My Move to Biopellets

Giovanni said:
I put biopellets online yesterday. Today my tank is cloudy and my skimmer is not skimming. Is it the biopellets?
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Yes, if you have a high nutrient system and add pellets, it can cause your water to turn cloudy. It will clear up in time.
 
What about the skimmer not skimming? Is this a bacteria bloom? Also I in no way have a heavy bio-load. I have over 400g of water with only four small tangs, one each small flame, six line, clown and yellow watchman and seven small green chromis.
 
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My skimmer is working over time. Is the output from your biopellet reactor pointed to the skimmer? I added a pipe to the intake of my skimmer and plumbed the reactor in.
 
I guess I should be more descriptive. I was running a very dry foam. Over night after starting the biopellets the foam became very wet. This resulted in less skimming because there was not a corresponding increase in water level. if I were to increase the water level in the skimmer I would be filling the waste bucket very fast!
 
I made my biopellet reactor out of a deltec calcium reactor. Works very well. My skimmer is almost back to normal this morning and the bacteria bloom is almost gone in the tank.

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SmpLmcHxDp0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen hd=1></iframe>
 
So I am considering putting one in after the first of the year. What is this bacteria bloom I see you refer too? What causes it and what does it do to your tank?
 
It appears as cloudy water. Kinda milky. It cleared up after about four days. The bloom is the result of the food that that biopellets provide.
 
OneReef said:
From what I learned at MaCNA, the ideal sump setup has a skimmer section on one end, the Refugium on the other, and the return section in the center. With one drain going to the skimmer section (into a bubble tower) and another drain going the the fuge, both overflowing into the return center. The best drain I saw there was one long drain that went first to the skimmer section, and then continued on over to the regugium section, with a ball valve before the end of the drain on the fuge. That way you can dial in how much flow/water rate is going to your fuge. hope that makes sense. Just some info I picked up that I wanted to pass along.
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Thanks for the great idea Jay!!!! I have a new tank coming soon and I will be setting it up as you describe.

I am going to run one drain to each side with a valve on each to regulate.
 
I just read something very interesting. I read that when using biopellets, you should not exceed an alkalinity level of 8. Once alk exceeds 8, neucrosis is known to occur on SPS corals. Many of you may have known this, but I didn't. My alk hit 10 last week and I lost an acro in less than 8 hours. (I am still adjusting my 2 part dosing regimen.)

Upon further research, I have notice that every TOTM winner keeps their alk between 7 and 8.

Like I said, many of you may have already known this, but I am sharing this for those who didn't.
 
Whoweeee!!! 24 days in and a 20ppm drop in nitrates!! I also have a slight drop in ph but I am still in range.

Nitrates: 60 ppm
Alk: 8.1
Calc: 430
Mag: 1420(I overdosed)
Phosphate: <.5
Ph: 7.95
 
That's pretty significant! I can't wait to see how low they get. I am following closely. If this works well for out I think I am going to put one in.
 
carlii said:
I just read something very interesting. I read that when using biopellets, you should not exceed an alkalinity level of 8. Once alk exceeds 8, neucrosis is known to occur on SPS corals. Many of you may have known this, but I didn't. My alk hit 10 last week and I lost an acro in less than 8 hours. (I am still adjusting my 2 part dosing regimen.)

Upon further research, I have notice that every TOTM winner keeps their alk between 7 and 8.

Like I said, many of you may have already known this, but I am sharing this for those who didn't.
Click to expand...


Yes, that's kind of been the rule of thumb for a few years. I noticed mine had creeped up to 11 so I turned off my Ca reactor to let it come back down to 7-8. It dropped to 7 in a few days. I think that may partly have caused my crash months ago, but I'll never know for sure. I keep mine around 8 normally, that's where it is now.
 
carlii said:
Whoweeee!!! 24 days in and a 20ppm drop in nitrates!! I also have a slight drop in ph but I am still in range.

Nitrates: 60 ppm
Alk: 8.1
Calc: 430
Mag: 1420(I overdosed)
Phosphate: <.5
Ph: 7.95
Click to expand...


Nice. :) it should continue to come down in coming weeks. My pH stays around 7.9 and everything stays healthy.
 
So day 29. Wierd. Nitrates back up around 80 ppm.

I started dosing Microbactor 7 on yesterday. I have heard that it takes 4 to 8 weeks for the reactor to take effect.

Technically I have only run the reactor for 21 days. I was dosing sugar for the first week until the reactor came in.

Lets see how week 5 goes. The protein skimmer is still making some really funky stuff!

I guess the bacteria is still colonizing.
 
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