Biopellet reactor placement

[Teddynola]

I just bought a JNS biopellet reactor. Since it doesn't have discharge tubing that I can place in the skimmer section, does the unit need to be in the drain/skimmer section? I don't think that I have the space and was planning on putting it in the return section, until I read some posts stating to put the discharge near the skimmer intake. Thanks.

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

I just bought a JNS biopellet reactor. Since it doesn't have discharge tubing that I can place in the skimmer section, does the unit need to be in the drain/skimmer section? I don't think that I have the space and was planning on putting it in the return section, until I read some posts stating to put the discharge near the skimmer intake. Thanks.

There is a word going around that its best to drain in the inlet of the skimmer.

However what comes out of the reactor is food for the corals.My best fried runs biopellets and he has the reactor after the skimmer with no problems and impressive results let me say!

I would think that its best to return in the skimmer section so some of the mulm will go through the skimmer and the remaining will feed the corals

Cant you add some tubing to your reactor in order to direct the outlet to the skimmer section?

 

[downbeach]

The whole idea with these reactor's is to remove the bacteria, that has absorbed the N's and P's you're trying to reduce. This is done through skimming, so it's best to have the effluent from the BP reactor as close as possible to the intake of your skimmer. I have fashioned a PVC fitting which will allow all of the effluent to pass through the skimmer, but I have a discharge that will allow me to do that, using some flexible tubing.

 

[MrIcky]

I thought the whole idea behind bp's and dosing was to give a closer to natural bacterial count and diversity and allowing you to feed a higher amount without fouling the tank. Which has the side effects of both reducing nitrates and providing additional potential food sources (the bacteria). Seems that you are losing part of the benefits if you pump all the tumbler's effluent directly into the skimmer.

 

[Teddynola]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll have to see if I can attach some flexible tubing to the end of the effluent tube, when it gets here.

 

[bertoni]

Every tank is going to be different, but we can make a general outline of the possibilities.

The water coming out of the reactor likely contains more bacteria and bacterial byproducts than the tank water. That's why the reactor is there, fundamentally. Those bacteria and byproducts can be a food item for a number of organisms in the tank. So letting all or some of that food reach the tank might be useful. If the amount of food going into the tank is low enough for the tank to consume it, then you might see more growth in the system.

On the other hand, if the food reaches the tank, and it just decays back into nitrate and phosphate, then the utility of the reactor might be, well, limited.

Skimmers are not all that efficient, from what data we have, so I'd expect them to require multiple passes to remove the food in question, so feeding the output of the reactor to the skimmer might be just fine on both counts. It could leave some food in the water column, and remove enough so that the reactor is useful.

So what would I do? I'd likely just set up the reactor and let it run for a while, to see how it does. If the parameters aren't dropping or are dropping too slowly, getting more of the output into the skimmer might be worth some effort. If the tank was having serious problems, though, I'd route the output to the skimmer from the start, and work on any possible tuning later.

 

[Teddynola]

Thanks Bertoni. I think I'm going to get some 1" flexible tubing and discharge the effluent near the skimmer intake and see what happens.

 

[Dr. Reef]

i agree with all staement above. just wanted to share my personal setup. i have reef octopus biopellet reactor and reef octopus dual pump recirculating skimmer.
i run a line from my manifold to biopellet reactor and its out straight to input of the skimmer.