bio pellets or gfo/ carbon? which one?

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scarface70706

New member
So ive been reading up on both gfo/carbon reactors and then compared them to a bio pellet reactor. now is it a necessity to have a gfo/carbon reactor? some people told me to get two reactors and run gfo and carbon to help make my reef tank a success. i was also told to just run bio pellets instead of the gfo/carbon combo. would running bio pellets in a reactor be a good substitute for gfo/carbon reactors? id like to hear both sides of these products (pros and cons) to make a decision on my next equipment purchase. thank you for your time.
 
There have been many many threads started about this exact topic over the last week or so, so look for those for your answers.

I will say this though, Biopellets are in no way at all a replacement for carbon, they do completely separate things.
 
yea ive read most of them that i found in the search and posted there them questions but they were over looked so i figured id ask in a new thread since i didnt want to aggravate anyone by them thinking im thread jacking. people are so sensitive now days :( do i need to be running gfo/carbon to have a great looking tank or can just simple water changes that i do repetitively. i dont neglect my system at. i keep up on it really well since i have nothing to do besides college and a part time job. so your saying bio pellets arnt as good as carbon and gfo?
 
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Biopellets are used to promote bacteria that feed on N/P. Carbon is used to absorb dissolved organics (and other chemicals) before they are reduced to N/P.
 
Bio pellets do an entirely different thing. Bio pellets change the whole chemistry in the tank by adding a carbon source and it feeds on nitrates. GFO is just a sponge that adsorbes p04. Carbon is a lot different and just sucks up bad pollutants in the water. So adding bio pellets is not a simple throw and go, they need to be tumbling and they have to seed the tank until they start working. If I were you I would just use simple GFO and carbon until you do some more reading on bio pellets, they can be tricky.
 
hm ok thank you guys. ill go the gfo/carbon route first to get my feet wet. then maybe later go bio pellets to help out with the other reactors. ive been looking at the brs duel reactor since i only want to run a single pump. which pump should i go with. im looking for a small and quite one. any suggestions? maybe a tunze pump? (i like the fact i can suction cup it to a side in my sump or something like that since im limited on room in my sump... maybe stick it in my overflow box?) would that be a good idea? my ears are open. thanks for your time buddies!
 
hell yea Christmas baby! lol yea i looked up brs and im liking the cost of the duel reactor. very reasonable. im wondering if the mj1200 has some kind of suction cups to reduce rattling and be able to stick it on a wall instead of just sitting on the ground making noise. is it possible to run the pump in the overflow box instead of in sump and have it return to the sump?
 
Hi there,
I read through your thread and hope I can help. I "had" a BRS dual reactor and ran the rox .8 and GFO in them with the maxijet pump. I didn't like the maxi jet for a few reasons. 1. didn't push enough flow through my reactors after being set up after a couple days. 2. cheap....i know many people swear by these pumps however they are cheap quality. 3. I ran mine in my sump and it was always getting clogged up.

The BRS reactor was very good quality however I found that a regular media reactors worked much better for me in the long run. I'm currently in the process of building a new reef tank (220) and will use carbon, GFO, and bio pellets. I prefer to run all separate reactors because it's much easier to swap out media and to dial in your flow. each media will be changed at different times and require different flow rates. I agree you must educate yourself in the bio pellets because they are frustrating to deal with at first.

Carbon is always a great addition to your filtration. especially in a reactor. good luck
 
^^^ sweet thanks for the help. i would love to have multiple reactors but i dont have the room for the amount of pumps i will need to power each reactor since im limited in my sump. this is why i was looking into the duel reactor. i just wasnt sure about the mj1200 pumps. is there anyone else that used a different pump to run this reactor.
 
scarface70706 said:
hell yea Christmas baby! lol yea i looked up brs and im liking the cost of the duel reactor. very reasonable. im wondering if the mj1200 has some kind of suction cups to reduce rattling and be able to stick it on a wall instead of just sitting on the ground making noise. is it possible to run the pump in the overflow box instead of in sump and have it return to the sump?
Click to expand...
I just purchased the same daul gfo/carbon reactor from brs as well as the bio pellet system. I have a 90 gallon tank and did 30 percent water changes ever week. Since I have a reef tank I would only feed every other day and still had high phosphates. As soon as I put in the daul reactor and the bio pellets my tank is the clearest it has ever been and my phosphates are now reading.01 with the hana check metor. If you purchase the bio pellets DON'T PURCHASE THE MAXI JET 1200 that they recommend. It is very very loud. I would hate it, and with one pump going to the daul reactor and one to the bio reactor the noice is just too much. I would recommend the mag drive 7 instead. Keep in mind the bio pellets need the zio bak as well because it is a micro organism to kick start the bio pellets. The good thing about the bio pellets, is they only need to be changed out evey 8 months.
 
i have the maxi jet 1200 on the brs dual chamber and its way to much pump. You have to set the ball valve to almost closed or it will blow the gfo out of the chamber. And if you cut the flow via the ball valve it make the pump louder. Not a big deal for me my sump is in the garage ;).
 
Why are you guys recomending the bio-pellets? The carb and phos remover make sense explain the bio-pellets....if you don,t mind thx
 
Meslo said:
i have the maxi jet 1200 on the brs dual chamber and its way to much pump. You have to set the ball valve to almost closed or it will blow the gfo out of the chamber. And if you cut the flow via the ball valve it make the pump louder. Not a big deal for me my sump is in the garage ;).
Click to expand...

dido that
 
hmmm yea noise will def. be an issue. is there a pump thats the same size of the mj1200 that i can use instead. i hate noise like we all do so im looking for a silent pump that will work great with the duel reactor.

ps: i will go bio pellets but not till later on. but i too agree that if your recommending bio pellets can you give some more information to give us all a better understanding. thanks.
 
If you are considering bio pellets plan on purchasing a good quality bio pellet reactor. Standard reactors IMO don't do near a good enough job circulating the pellets.
 
I recommed all of these products but situational biopellets are amazing for reducing nitrate I added them in my own system so I could overfeed w/o worries.have seen biopellets reduce nirates from high levels in alot of systems to 0 my best result was on a 280 display system 80 ppm to 0 in 3 weeks

posban is almost a must for any sps system phospate has a way of sneaking up in alot of systems and small amounts hurts progression I change mine once a month and swear by it

Carbon I only run a small amount and cycle it it is an amazing product but it isnt as targeting as biopellets and gfo why would want to literally strip your water of benefical things like trace elements very nice when cleaning after a disaster or just to ta ke a little yellow out of the water .... Very very nice for overstocked systems I would suggest gfo and biopellets for an sps system , carbon ran here and there I like to run carbon for about 1 week every 12 weeks just for the heck of It. Great for stripping water of color and smell
 
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