 2 weeks so yeah it really can grow fast while happy.