microalage in algae reactor

[xeanliao]

Hello, I diy'ed a algae reactor.

• 300 led light strip, warm white.
• 80 ghp, (I feel it is less than 80 but did not measure it.)

It has been a month, it seems fulfilled the purpose and I am happy about it except:

• All sort of bad microalgae, hair, red slime, etc., outgrows the chaeto I put in the reactor, eventually killed the chaeto I put in. It still does the job but the problem is, that makes the algae reactor very hard to clean.

Do you have any guess what I did wrong, or any suggestion, i.e. light or water flow is not strong enough, or maybe the chaeto I put in is not enough to start with?

 

[Ludders]

I would guess at the light you're using is possibly the problem.

I have a similar issue in my fuge at the moment and I am going to buy a decent chaeto reactor in the next week or two.

I attributed my issues to flow and poor lighting.

How many LPH are you running through it currently? Also what lights are they?

 

[lion king]

Light spectrum and/or nitrate to phosphate ratio off. Macros seem to respond best with light in the 6000-6500k range, lower ranges in say 3000-3500k or an abundance of red does seem to feed cyano and hair algae more. All of your hobby phosphate test kits with the exception of the hanna ulr can show 0 phosphates while they are actually somewhat higher, I've tested as high as .1 comparing. If your nitrates are running as low as 10 and you still have phosphate as high as .1; this can feed cyano. This is my experience so take it for what it's worth. Lower flow works better for me, like around 200gph. But ultimately our goal should be lower nitrates and phosphates in turn controlling algae within the display. Growing chaeto is not the real goal, that's where many people lose focus. So what's growing in the reactor really doesn't matter, as long as your display looks good.

 

[xeanliao]

I would guess at the light you're using is possibly the problem.

I have a similar issue in my fuge at the moment and I am going to buy a decent chaeto reactor in the next week or two.

I attributed my issues to flow and poor lighting.

How many LPH are you running through it currently? Also what lights are they?

80 gph, warm whilte (35k?)

 

[xeanliao]

Light spectrum and/or nitrate to phosphate ratio off. Macros seem to respond best with light in the 6000-6500k range, lower ranges in say 3000-3500k or an abundance of red does seem to feed cyano and hair algae more. All of your hobby phosphate test kits with the exception of the hanna ulr can show 0 phosphates while they are actually somewhat higher, I've tested as high as .1 comparing. If your nitrates are running as low as 10 and you still have phosphate as high as .1; this can feed cyano. This is my experience so take it for what it's worth. Lower flow works better for me, like around 200gph. But ultimately our goal should be lower nitrates and phosphates in turn controlling algae within the display. Growing chaeto is not the real goal, that's where many people lose focus. So what's growing in the reactor really doesn't matter, as long as your display looks good.

umm ... I made the wrong choice of my led light strip. I should have purchase the white instead of warm white?

 

[kyleinpdx]

80 gph, warm whilte (35k?)

I used to have a hang on back refugium that I had cheato in, ran into the same problem as you. I grew all sorts of GHA, red slime and others that would eventually cover the cheato. At the end of the day as long as the GHA and others werent growing the in display I didnt really care... however I attribute this to the low flow I was running, I'd first look at the pump.

Also if your lights were sold as "warm white" they're probably around 3,000-3,500k IME most places will list any whites 4,000k and up as cool white or bright white.

 

[MBX5]

What GPH do you guys recommend?

 

[lion king]

What GPH do you guys recommend?

I have 3 and I'd say they are all running between 150-200gph and doing well. If you have the common strip leds you could easily replace them using the same power supply. Here's the one I'm using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0132NME6O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Ludders]

umm ... I made the wrong choice of my led light strip. I should have purchase the white instead of warm white?

The pre fabricated version I looked at in my local store had more of a purple and blue light.