nim6us
Well-Known Member
I'm I'm almost ready to get water in this tank, but I'm hung up on one last detail. I've seen a lot of people report success with DIY macro algae reactors. They look really simple, just take a normal media reactor, wrap in a strip of grow lights, drop in your cheato and GO!
The current reactor I have plumbed already is for carbon/GFO or some other media. However I have one more open slot for a algae reactor. Do I got option 1 or 2?
1) Plumb in another reactor the same size as the Aquamaxx and wrap it in lights?
Great because it saves space, it would give the sump area a symmetrical look, but I would have the algae reactor light bleeding into the sump area, and is it even big enough.
2) Plumb in the Aquamaxx XL in the cabinet area to the right?
The XL would be too big to hang above my sump area. I'd have to drill a hole in the right of the cabinet wall and run pipe to the open area on the other side. This would be nice because then it would isolate the light from the algae reactor from spilling into the rest of my sump, but it's also then taking up valuable cabinet real estate, and would I really see a benefit from the bigger size.
This would be on a reefer 425XL, that's 112 gallons total volume. My big question is would the normal size Aquamaxx be big enough to serve as an algae reactor or do I need to go XL? I'm looking for those with experience to advise pros and cons to each option so I can make the best choice and not two months down the line have a DOH! moment when I realize I overlooked a major flaw.
The current reactor I have plumbed already is for carbon/GFO or some other media. However I have one more open slot for a algae reactor. Do I got option 1 or 2?
1) Plumb in another reactor the same size as the Aquamaxx and wrap it in lights?
Great because it saves space, it would give the sump area a symmetrical look, but I would have the algae reactor light bleeding into the sump area, and is it even big enough.
2) Plumb in the Aquamaxx XL in the cabinet area to the right?
The XL would be too big to hang above my sump area. I'd have to drill a hole in the right of the cabinet wall and run pipe to the open area on the other side. This would be nice because then it would isolate the light from the algae reactor from spilling into the rest of my sump, but it's also then taking up valuable cabinet real estate, and would I really see a benefit from the bigger size.
This would be on a reefer 425XL, that's 112 gallons total volume. My big question is would the normal size Aquamaxx be big enough to serve as an algae reactor or do I need to go XL? I'm looking for those with experience to advise pros and cons to each option so I can make the best choice and not two months down the line have a DOH! moment when I realize I overlooked a major flaw.
