BioPellets yes or no?

Borchers

Reefer Who needs Help!!!
So do you use BioPellets or not. Please explain why and how. I'm thinking of adding this to my system. I want to create the perfect system for my corals and I have been looking to all that's out there for our tanks.

BioPellets
Zeovit
Refugium
GFO
2 part dosing
Vodka dosing
Sugar dosing
Vinegar dosing
Combo dosing
Algae turf scrubber


I'm looking to make it simple but effective. Your thoughts would be awesome. Also if you use one of the above methods what are your results.

Cheers! :beer:
 
I vodka dosed for about a month, just a tiny bit and it dropped my nitrates from 20 to 0 and they have stayed there. I currently have an algae scrubber going to reduce phosphates but it isn't the most effective way from what I can tell. Grows gha and cyano like crazy with 2 cfl bulbs from Walmart.
 
Where is calcium reactor on your list. I've been on the road 5 weeks out of the last 9. My wife and daughter have maintained the tank by keeping the ATO reservoir full and emptying the skimmer.
 
No. Water changes are still the easiest and most fail safe method.

Calcium reactor, GFO, carbon.
Simple and effective.

And I've tried vodka, zeo, bio pellets, and a few sales pitches as well.
 
I see! I run Carbon now and and do regular water changes. I am setting up my 2 part system soon. The next big add is my remote Refugium.
 
I tried running them for a few months and had problems with them clumping. I also found my SPS seemed to bleach out after running them, I think I already have a really low nutrient system anyways. Water changes every week, running GFO and an over sized skimmer.

I found a few patches of algae sprout up when running them which could have been a product of them clumping? After turning the pellets off the algae started to recede.

I also tried running the pellets on some live rock I was cycling, I also had clumping issues there but neglected to attend to it for about a month figuring there was no harm since it was just rock I was cycling. Well I somehow created sulfur in the bio balls and stunk up my garage, turned all the rocks black and grew some nasty stuff in the water. Restarted those rocks after blasting them with the hose and letting them dry.

So yeah I'm planning a new 225 system and I'm thinking right now I'll not be running them on that system wither.
 
My opinion is if you don't need it dont use it. If all your husbandry keeps your nitrates down then there is no need for them. Now if you want to really overload your tank with fish a bioplastics system might be a necessity to keep nitrates down.
 
One thing I do want to add is if you or anyone else does decide to go with the Biopellets is to make sure and start at a LOW dosage. I started at 50% and it was way too much. I got a huge bacteria bloom about 3 days after starting them. I backed it down to a 25% dose and it went away. I then bumped it up about 10% a week until I was at a full dose. They do what they are supposed to. To well in my case. My corals were not happy with the low amount of nutrients.

I then went to Vodka which worked really well for the tiny amount you use. After hearing a few stories (of course there are always stories) about the long term effects of vodka dosing I decided to go a different route. I now use the Brightwell MicroBacter7. Have really been impressed. I use a small dose (25ml) 2 times a week. I seem to run right about 5 on the nitrates now. And only clean glass once a week. PE has been much better also. Although it is making me a little cocky in the fact I have now been feeding the coral and fish much more, but it seems to make my skimmer run better also. I dunno, I have a reactor, 2 bags of NPX pellets and a bottle of NPX Bioactive8 if somehow the carbon dosing fails...
 
I run the whole lot of it. I started the system off with it in the beginning so it gives me no contrast info except where I am at a year later. Unlike a lot of bio pellet trials where they are introduced to an already mature tank and results can be recorded pro n con.
I have both bio pellets and gfo running in seperate 150 reactors. I have a fuge and I also have a 20g FT hooked to the same system that has a slower turn over rate of water so I utilize this by polishing the water with both carbon and chemi pure in media bags in a hob filter.
My nutrients are obviously low, but if you ask me personally imo it is all over kill and seeming now at this point to be stealing from my corals. Yes algae isnt a big problem but stripped water is equally lame. And to boot I still have problem areas with cyano on the sand that comes back daily after the lights come on. And its not a flow problem as you can see those areas are constantly being blown around and yet still cyano. There are to many variables on my system to be able to pinpoint it to a specific source but i do run heavily stocked with fish and coral-all healthy because I feed but not over feed and I run .02 phos and undetectable nitrates. At this point I am almost scared to change anything to give me a real site into what filtration parts of my system are actually doing it for me rather than riding the tail end of another media that is actually doing all the work.
In the end from what I have read on actual documented specific bio pellet experiments is that the results you can get is a couple extra days without having to clean the glass and stripped down water. Not to appitizing but neither is algae.
 
Back
Top