My DIY chaeto reactor disastor

[Applegate]

Well my chaeto reactor experiment is over. I mainly blame it on trying to do it cheap. Cheap LED strips, the biggest cheapest reactor I could find, and just tying it into my canister filter rather than a true pump.

It had approximate 5 months of use on it and from what I can tell, my two little fishes reactor couldn't take the heat cycling from the LEDs. It no longer holds water as you can tell from the pictures.

 

[Applegate]

I think a few things could of prevented this. Smaller light cycles, maybe 8 hours rather than 12. Maybe more flow to help dissipate the heat better. Better LEDs that don't get so hot? Or stand them off a little? Or a higher quality reactor. I wouldn't reccomend that reactor anyways for the maintenance side of things. Really not a fan of the screw off top. Pain in the butt. And pulling put the cheato past the internal tubing wasn't ideal.

 

[Applegate]

Anyways. Moving on to a sump. The only sump I could find on the market that fits in my aquarium stand. Bashsea biofuge 30x10x14

 

[George Lopez]

I hope it didn't make too big of mess :/