Biopellets - anyone running them?

[Suohhen]

There are ill effects to vodka dosing. The most important one is the fact that the bacteria is going to thrive in the most oxygen rich environments and thus most likely where you direct most of your water flow, such as the surfaces of your corals and glass. This does not usually harm the coral but it is thick white bacteria that dulls the color of the coral. The other ill effect has already been covered and that is the high likely hood of overdosing and under dosing vodka.

I am currently running Vertex Pro Bio Pellets in a TLF reactor and a Rio 1100. I just got the thing up and running yesterday. I started with 200ml in my 100 gallon reef and have them completely fluidized, and after 24 hours there has been no bloom. I will continue to observe them and probably add another 100ml in a week. It seems a few people here are using them so this will be nice to be able to compare and contrast results.

As to whether these replace carbon, I would say no for the simple fact that carbon is very fast at neutralizing bad chemicals. I don't really know if Bio Pellets are able to process all the same things as GAC but it doesn't really matter if your corals start going to war and it takes the Bio Pellets a week to remove the slime.

 

[sfexplicit]

Make no mistake. Carbon dosing whether it's vodka, vinegar, sugar, or solid carbon dosing like the biopellets is completely different than granular activated carbon.

 

[hugo209]

i would agree.. whether running vodka or bio- pellets GAC is way different. IMO whether dosing vodka or bio pellets, both methods have exactly the same purpose, One advantage dosing vodka has is that its alot less expensive than running bio-pellets, one bottle of $10 vodka has last me 10months!! and i dont have to run a reactor... I use a gravity feed drip system to dose.

 

[Jacob D]

I don't see why vodka dosing could have any more negative effects than running pellets, assuming both methods are carried out correctly.

The cost of Vodka is def. an advantage but compared to running GFO, biopellets are cheap. I don't mind paying a little more for what I consider a more convenient way to dose carbon. I have had all kinds of dosing systems in the past, everything from drip to a very expensive laboratory peristaltic pump and none of them were perfect. I would still choose dosing pumps over a calcium reactor, but that's a different conversation


By the way everything is going fine for me so far. I increased the flow rate this morning to start tumbling the pellets. I'm still running GFO but I just ran out and I'm deciding whether to get a little more and taper off, or just quit cold turkey...

 

[sfexplicit]

The pellets have been by far way cheaper for me compared to the vodka. In the first month we went through about 2 of the big handles from Coscto. First it was with cranberry juice, then with Rockstars, then wild cherry caprisuns, and with OJ on occasion.

 

[hugo209]

keep the info coming!!! let us know your progress.

 

[Suohhen]

Day three of Bio Pellets Woot!

Well I suppose there are a few things I could share. I had seriously considered going with the new Nextreef SMR1 because that seems to be what everyone is using, but at $110 I felt a lot better about the $35 Phosban 150. I could not find a whole lot of info about people using the Phosban reactor, but given its volume I feel it can hold at least 400ml of pellets which is fine by me.

My sump is completely dark so I have no need for the dark blue Nextreef, and I also don't have a lot of room left in my sump and felt I would have probably have had to plumb it externally which I hate doing.

The laser cut plenum of the SMR1 seems nice but I easily achieved the same thing with a hand cut fiberglass window screen for a dollar. The thick one that's made for pets is plenty stiff to not move around while the reactor is running.

And one more thing, it's not nearly as fun watching vodka swoosh around the tank as it is the Bio Pellets tumbling. I have never spent so much time looking at my sump, and I have been noticing new things down there.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

I wonder how the quality of the BRS pellets are? May have to do some research on those. I can only imagine a handful of manufacturers that actually produce those pellets. Probably just a relabeling the package type of deal with most of the pellets.

 

[sfexplicit]

Ryan, let us know what you find. I've thought the same thing. Everybody and their mother is coming out with pellets. It is seriously helping to drop the price on these now though. I just found the Vertext pellets for half of what I paid when I started and noticed ATB has their own pellets now also.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

What would possibly be the best way to get the pellets going? MB7 or Zeobak?

 

[Suohhen]

You don't need to add anything to get them going. The bacteria needed is present in all water, to the extent that many people have had huge bacterial blooms right after starting the pellets.

I have not researched it myself, but there are quite a few people marketing Bio Pellets now. From what I have heard these are companies using different patents for different plastics. It is also likely as you mentioned that there is some relabeling going on, but I have heard specifically about NP, Vertex, and WM. I also found this article that may shed light on the repackaging.

*I guess the website is banned on RC because it blurred the url. Whatever, its a Reef Builders article and it just explains how the NpX BioBeads are sourced from NP*

 

[Jacob D]

Ryan, nothing is needed to get them going. Some people with high nutrients end up with bacterial bloom just as it is. I don't think adding more bacteria would be a good idea unless your tank was very new/sterile.

