Biopellets

[gws76]

Has anyone experienced any problems with the Biopellets yet?

 

[Pudge957]

Nope none here. Also I'm having to clean my glass once very 3-4 days when it was everyday before using them, so that's a nice change.

 

[kent ashbrener]

same here, my hair algae is total gone.
I still get a little brown algae on my rocks but I think a few more snails will take care of that.

 

[happysak]

No, so far no problem. I had some bacterial bloom after I added more pellets, but it went away few days later. NO3 10 on Elos kit, PO4 0.8:bigeyes: (I know, they are getting better. They were 1.4) So I got new reactor and I will be adding another 200ml. Total will be= 600ml ( I can not run ferric oxide on this tank, so phosphate level became pain in a$$)

 

[blakers82]

Why can't you run ferric oxide?

 

[happysak]

Reactor clogs up too fast. 2-3 days and time to clean it(too much stuff in system).

 

[blakers82]

Well, I guess I don't see what kind of system you are using pellets on. Could you fill us in on how large a system and what corals you are keeping, etc?

And was it your GFO reactor that clogs up? I've read to just tumble the top of your GFO. What kind of a reactor and flow?

 

[chuggy]

tagging along
has anyone noticed any ill effects on fish during the bacterial bloom? How long should it last? should i turn the media reactor off during the bacterial bloom?

 

[kent ashbrener]

with the bio pellets I never had a bloom only a decrase in phos. and algea

 

[cjilge]

I do know feric oxide really upsets my toadstool to a point it will close up for several weeks. Did you guys using pellets kick it off with zeobak?

 

[happysak]

I do know feric oxide really upsets my toadstool to a point it will close up for several weeks. Did you guys using pellets kick it off with zeobak?

No, no zeobak, but I'm using ultra-bio in my coral food.

 

[happysak]

Well, I guess I don't see what kind of system you are using pellets on. Could you fill us in on how large a system and what corals you are keeping, etc?

My build thread

And was it your GFO reactor that clogs up? I've read to just tumble the top of your GFO. What kind of a reactor and flow?

Sponges in reactor get clog up from large amount of food. Tank gets food around 5-7 times a day.

 

[blakers82]

Right on. I see you added some pics of the reactor modification to that thread now. That will be helpful to some people for sure! I wasn't sure which tank of yours you are running the pellets on. If I'm not mistaken, you told me you have atleast another aquarium or two at home and of course the SPS tank at aquariums. Are you running or planning on running pellets on any others?

 

[happysak]

Right on. I see you added some pics of the reactor modification to that thread now. That will be helpful to some people for sure! ?

Reactor modification. Link to it, scroll down the page.

I wasn't sure which tank of yours you are running the pellets on. If I'm not mistaken, you told me you have atleast another aquarium or two at home and of course the SPS tank at aquariums. Are you running or planning on running pellets on any others?

Yes I do. After I will get rolling with my new project:bigeyes: I will be adding reactor to my home tank.

 

[gws76]

Had to add some pics to this thread.

I've been so impressed with my Reef Octopus recirculation skimmer that I picked up last month that I decided to pick up one of the new Reef Octopus Biopellet reactors. I was using a borrowed GEO media reactor with screening in it. But the flow was one sided and channeling the pellets which caused me to have to shake the reactor everyday to keep the pellets from clumping. With the Reef Octopus, there is no way this can happen. It's an upflow reactor with a cone in the bottom. The flow hits the bottom of the cone then evenly stirs the pellets completely.

This is the big one, BR140, a little overkill, but I like it.

Wish I had a video camera to show how well the pellets flow. There is a video on the coralvue site.

 

[Glazner]

How about some more feedback on people using the bio pellets. I have been using the Ecobak pellets for about 2 mths. Have had no negative reactions or blooms. One nice thing is I clean my glass way less than before. Will be testing my water later today and can post results. Another nice thing, is the set up is simple, set it and forget it....

 

[cjilge]

i just p/u the same reactor as glenn, so hopefully over the next few weeks I will post before during and after params. We'll see.

 

[gws76]

I've been running them for a couple months now. I'm running the vertex pellets and dosing zeobak per the instructions.

The reason I asked, "Is anyone having any problems with the pellets?", was because I was having some problems when I added the second bag. I ran a little over one bag the first month and then the day after the last meeting, I added the whole second bag. Not completely sure what happened but within 24 hrs. I started having a little stn on my acro's. Maybe I shocked the system by adding the whole bag at once, not sure. If I had it to do over again I would have added the second bag slowly. Like over a week or two's time. But, again, I'm not completely sure that is what was causing the stn. I did some water changes, cleaned my reflectors, and changed the carbon out as well as the gfo. Maybe that took care of the whatever was causing the problem if it wasn't the pellets.

Either way, my phosphates and nitrates are non existent. Everything looks good and healty now. I'm getting color back in corals that had lost it six months ago. I'm marking this up to everything I've been doing as well as the pellets.

 

[gws76]

i just p/u the same reactor as glenn, so hopefully over the next few weeks I will post before during and after params. We'll see.

It's a beast!

 

[MBryant]

Happysak. I would love for you to show me how to modify the phosbhan reactor to do the bio pellets.