LF: Bio Pellet Reactor

toofrigginswt

New member
Hey guys/gals! Anyone selling a good bio pellet reactor that can work for a 125 gallon tank? I'm trying to see if I can find a used one locally first instead of getting a new one. Thanks in advance!
 
Please be careful implementing them. I've read a lot of horror stories about them crashing or stressing Sps.
 
Thanks for the concern and I will definitely keep that in mind.. I've read all the horror stories of cyanobacteria, stripping the tank of nutrients too much, etc.. I'm only going to do a quarter of the recommended amount, maybe even less, and gradually increase in several months. I figured it's better for me to set it up in the beginning stages of my tank rather than later.
 
FYI, I crashed two systems because of the wm ecobak biopellet before. It promotes both good AND bad bacteria so if you have bad bacteria already in your system it will crash your tank. People said that you have to wait out the bacterial bloom but the bloom never went away in my case. The bad bacteria killed a lot of my priced fish and corals. Luckily I started fresh with my new system so I did not carry any with me. In conclusion, I am no longer a Ginny pig for new products that come out the market. I still carbon dose religiously. Approx 25ml of vodka on a 800 gallon system dosed after every water change Friday nights. This I can control. Whoever said you have to do it daily doesn't have all the facts straight. The carbon source does not get used up within a day. I only use it in conjunction to wet skimming to help lower nitrates and I do not run ulns. I can still run biopellets now but I would have to run ozone more frequent as well to counter act the massive bacterial population explosion and until things settle down.

Regards,
Glenn
 
J, I suggest you run vodka first and when your nitrates are low then hook up the biopellet reactor. The safest is to have your tank used to carbon dosing with low nitrates so you don't get a sudden bacterial explosion. I am for biopellets. I just wished I knew how to use it initially.
 
Thanks for the concern and I will definitely keep that in mind.. I've read all the horror stories of cyanobacteria, stripping the tank of nutrients too much, etc.. I'm only going to do a quarter of the recommended amount, maybe even less, and gradually increase in several months. I figured it's better for me to set it up in the beginning stages of my tank rather than later.

Good Idea to use only 1/4 of dosage and increase it over time. Worked out good for me when I ran them, but I did start out too fast and stripped the water of nutrients at first. I innoculated with MB7 to start.
 
You have some great points Glenn.

What do you think of these steps I have in mind.... Right now I'm dosing MB7. I've been doing it for 3 weeks now. Next I'm going to start dosing vinegar. I'll probably do this for another 1-2 months. Then install the bio pellet reactor and only apply 1/4 of the recommended amount. My total volume is 150 but I'm actually only using the display volume of 125gal. So I'll start off with about 150ml of bio pellets for a couple months. I'll slowly increase the amount of biopellets from there.

Also, you mentioned bad bacteria... how do I know if I have the bad bacteria or not?
 
Good Idea to use only 1/4 of dosage and increase it over time. Worked out good for me when I ran them, but I did start out too fast and stripped the water of nutrients at first. I innoculated with MB7 to start.

Plus 1. I used mb7 and prodibio biodigest to seed.
 
You have some great points Glenn.

What do you think of these steps I have in mind.... Right now I'm dosing MB7. I've been doing it for 3 weeks now. Next I'm going to start dosing vinegar. I'll probably do this for another 1-2 months. Then install the bio pellet reactor and only apply 1/4 of the recommended amount. My total volume is 150 but I'm actually only using the display volume of 125gal. So I'll start off with about 150ml of bio pellets for a couple months. I'll slowly increase the amount of biopellets from there.

Also, you mentioned bad bacteria... how do I know if I have the bad bacteria or not?

You are in the right track. You won't know if you have bad bacteria until you start carbon dosing unfortunately. It's a balancing act until your system is stable. I've used 2 big bottles of vodka since I started a year ago. I don't think it is about system volume so I cannot recommend your dosage. Use it but don't abuse it I say. Also, get that amino acid ready if you see your corals pale. I use Elos omega aa daily with my feed mixture.
 
Thanks for the concern and I will definitely keep that in mind.. I've read all the horror stories of cyanobacteria, stripping the tank of nutrients too much, etc.. I'm only going to do a quarter of the recommended amount, maybe even less, and gradually increase in several months. I figured it's better for me to set it up in the beginning stages of my tank rather than later.

I did the same method. Hopefully your results are better than what I had on an established tank.
 
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Last note with bad bacteria . Watch your fishes. If you see finrot and anything white on your fishes stop dosing any carbon.
 
Last note with bad bacteria . Watch your fishes. If you see finrot and anything white on your fishes stop dosing any carbon.

Glenn, how does fin rot have anything to do with carbon? Ive always thought finrot happens from other fish nipping at the fins and poor water quality. Keeping good water quality is the #1 prevention for fin rot.
 
I used to think fungus was the culprit for fin rot but in my case it was bacteria . I likely had a flesh eating bacteria in the water that never got a foothold because of clean water and healthy fish. When I carbon dosed, my healthy mixed reef tank went downhill quickly all other variables being equal. It proliferates good and bad bacteria. You just have to experience it to believe it. The damsels/clownfish species went first followed by the bigger fishes. Whatever it was multiplied when I added carbon.
 
Vertex Rx-U reactor is in the mail and should come in next week!

rxu_15_1_zps39f6397c.jpg


I'm going to test this reactor and if its good, I'll probably upgrade my BRS gfo and carbon reactors.
 
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