DIY: Phyto Reactor

[NJTaxMan]

As I continue to try and find a reason why i cannot get my tank to thrive after over a year, I have added on a DIY phyto reactor. I went to avast marine, got spare parts for a k1 kalk reactor (minus the motor housing, stir stick, plus an additional down port..you get the idea) and created a gravity fed phyto reactor. In only a matter of days, my culture is almost up to strength where as I can incorporate my Kamoer X-1 doser to send tank water in on a regular basis. Now mo starvin corals!!




Ps. yes, the birds nest of cords is embarrassin

 

[diana a]

Well dam nice going! How much did it cost to make from scratch?

 

[NJTaxMan]

Well dam nice going! How much did it cost to make from scratch?

Cost me ~125 of parts from avast marine, $5 of airline tubing, $10 for an air pump, 55 Kamoer dosing pump and a 85 tunze ecochic led. The tunze light can obviously be replaced with a $15 grow lamp from amazon, i just had one left over.

 

[NJTaxMan]

Cost me ~125 of parts from avast marine, $5 of airline tubing, $10 for an air pump, 55 Kamoer dosing pump and a 85 tunze ecochic led. The tunze light can obviously be replaced with a $15 grow lamp from amazon, i just had one left over.

Probably could have done this A LOT cheaper and not bought from avast marine...but trying to retrofit a bunch of plastic parts...was worth the lack of headache.

 

[DYIguy]

Impressive! But I think I'll stick with my $10 air pump, $0.0 juice bottle and $4 grow bulb

 

[NJTaxMan]

Impressive! But I think I'll stick with my $10 air pump, $0.0 juice bottle and $4 grow bulb

I travel a lot..and it is picking up now that covid is in our rear view mirror. As such, I need to be i a place that the tank can survive for a week at a time without me being on site.

You could get to the same design by simply adding an outspout and a dosing pump. I was just too lazy and needed a real small footprint.

 

[radiata]

Nice DIY! I'd strongly recommend against using tank water to feed it - I think it will be just a matter of time before some tank critter gets in the culture and crashes it on you. I've been thinking of building a similar phyto reactor. But I'm going the mini-water change route - taking a small quantity of water from the tank and replacing it with fresh salt water (spiked with F1 & F2?) and putting that into the culture with the resultant overflow from the culture going into the tank. I'll be using my Apex to control BRS dosing pumps for the dosing and make it easier to tweak the water volumes as needed. FWIW I'm already using my Apex to do 5G daily water changes without dosing pumps.

 

[radiata]

Note: Twenty something years ago Craig Bingman (one of my reefer heroes) wrote an article in FAMA about building a phyto reactor that used tank water for the input feed. He was leaning toward using UV to sterilize incoming water from the tank, but decided it was too tricky to keep the UV bulb clean of crud. He promised a second article on his next steps. I don't believe he ever wrote the follow-up. His original article is probably on the web somewhere. I recollect seeing a listing somewhere of his available articles, but the only lists I now find are for his scientific papers - he is a researcher in the Biochemistry Department of the University of Wisconsin.

 

[NJTaxMan]

Nice DIY! I'd strongly recommend against using tank water to feed it - I think it will be just a matter of time before some tank critter gets in the culture and crashes it on you. I've been thinking of building a similar phyto reactor. But I'm going the mini-water change route - taking a small quantity of water from the tank and replacing it with fresh salt water (spiked with F1 & F2?) and putting that into the culture with the resultant overflow from the culture going into the tank. I'll be using my Apex to control BRS dosing pumps for the dosing and make it easier to tweak the water volumes as needed. FWIW I'm already using my Apex to do 5G daily water changes without dosing pumps.

Is your only concern being a critter getting into it? I am using a peristaltic pump fed from my return chamber. The chances of something getting in there is next to zero. I figured that the nitrate and phosphate in the tank would be a continual flow of fertilizer back into the tank

 

[radiata]

I don't think so... What do you estimate the odds are for a single tiny Rotifer and/or just a few copepods getting past your peristaltic dosing pump? I think the odds for either eventuality ever occurring are slim to none. If you actually do have an ultimate solution, then please proceed with your experiment! I'd really, really love to have your Hypothesis actually work! Of course, you'll need to post, here (in this thread), the volume and species of any new species of new /replacement single-celled-algae culture that you add/replenish to your culture, OK?

 

[NJTaxMan]

I don't think so... What do you estimate the odds are for a single tiny Rotifer and/or just a few copepods getting past your peristaltic dosing pump? I think the odds for either eventuality ever occurring are slim to none. If you actually do have an ultimate solution, then please proceed with your experiment! I'd really, really love to have your Hypothesis actually work! Of course, you'll need to post, here (in this thread), the volume and species of any new species of new /replacement single-celled-algae culture that you add/replenish to your culture, OK?

It would appear that you took my response in a way that it was not intended and that was upsetting to you. For that, please accept my humble apologies. It was a serious question: Is that your only concern that a critter would get in and spoil the culture. You infact answered the question and a copepod getting into the culture never even occurred to me..so for that, thank you. Going to update my design based on your input.

Again..please accept my apologies. I did not mean any offense.

 

[radiata]

It would appear that you took my response in a way that it was not intended and that was upsetting to you. For that, please accept my humble apologies. It was a serious question: Is that your only concern that a critter would get in and spoil the culture. You infact answered the question and a copepod getting into the culture never even occurred to me..so for that, thank you. Going to update my design based on your input.

Again..please accept my apologies. I did not mean any offense.

Greetings NJTaxMan,

No harm done...

I'm suggesting the following idea for you down-the-road after you've mastered your Phyto Reactor and successfully have it up and cooking.

You could feed some of the reactor's output into a Copepod Reactor. The pods would love the live food, and excessive pods and Phyto could overflow into your main system.

I must admit I'm a few steps behind you on a Phyto Reactor build. I just received a shipment of 500ml of frozen Tahitian Blend Reef Tank Formula from Brine Shrimp Direct. (For now, I'm just trying to follow a K.I.S.S. protocol.) I'm manually dosing it daily, but it might take some time for me to use it all up.

Regards,
Bob