Does light hurt Biopellets?

[asylumdown]

I saw it posted almost as an afterthought in a ReefBuilder article about some new reactor with smoked acrylic to 'keep out that bacteria retarding light', or some phrasing like that.

My BP reactor is in my sump right next to a chamber that was originally supposed to be a frag chamber, but has ended up being where I put all the extra rock that was too busy for my display. A few months ago I added a light that is timed opposite the main tank's lights, so the BP reactor is getting enough light to grow coraline algae (though none is growing in the reactor) every day. Is this bad? Should I ditch the light altogether?

I didn't want a refugium for nutrient control or anything like that - it's way to small to do any good - but more a place for pods to grow without getting predated. The only algae that's grown in it so far is copious amounts of coraline and some valonia (I swear the only thing that stuff needs to grow is my burning resentment for it). Between the way I feed and my filter socks I didn't think enough detritus was getting to that chamber to feed anything, so I added the light to encourage film algae. Now that chamber is the last place in my tank I can find large numbers of stomatid snails, and it's literally crawling with all kinds of pods. However, the BP are way more important, so if light retards their efficacy, the light will have to go.

[Madmak]

Good question, I've wondered as well. I think it depends on the type of bacteria that we have in our reactors. I've read that most bacteria do not require light but those that do are typically waterborne.