New Reef Octopus Light\Macro Algae Reactor

[shred5]

I am sorry never got any notifications.

I am running pretty close to 100 percent for the lighting. I started at 75 percent and worked my way up over a few weeks.

On the output plumbing I am using 1/2" pvc.

As far as feed pump I am running at pretty close to 80 percent open...

 

[CoralNerd]

@shred5
Very cool how's the harvesting going?
How many hours are you running the leds?

 

[shred5]

@shred5
Very cool how's the harvesting going?
How many hours are you running the leds?

I run the lights 10 hours reverse daylight, mainly because that is what I was running the lights on my refugium. It was something that was going to be moved to 12 hours slowly.

It slowed allot because I removed about 90 percent of the fish from the system and moved them into another system.
It is not the fault of the rector at all, algae requires nutrients.

I recently added about 9 fish so it is picking back up again.

I have been using the system to temporarily house fish for my other systems as I build them out.
Eventually I will be adding breeding pairs to this system and they will require lots of food. This reactor certainly should help with nitrates.

I will update this thread from time to time and answer any questions I can..

 

[CoralNerd]

@shred5
I'm trying to figure out how long I should have the lights on?

 

[shred5]

@shred5
I'm trying to figure out how long I should have the lights on?

I like reverse daylight. It helps stabilize ph by stopping it from dropping as much at night.
I would work your way up till it runs for the entire time the main lights are off..

 

[Alberta79]

@shred5 How many hours are you running the light on the reactor and do you have the leds turned all the way up?

My reactor has been running for 3 weeks. My flow is at 50% and light I started at 75% first 2 weeks and 100% the last week. I am running for 14 hour lighting period. I started with a golf ball sized chunk in each chamber and after running for 3 weeks the bottom 2 chambers are at 75% capacity and top chamber about 45%. So awesome growth however my tank has high nitrates.

 

[CoralNerd]

My flow is at 50%

Yeah I started low on the leds but then ramped them up to full blast and 16 hours. I inspected the algae and some was wilted. After the ramp up the p04 climbed to .05. Prior to ramping them up so high p04 was .01 down from .09 before getting the reactor. N03 I like to supplement via ESV Nitrate.

So I have lowered the leds down to 13 hours and 30 minutes and about 60% led power but the valve is wide open for flow.

Do you still have the flow at 50% and do you think that's better?

 

[Alberta79]

Yeah I started low on the leds but then ramped them up to full blast and 16 hours. I inspected the algae and some was wilted. After the ramp up the p04 climbed to .05. Prior to ramping them up so high p04 was .01 down from .09 before getting the reactor. N03 I like to supplement via ESV Nitrate.

So I have lowered the leds down to 13 hours and 30 minutes and about 60% led power but the valve is wide open for flow.

Do you still have the flow at 50% and do you think that's better?

Not sure. Someone mentioned to me on the ask brs facebook that lower flow = faster growth? I think after I harvest this batch in about 2 weeks I will increase flow for the next batch and see what the results are.

 

[CoralNerd]

Not sure. Someone mentioned to me on the ask brs facebook that lower flow = faster growth?

The Santa Monica algae scrubber guy mentioned on another thread something about...you would think higher flow would be better but it traps more gunk and lower flow is better. It looks like the Reef Octopus reactors pump is 340gph and if you compare it to Pax Bellum they call for 300 to 400gph. So I closed my reactors valve a tiny bit.

 

[Ravsta]

Any further updates from anyone on this thread? Interested to see how people are getting on as I may take the plunge and purchase either the RO or the Tunze unit. Thank You.

 

[shred5]

Any further updates from anyone on this thread? Interested to see how people are getting on as I may take the plunge and purchase either the RO or the Tunze unit. Thank You.

I have no pictures but since adding the 9 fish the Chaeto is growing again.
I thought I had almost lost the chaeto when I removed all those fish.
Some corals started looking bad too from the massive drop in nutrients.
Thing is these fish are only temporary fish. So once I move these fish into their system I need to add more fish or maybe take the skimmer offline.

No doubt this reactor can grow algae.

 

[Alberta79]

Nice growth for me. I am running the light at 100% and flow at 50%. My nitrates have dropped from 35ppm to 20ppm so far. Still early to tell how much of a advantage it has been so far put arrows pointing in the right direction

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Thing is these fish are only temporary fish. So once I move these fish into their system I need to add more fish or maybe take the skimmer offline.

why not just reduce the photo-period on your chaeto reactor? 7 hours a day e.g.

 

[shred5]

why not just reduce the photo-period on your chaeto reactor? 7 hours a day e.g.

It would help for sure.
The nutrients would still drop to much. It is a 6 tank system and 3 are shut down right now.
That would only be 4 fish total in a 3 tank system.

 

[shred5]

Well still performing.
It grew some slime algae in there this time but I think I have the opposite problem. I went from removing all the fish which dropped the nutrients to adding 8 fish and now I have too much nutrients. Well better to grow slime algae in the reactor than in my tank. It will take a bit for the tank to adjust to the excess nutrients.

 

[Alberta79]

I cleaned my octo reactor for the first time last weekend. Chaeto doubled in 5 weeks. There was a lot of gha and green slime algae. Also glad its in the reactor and not in my display. Nitrates came down a bit but still high for my liking. I cleaned the chaeto and the reactor and will see how round 2 goes.

 

[Reefrats]

I’m looking at getting the RO 150. New tank so I guess I won’t be using it right away. Just making sure everyone is happy with theirs before taking the plunge.

 

[Peace River]

I’m looking at getting the RO 150. New tank so I guess I won’t be using it right away. Just making sure everyone is happy with theirs before taking the plunge.

I just got one and am setting it up this weekend! I like how you can set it up externally or (like I will be doing) put it in the main chamber of the sump with my skimmer.

#reefoctopus

 

[Michael Hull]

Just set mine up and posted a thread about it, but happy to contribute here!

 

[Reefrats]

I just got one and am setting it up this weekend! I like how you can set it up externally or (like I will be doing) put it in the main chamber of the sump with my skimmer.

#reefoctopus

What size tank do you have? I hope to put it in the sump too.