Diy cheato reactor

[Xclusive Reef]

How wide is that Reactor? can't wait to see it in action. starting my tank build and debating between this and a algae scrubber.

 

[tcarter1936]

4.5" diameter. Cheapest one this size I could find at 80 bucks

 

[cracker]

Cool project. I look forward to how it comes along !

 

[Pongo]

4.5" diameter. Cheapest one this size I could find at 80 bucks

What is the total length of the reactor tube you have covered with the strip?
How does the strip stay attached, is there an adhesive backing?

Have you considered wrapping the whole unit with anything to prevent light spill contributing to nuisance algae growth around it?

 

[garethwood]

i have a wildly out of control fugee in my sump which ive found to be a pita, and have bern considering building an ATS.... i do like the look of this reactor tho. So who would win in a fight??

 

[Reef man 89]

I have a cheato reactor on my tank and after about 3 months it striped the tank of nutrition so now the cheato is dieing. But it worked great for the time being.

 

[tcarter1936]

i have a wildly out of control fugee in my sump which ive found to be a pita, and have bern considering building an ATS.... i do like the look of this reactor tho. So who would win in a fight??

I'm meerly trying to out compete hair algae so I would not like to completely strip nutrients I just want to still be able to feed every day and not have gha

 

[tcarter1936]

Day one!

Reactor is in action. I'm starting with a loose fist size piece of cheato.
It's not dense and only fills the chamber about 1-8th of the way

 

[Deniss]

Day one!

Reactor is in action. I'm starting with a loose fist size piece of cheato.
It's not dense and only fills the chamber about 1-8th of the way

You can accelerate the growth by strechting it out filing your reacter all the way but less dense. You will see this chaeto growing daily, mine has been insane but didn't out compete the green hair algae yet.

 

[tcarter1936]

You can accelerate the growth by strechting it out filing your reacter all the way but less dense. You will see this chaeto growing daily, mine has been insane but didn't out compete the green hair algae yet.

I'm gonna let it start to take off then start manual removal. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

[garethwood]

any updates on the cheato vs gha

 

[tcarter1936]

Nothing yet, so far the GHA has taken over the cheato. Another member just gave me an idea though. GHA is heavy in the display so it's holding the nutrients, so I'm going to take out the cheato and put in some plastic media screen and try growing GHA in the reactor then I can switch to cheato later.

 

[tcarter1936]

 

[tcarter1936]

Ok so here's my thoughts on the reactor.
1st. If growing cheato I feel it will be great but if you get GHA growth it will win inside the reactor and by by cheato.
2nd. Taking out sponges is probably going to be nessesary as mine were completely clogged in a couple days.
Once I've got good growth I'll be able to tell if this is big enough for my setup.

 

[michaelis88]

interesting

 

[tcarter1936]

Well I finally remembered that I never took the sponges out of my reactor and I had almost no flow at all due to the sponges being put GHA cakes lol.
So I removed them a moment ago and I'm keeping them out for now. The flow is way stronger and also the screen I placed inside is well seeded. I will update soon now that flow is correct to show growth

 

[Reef man 89]

Can't wait to see how this turns out. I'm wondering if the GHA will just grow in the reactor and not in your DT. So pretty much you reator is kind of like an algea scrubber. Definitely keep us up to date on how this turns out.

 

[Torqued]

Just curious why people are doing cheato reactors instead of ATS. ATSs are far better at nutrient reduction than cheato...

 

[tcarter1936]

So far I'm liking running mine with the screen for GHA growth
Ive 196 sq" of screen on this so I need to give it time to see if It will be sufficient to outcompete the display growth. I will pull the screen this weekend to check progress. I don't at this point see a valid reason for switching back to cheato other than pod habitat.
Note that what I feel is making a big difference here is the huge amount of flow I have through it.

 

[tcarter1936]

Just curious why people are doing cheato reactors instead of ATS. ATSs are far better at nutrient reduction than cheato...

Are you referring to ats vs reactor?
Or hair algae vs cheato?
In my mind if I'm running a screen in my reactor the same size as in a ats what difference does it make?