So we found a sunny place that we want to put our reactor at. This side of the geek studio catches a lot of noon to dusk light. If it was not quite sunny enough of a spot I would have likely added some Mylar or something similar to the back of the frame to reflect light back into the reactor.

The filling process was really straight forward. But I learned something I needed to include earlier. Drill a second hole in the tops of the tubes as an air escape as you fill it up. It makes filling a lot faster. Just remember you need to plug them up air tight as well. I just used some small rubber stoppers I picked up at the local home center.

With the daylight fading I got the reactors final hookups complete. I chose to run a line from the vent from our furnace and water heater up on the roof to the reactor. The power for our reactor is from a harbor freight 45 watt solar panel kit. The kit includes everything you need excluding a battery. But that was fine because when it’s dark it doesn’t really matter if it’s not bubbling away. Once again I really was surprised at the amount of air those pumps put out.

So before I called it a night it was time to inoculate the tubes. Using that second hole I drilled in the top cap I added the de-chlorinator as per the instructions. The little syringes really help in adding the stuff through the little 1/4" holes. Next we added the plankton and fertilizer per its instructions. The microalgae was 12 oz so we put 1 oz in each tank. You really couldn’t see it at all in the water. But in a few days the water starts to green up.

So here is day 2. No change to the reactor. I did note that I had to add an inch of water to the first tank. Not because it leaked out but that it had evaporated. On hotter days I think that may be a problem, but nothing a nice slow drip system couldn’t fix. From a rain water recycling system of course. Because wasting water is bad mkay.