The plinth
Lighting
Due to the nature of the reactor being compact and transportable, I needed to be able to remove the water tank when it was being taken elsewhere, I therefore used heavy duty draw rods to make a shelf which the water tank would sit on. I then proceeded to make a wooden mould of the tank in order for it to sit and wedge inside in order to secure it from tipping over in case of an accidental budge.
The final component to the inside of the plinth was the lighting. Fluorescent tubes are very effective when growing algae, especially because they disperse light so effectively and consume less electricity than conventional light bulbs. After discussing the matter with a representative of the Algae Depot where I procured my algae sample from the representative recommended 1cm per 2.5 watts which would mean 16cm for a 40w fluorescent tube.
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After mounting the light fixture at the desired height I tried various thicknesses of opaque acrylic tops which would allow the light to penetrate onto the algae growth surface and chose a model which would allow for 30% of the light to shine through.