TJ_Burton Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 43 minutes ago, teenyreef said: Looks awesome! I'm thinking about doing a similar chaeto reactor because I don't have room in my sump. The geek in me is totally impressed you did all those drawings in mspaint MS Paint and I have a special history Hahaha. Speaking of reactor the LEDS came in today! Might do a video. 1 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 Alright, I've decided to try and do a decent job of documenting this very simple DIY algae reactor by incorporating my Kill-A-Watt meter and USB PAR sensor. Plan to record and edit the video tonight. 2 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Hmmmmm, very interesting! Do you have a link to the lights? 1 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 31 minutes ago, teenyreef said: Hmmmmm, very interesting! Do you have a link to the lights? Yep, they are from amazon. Link below.so far happy enough with the results. Right against the acrylic facing the LEDs I am reading over 400 PAR, and about 100 PAR from against the opposite wall. Should work decently! Link to LED Lights 5 Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 1 hour ago, TJ_Burton said: Yep, they are from amazon. Link below.so far happy enough with the results. Right against the acrylic facing the LEDs I am reading over 400 PAR, and about 100 PAR from against the opposite wall. Should work decently! Link to LED Lights Looks great man. Keep us posted with your results! 1 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Went ahead and did a quick video for youtube. Reviewing the video, PAR peaked at 470 over a blue diode. 7 Quote Link to comment
blizzardscout2 Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Skills baby, you got them. Nice job! 1 Quote Link to comment
BRTNreef Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 very nice, careful with the lights seems like according to the amazon reviews, they like to catch on fire. Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 1 hour ago, BRTNreef said: very nice, careful with the lights seems like according to the amazon reviews, they like to catch on fire. Yikes Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 2 hours ago, BRTNreef said: very nice, careful with the lights seems like according to the amazon reviews, they like to catch on fire. Honestly, every single one in there has at least some horror story reviews. They are cheap so quality is always questionable. Most often it's power supplies that fail early, or diodes going out. Some people install them outside under their decks etc. and that is a recipe for disaster too. I saw the two reviews where the plugs burned out. I'll be keeping an eye on them for sure, but so far there is no heat issue like they described. Hopefully that remains. Am I worried they will catch on fire? Not really; but if they don't last longer than 6 months I won't be surprised. I'm running a set of RGB under my 265 and it's been fine for a while already. No heat issues there either. 1 Quote Link to comment
BRTNreef Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 maybe you got the upgraded black version from the white version that seemed to burn out. about how much did these whole project cost so far? just chaeto reactor. Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 31 minutes ago, BRTNreef said: maybe you got the upgraded black version from the white version that seemed to burn out. about how much did these whole project cost so far? just chaeto reactor. Here's to hoping! The reactor was second hand $40, and the LEDs were $30 so that puts me around $70. I plant to run it off the return pump for the tank so no added cost in terms of pumps. Quote Link to comment
cnseekatz Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 Awesome. Does flow matter in this kind of reactor? I wouldn't think it would matter much. Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 28, 2017 Author Share Posted March 28, 2017 1 hour ago, cnseekatz said: Awesome. Does flow matter in this kind of reactor? I wouldn't think it would matter much. From what I understand you want it to be on the higher end rather than the lower end. It shouldn't matter much as long as it's fast enough to constantly bring nutrient rich water into the reactor. I'm going to play with the flow a bit; ball valve plus a DC return pump should make it pretty easy to fine tune. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 I've ordered my lights, and I have a really old TLF phosban reactor that I'm going use. I almost threw it away last month because you have to unscrew 12 nuts and bolts to open it up and there's no way I was going to deal with that in a media reactor. But for a chaeto reactor that doesn't have to be opened up very often, it should work fine! Just goes to show you should never throw anything away in this hobby. I'm curious - why did you use the zip ties to secure the LEDs instead of the double-sided tape? Were you worried about the tape not sticking if it gets wet? 2 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 10 hours ago, teenyreef said: I've ordered my lights, and I have a really old TLF phosban reactor that I'm going use. I almost threw it away last month because you have to unscrew 12 nuts and bolts to open it up and there's no way I was going to deal with that in a media reactor. But for a chaeto reactor that doesn't have to be opened up very often, it should work fine! Just goes to show you should never throw anything away in this hobby. I'm curious - why did you use the zip ties to secure the LEDs instead of the double-sided tape? Were you worried about the tape not sticking if it gets wet? Honestly, I have such a hard time throwing anything out since I always [years later] find a purpose for it. Anything I do get rid of, I end up needing at sump point [years later]. Why zip ties? The diodes face inwards, and the rounded waterproof gel they are encased in doesn't sit flat. They also heat up quite a bit so I figured the glue of tape wouldn't have a good opportunity to stick and hold under those conditions. I also wanted them to be very easy to remove and replace in the event they burn out. Just a clean convenient option that isn't permanent or hard to undo. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 That makes perfect sense. Plus I wasn't thinking about the fact that the tape is on the wrong side 1 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Got a package from Dave Fason along with some other goodies. Unboxing video to come Hoping to have the custom sump early next week. Still have to order up the plumbing etc. But want to wait on that until the sump arrives. 3 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted April 10, 2017 Author Share Posted April 10, 2017 Been a tough week. Lost my Grandfather on Friday. Haven't really had as much time as I was hoping for to get things done with the build. Did manage to move some corals around during the last water change to see how I feel about them in their new places. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Sorry about your grandfather! Tank looks very nice though. Hopefully soon things will settle down and you can get back to working on it. 1 Quote Link to comment
Canadianeh Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Sorry about your loss 1 Quote Link to comment
DaveFason Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Sorry to hear. Take care and think about all the good times with him! -Dave 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 So sorry to hear about your grandfather 1 Quote Link to comment
TJ_Burton Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 Thanks everyone ❤ 2 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.