biopellets question

Mike de Leon

Mike de Leon

New member
Hello reefers!

I have just added 500 ml to my reactor. Very lightly stocked 160 gallon. How long will the pellets take to start working?
 
I have a reactor, it takes about 3 weeks since it needs to grow bacteria. In my tank I need to feed the fish/ coral more with this reactor, careful not to starve your animals. If it is so lightly stocked is it really necessary to add this reactor, good water change, some gfo and normal feeding sounds safer.
 
Thanks Toothman. What has been your experience with biopellets? I wanted to bring both nitrate and phosphate down and add more livestock. I did this a while ago and bleached the corals due to starvation. I thought this is a more effective and economical way in the long run. I know i will have to feed more.
Did your pellets actually help improve the colors? Thanks again...
 
biopellets can be very dangerous. There is a lot of talk on reef central regarding rtn, stn and biopellets. There also a lot of reefers that get cyano growing uncontrollably with any carbon dosing method.

Also many pictures show badly bleached millepora, tricolor coral that looks amazing, but the fact is it is on the verge of death. This is from having the nutrients so low and starving the coral. Only good reef skills will get the zoos to grow back to a healthy state.

The real magic bullet for acros is good water, good water changes, and steady parameters. That is it.

So I am not against biopellets just use them in a smaller dose than the directions. Make sure you start overfeeding the tank when the pellets kick in.
 
Toothman,
Thanks for the last post - I just started using biopellets and am trying to figure out the best way to use them in my tank. It's a new 150 gallon (used to have a 75 with softies/lps) and I'm really trying to have success with a SPS tank.

What do you guys think is appropriate feeding wise for SPS tanks?

I remember, even just a few years ago, everyone was saying "ultra low nutrients" for SPS, so now it's sort of changing as technology makes it actually possible for ultra-low?
 
I think the confusion lies with out definition of "nutrients". If nutrients means PO4 and NO3....than low or even ultra low is great. But if by "nutrients" we are talking about food and bioload than I would say low and ultra low is bad.

The way I have achieved the best coloration is have strong bio and mechanical filtration to keep PO4 and NO3 low while still feeding my tank appropriately.

People can get into trouble when they have good equipment and think they want ULNS so they stop feeding.....eventually this will lead to starved fish and corals.
 
I love biopellets. Been using them for 2-3 years without problems. They keep my bad nutrients really low, which allows me to feed heavier for the corals with oyster feast, rotifeast, amino acids. My SPS look great. I am a big proponent of biopellets when used correctly.

I wonder if brands of pellets matter. I used Warner Marine EcoBak pellets for a year and loved them. When I ran out I tried an off brand that was cheaper. It made my water cloudy for a week. So I took them offline, removed them, and bought some more Warner Marine pellets. Ran them again and they have worked perfectly ever since. They are the only pellets I will ever use again as long as they keep making them.
 
I used 50% of recommended amount and still had tank crash. Most of the corals get bleached and 70% dead I took BP off with the first sign of the problem but couldn't stop bleaching. I would say if it works now - don't brake it.

ps. and yes cyano is all over my tank.
 
I've used them on two different setups. I currently use 500mL of the BRS variety on my 75 and love using them. Nitrate is not detectable and phosphates are at .05 (not completely gone but low). My corals have gotten much better in color (some from brown to vivid green/purple).

I haven't had issues with cyano when I have used them either time. I made sure to add something like MB7 or another bacterial additive to the reactor when I set it up. It is recommended to add bacterial additive to the biopellets to provide a variety in bacteria and not just the bacteria present in your aquarium. It helps to kick start the colonization.

It takes on average 4-8 weeks to see the results take effect. You need to feed when using biopellets. My first time using them my corals did lose a bit of color (became more pastel). I wasn't feeding anything but spirulina on an every other day basis then. I feed a variety (frozen/spirulina/pellets/cyclopese) daily sometimes twice now.

Just make sure you have a good skimmer and that the outlet of the reactor is near the skimmer pump.
 
OneReef said:
I wonder if brands of pellets matter. I used Warner Marine EcoBak pellets for a year and loved them. When I ran out I tried an off brand that was cheaper. It made my water cloudy for a week. So I took them offline, removed them, and bought some more Warner Marine pellets. Ran them again and they have worked perfectly ever since. They are the only pellets I will ever use again as long as they keep making them.
Click to expand...

can you share what the "off-brand" is...or pm it if you don't want to say publicly?
 
Thanks for sharing folks! I always wondered if using a zeo reactor will help to gradually introduce this system to avoid any shock.
 
Personally I think the 500ml you started with is much too much for your tank. 500 might be a good number to end up at, but I would suggest starting at something like 150-200ml and working your way up. You can always add more pellets, but lots of people get burned really quick with a high dosage of BP. HTH
 
I added the BRS biopellet reactor and pellet combo about 2 weeks ago. I had a somewhat bad cynao problem before the pellets. Now, 95% of the cynao is gone! All corals look as good if not better except my RBTA. Still looks great but no where near as plump these past 2 weeks.
 
This 50/50 good to bad luck with bio pellets are the reason why I have stayed away. Coral mag had a good article on bio pellets a few months ago.
 
The only thing you have to be wary of is if your tank has high nutrients already.....biopellets can reek havoc on a tank that has anything but super low nitrate and phosphate. People add them to solve problems that are existing and they run into issues...the best time to add pellets is when/if your tank already has 0ppm nitrate and low phosphate or when the tank is brand new with no inhabitants.
 
Hands down my best looking corals were in a temporary storage tank after my basement flooded. I didn't skim, no water changes, didn't feed, just had a 20k 400 w bulb, live rock, a tunze stream, and kalkwasser dumped in for top off. Bubble algae grew like crazy but I just harvested it and it left the corals alone mostly. After a year the colors were fantastic with fair growth. That must have been ideal nitrates and phosphates.
 
BradR said:
Hands down my best looking corals were in a temporary storage tank after my basement flooded. I didn't skim, no water changes, didn't feed, just had a 20k 400 w bulb, live rock, a tunze stream, and kalkwasser dumped in for top off. Bubble algae grew like crazy but I just harvested it and it left the corals alone mostly. After a year the colors were fantastic with fair growth. That must have been ideal nitrates and phosphates.
Click to expand...
That is the balance......you had nil filtration and you added nil food to the system. If you want some nice fat fish than you need to feed and filter. Also I would bet that had just the right amount of built up nutrients in the system....like you mentioned.

One of the nicest SPS tank I have witnessed in real life was Dave Jelly (250g).....at the time he never did water changes, but he also had very few fish and feed them very sparingly.

What ever you do it's about walking that nutrient/food high wire....its a balancing act. Often I see people with TOO nutrient/food deprived systems.....they got a big skimmer, do water changes, feed very little and have very little fish....they are stuck on this idea of ULNS.....but that wont get you the colors IME.
 
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