Too large of an algae reactor?

[Treehrtsme]

Is it possible to "over filter" using an algae reactor that is highly overrated for your tank, assuming it is the primary source of nutrient export and not competing with a skimmer? I would think some sort of nutrient imbalance would be possible though I'm not an expert. Perhaps more regular cleaning and macro algae removal would mitigate this?

Also, Could heat output by the reactor light have an effect on aquarium temperature anymore than a regular light especially on nano tanks, less than 40 gallons?

Anyone experienced this?

 

[Dan_P]

Is it possible to "over filter" using an algae reactor that is highly overrated for your tank, assuming it is the primary source of nutrient export and not competing with a skimmer? I would think some sort of nutrient imbalance would be possible though I'm not an expert. Perhaps more regular cleaning and macro algae removal would mitigate this?

Also, Could heat output by the reactor light have an effect on aquarium temperature anymore than a regular light especially on nano tanks, less than 40 gallons?

Anyone experienced this?

I don’t think there is such a thing as over filtering.

Under filtering is possible because more waste is generated than can be removed, resulting in accumulation. On the other end of the scale, waste is removed as fast as it is generated and the system has little or no accumulation. This goes for all media reactors. You can’t have anything better than clean water :)

If the “waste” is nitrate, or inorganic nitrogen in general, an oversized algae reactor could bring the system to low nitrate sooner than a smaller reactor because of the larger surface area and more algae growth, but once the nitrate is low, the algae will start to die back and will stop removing nitrate so quickly. All reactors reach a point where they stop removing stuff. If that point is lower than you want, adjusting the reactor’s effectiveness, like shortening the light period in an algae reactor, will slow its nitrate removal rate.