Regarding the differences between major brands... I'm not so sure that these are being made by a single source. There are noticeable physical differences and chemical differences between the brands. Most of the media that are bulk produced (carbon, gfo, di resin, etc...) are used outside of reefkeeping for industrial and other applications so it makes sense for bulk production. I don't know that there are other applications for these (?)

 

[Jacob D]

So far so good. I'm going to order another 500ml to add in the beginning of Jan, that will bring me up to 1500ml. I haven't cleaned my glass since a week before Thanksgiving and it looks really good. I'm going to have to soon though because the coralline is starting to set in. My GFO is going on 8 weeks old so the real test begins soon... (I'm not replacing it).

 

[sfexplicit]

Keep an eye on it. IMO it can takes a little while for your pellets to kick in. Depending on where your phosphates were at when you started.

 

[Suohhen]

Time for an update.

Today I added another 100ml bringing my total up to 400ml. I will stop there, I doubt I could fit any more than that, but I don't feel I need any more than that as my tank is 100g with a 20g ref and about 10 gallons in my sump giving me a total of probably 90-100 gallons of water. The recommended dose for that is about 500ml but a lot of that I think is to account for the fact that they dissolve, which I will solve by adding more regularly than the 6 months recommended.

The skimmer has continued to pull out mass amounts of stuff, and the glass (acrylic) hardly needs cleaning.

When I pulled apart the reactor to add more pellets I noticed that the top mesh was getting pretty clogged with stuff. I thought that it was detritus until I examined it and it was almost completely bacteria from the reactor. It turns out the bacteria sticks together to look like a loogie only tougher. I figured it was likely I didn't have the flow up high enough and the bacteria was having time to stick together so I turned the flow up significantly, and I will see if this continues. So far it hasn't become a problem as I can easily pull the mesh out and wash it once a week during maintenance and I haven't noticed it restricting the flow, but I will keep an eye on it.

So far I am very happy with the Vertex Bio Pellets, Phosban Reactor, and Rio 1100+ Pump running it.

 

[sfexplicit]

I gave up on the top mesh and only run the bottom mesh. It kept clogging with bacteria on me and restricted flow. When I add new pellets I always soak in RODI for a day or two, rinse well and that usually does the trick to keep them from floating. When I start the reactor back up I go nice and slow to purge any trapped air and prevent the pellets from exiting. I have a two little fishes gate valve on my MJ1200 so I can slowly open it when firing it back up. But if your not having the clogging problem I had I wouldn't mess with it.

 

[Jacob D]

Hmm... I'll have to check out the mesh on mine. Thanks for the tip.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

Yes, yes! Please do keep all the tips coming. I think I may take the biopellet plunge soon.

 

[Suohhen]

I was running the flow quite slow through my reactor. The reasoning was that I figure the flow is a double sided sword where too much flow can not only push pellets up into the top mesh but also not allow enough time for the bacteria to form on the pellets. However, the pellets bio degrade, constantly releasing carbon into the water. If the bacteria eats it up right there on the spot great, but I don't see the problem with the carbon getting out of the reactor and being eaten elsewhere.

I would be weary to remove the top mesh because I see globs of bacteria pulling up pellets, albeit not a lot of pellets end up in the top mesh but its enough to give me pause. Then again the increased flow might eliminate the globs of bacteria, shouldn't be hard to tell based on how things progress.

 

[sfexplicit]

Organic carbon source in the water column is what vodka/vinegar/sugar dosing accomplishes. And is not something that should harm your tank. The idea behind the pellets is that the bacteria consumes the carbon source in the reactor and does not use your rocks, corals, sand as a medium. Its not that they just dissolve on their own but are rather consumed. It is recommended that the output of your reactor be near or pointed to the input of your protein skimmer to help pull out excess bacteria or what some call mulm. However, some actually point the output of their pellet reactor to their return pump with the idea that this mulm will feed their corals. I believe Shadowramy and others including a recent RC TOTM recipient follow this school of thought with success. I'm going by what is recommended by the manufacturer and have my pellet reactor output pointed at my skimmer at the moment but may try the other way some day. I find this similar to those running full Zeovit that have to pump their Zeolite rocks daily to release the mulm to feed corals. I am more concerned about the pellets actually leaving the reactor than I am concerned with the bacteria or mulm that may enter the water column. I am running a slightly larger reactor than the smaller TLF phosban reactor and so have a little extra room between my tumbling pellets and the top of the reactor itself and so have some room for any floating errant pellets to fall back down without leaving the reactor. You should be able to get a nice even tumble without the pellets shooting out of the reactor. If not either you have too much flow or you need a bigger reactor. Just my 2cents.