Bio Pellets compared

[FIREFISHPAT]

So if you are using Bio Pellets. Should I also be using use some form of ferric oxide hydroxide in other reactor?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In general, I think that GFO is a good accompaniment to any sort of carbon dosing as those generally seem unbalanced to more nitrogen removal than phosphorus.

 

[sirreal63]

I am still using NP's and no longer run them in a reactor. I noticed that with the reactor they degraded quickly, I think this is from the friction of them grinding against each other. I just add some into my canister filter at the bottom, no tumbling, no grinding, my nitrates and phosphates are still under control and they seem to be lasting longer. I don't believe the reactors are needed, they came about after people were making their own, no real science is behind the use of a reactor, but marketing is. In the early days of this product, people had just as positive results from hanging them in a bag and periodically stirring them up. If friction is grinding up the pellets and those small quantities are free floating in the tank, it could be a plausible reason why people have the issues with them that seem to pop up daily. I have had no cyano but did use too many and managed to strip my water to the point where even chaeto died and my glass never had any algae on it. I only use about half a cup of them now and have no issues at all. YMMV

 

[t.trezona]

Tom
Curious why you don't like the pellets?

I agree with Randy's list .
I also don't wan't to clog up this thread but there are alternatives to pellets for folks to consider and th OP asked for alternatives.
Here is my response to a querry about why I don't favor pellets from a thread a few days ago:

Curious why you think there is anerobic digestion of Biopellets? This generally will be a highly aerobic environment where respiration should be the predominant mode of metabolism. Has anyone actually cultured the bacteria digesting Biopellets?



Several reasons:

They are polymers(carbohydrates) which first go to monomers( predominantly sugars) in the anaerobic digestion process as certain bacteria break them down and then moer bacteria work on the sugars Sugar dosing hurts my corals and others report issues including recission,cyano ,bacterial blooms etc when using them. There is one study linking high glucose to coral mortality.Ethanol comes further down in the chain of bacterial activity avoiding sugars ,acetic acid (vinegar ) is even further down The end product acetate is likely useful to corals.

It is clear that the bacteria and their by products don't confine themselves to the reactors as was originally claimed based on all the in tank effects reported.

Controlling the amount of organic carbon being dosed is difficult with the pellets since you have to rely on the volume of pellets, flow rates ,tumbles, variable volumes of pellets as they are consumed ,etc. All of which make it impossible to know how much of exactly what is going into the tank . When using directly dosed sources I know exactly what I'm dosing and in what amount. With vinegar and/or vodka,for example I know how much acetic acid and /or ethanol I'm adding .,So precision in setting and maintaining a dose is possible.

No reactors or pumps are required ,although direct carbon dosing can be automated via a dosing pump if desired.

 

[tmz]

Curious why you think there is anerobic digestion of Biopellets? This generally will be a highly aerobic environment where respiration should be the predominant mode of metabolism. Has anyone actually cultured the bacteria digesting Biopellets?

"...The bacteria will use up the carbon from the BioPellets, whilst nitrogen and phosphorus are taken from the water as nitrate and (ortho)phosphate. This conversion of organic BioPellets (together with inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus) into microbial biomass is called immobilization. In addition, anaerobic layers will develop, resulting in additional denitrification...."

The above is from the manufacturer ,here:

http://npbiopellets.dvh-import.com/



From my perspective, The bacteria that perform denitrification are facultative heterotrophs, . They use the oxygen ;form layers (mulm/film),)and; when the oxygen is depleted, use the nitrate for the oxygen leaving N to form N2 nitrogen gas. It takes very little layering for hypoxic conditions to be formed particularly with so much organic carbon available to spur their oxygen consuming growth.


Don't know why folks bounce them around so much anyway. Granted they need aeration via some flow to prevent anoxia and a lack of oxygen and nitrate leading to sulfate reduction but they ae designed for anearobic digestion:

Here is more from the manufacuters site:
How it works <table class="contentpaneopen"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top"> NP-reducing BioPellets are consumed by bacteria, which is why new pellets need to be added every 6-12 months to compensate for digested filtermedia. This can be seen during inspection of the filter or when you measure a increase of nitrates. These figures however depend on aquarium conditions and are strongly influenced by feeding regimes and livestock. Taking regular measurements of both nitrate and phosphate levels in the aquarium is recommended, after which dosages may be increased or decreased. Of Note, NP-reducing BioPellets consist of a higher molecular mass than most competing products resulting in a longer filter retention time and thus requires less frequent refill then other low molecular weight products which are currently being marketed.

Overview of biological activity on NP-reducing BioPellets.
We suggest placing the outlet of the pellet filter in front of a protein skimmer, to limit the amount of bacteria entering the system. This has the additional benefit of increased gas exchange (CO2-removal and O2-addition). The pellets should never be used without sufficient aeration, as this may lead to low oxygen and pH levels, especially during night time. Proper aeration can be established with air pumps and protein skimmers.
The NP-reducing BioPellets will allow more feeding (See figure) and thus more livestock, however, when heavy feeding is required, it is recommended to combine the pellets with standard phosphate adsorbents. The reason for this is that most aquarium feeds contain higher levels of phosphate than is consumed by bacteria, fish and invertebrates, when compared to nitrogen. Some phosphate adsorbents however deplete alkalinity and may reduce pH. Using phosphate adsorbent media based on iron hydroxide does not have this disadvantage.

Example of nitrate and phosphate reduction in experimental 500 L tank set-up with 2 liter of BioPellets. In week 10 we doubled the feed input.
You can't overdose* the NP Reducing BioPellets. Once your filtersystem is working optimal, the number of bacteria fluctuate according to the availability of nitates and phosphates. When the availability of nitrates and phosphates is low, the numbers of bacteria will decrease. When more nitrates and phosphates come available due to eg. feeding the numbers of bacteria will increase again as you can see in the example below. * When you have high nitrates levels when you introduce the NP Reducing BioPellets to your system, please click here.

Example of availability of nitrates when you introduce the NP Reducing BioPellets. Up from week 9 extra feeding started which cause extra nitrate in the system.

Example of numbers of bacteria after introduction of NP Reducing BioPellets. When most nitrate and phosphate are removed by the bacteria, their numbers will decrease. When more nitrates and phosphates come availeble (up from week 9 in our example) their numbers will increase again. *Number of bacteria fictive.
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[larryfl1]

question for all

i have had the pellets in the reactor for over a week now...in the meantime my nitrates and phosphates are going up ..slowly but going up...

nitrates are at 2.5 and phosphates are at .38

should i put gfo on line now or do i need to wait until the pellets kick in...my concern is if i remove the phosphates that will prevent the pellets from kicking in and removing nitrates?????

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd personally put some GFO in now as that is an awful lot of phosphate per that amount of nitrate, and organic carbon dosing is usually unbalanced toward more nitrate removal.

 

[larryfl1]

ok..i put the gfo back on line... ill test it to keep an eye on things...i assume i should make sure it doesn't go all the way to 0 before the pellets kick in??

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That sounds reasonable.