N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing) - Split

[tntneon]

, oke then that problem is covered
I dose my alk and Ca automaticly , what i've tried in the past was to mix my vinagar with my Ca solution .
But after a while i got black slime (bateria) in there ?
Clogging all the tubes , and reducing top-off/ Ca flow ?
Randy , do you dose it seperatly ?

greetingzz tntneon

 

[Scej12]

Okay - so after 24 hours approximately... the tank pH has risen up to 8.28 with 3 hours left within the photoperiod. This was due to the splashing of DT drain into the sump; and boosting my dKH. My dKH boost was a little much... rose up from 7.5 to 9.5, but I suspect the pH will settle to average out at 8.2 ish over the next week or two, as the dKH drops back toward 8.

Will have to wait and see if there is any change to the cyano proliferation.

Sheldon

 

[reeftivo]

system is still holding stable with no adverse effects at all. Went out of town for 5 days and came back to only a light dusting on the glass. animals were all fine. NO3 went from 2ppm to 5 ppm but water change brought it back down to 2pmm. My PO4 is holding at .03 and stays consistant with no rise.

still waiting for a 0 to 1 ppm reading for nitrates on my tunze measuring box kit but I'll settle for the 2 ppm it's holding at now. I will cross check the NO3 with another test kit because my tunze reagents are over a year old. No problems to date and the Mg levels I had issues with have been resolved.

I have yet to see any drop in pH other than night drop (pH 8.3-8.4 consistantly). likely because of the tunze skimmer aeration and the good surface movement.

No complaints yet!

 

[this is me]

5 weeks into BRS bio pellets and running GFO and things are looking good. Nitrate is close to 0 and phosphate is ~0.01-0.02. I use a NextReef SMR1 with an MJ1200 and the 250ml of pellets tumble beautifully without any clog or clumps since day one. I love the reactor so much that I'll be ordering the MR1 for my GFO and carbon.
SPS frags are starting to grow and color pretty nicely.

 

[reeftivo]

5 weeks into BRS bio pellets and running GFO and things are looking good. Nitrate is close to 0 and phosphate is ~0.01-0.02. I use a NextReef SMR1 with an MJ1200 and the 250ml of pellets tumble beautifully without any clog or clumps since day one. I love the reactor so much that I'll be ordering the MR1 for my GFO and carbon.
SPS frags are starting to grow and color pretty nicely.

Hi "this is me",

I notice your doing better with trates than me and we've been running them about the same amount of time. Just curious to your feeding regimen! How much do you feed? I have a low to moderate bio load (mixed reef-4 fish) and prior to the pellets I was only feeding spectrum daily for the fish with a weekly feeding of brine and coral mix for the corals. I now feed a daily cube instead of weekly (brine,mysis,spirulina,rotifersetc.). Just wondering if I may be feeding too much for such a small system. My system is 54 gallons but net is around 45 gallons.

Any suggestions are appreciated

Tivo

 

[this is me]

Hi Tivo,
I have more fish than I should. I hope the tang police are not around.
1 yellow tang
1 sailfin tang
3 chromis
2 lyretail anthias
2 onyx clowns
1 leopard wrasse

My trates used to be really high. 20ppm+ before the pellets. I went mad with the water change when I wanted to knock down my trates. But it always creeps back up to 20+ppm after the 3rd day or so of the water change. I fed about 0.5" square of Hikari mysis once a day. Rinsed and all.
After running the pellets for about a week, my trates were down to pretty much undectectable. I had to take the GFO offline for the first week of running pellets after hearing that it needs phosphate in the water to eat up the nitrate. After a couple days of undetected nitrate, I put my GFO back online. I bumped up my feeding to 1"square of rinsed mysis. I'm now able to leave the glass alone for a full week. It used to be only a couple days that my glass would be cover with green film algae.
While my trates and phosphate are low, I still see bubble algae starting to show its ugly head. I think I may have 3 tiny ones in the tank right now which I will siphon out during my waterchange. I do bi-weekly waterchange now instead of weekly. If your corals and fish are happy, I wouldn't be too worry about a little bit of nitrate. 2-5ppm is not going to hurt much. I think it will eventually be down if you leave the pellets running unchanged.

 

[reeftivo]

thanks Nick

Thats funny "tang police"! Ya no kidding! I read some pretty harsh bashing from some of the "tang police" even when someones thinking of putting 1 juvinile yellow in a tank less than 55 gallons.

Sounds like yours are happy.

I'll just keep things going the way they are and if trates and Po4 increase I may cut the cubes to 1/2 daily.

So far so good!

Happy reefing

Tivo

 

[tntneon]

Hi Tivo,
.... I'm now able to leave the glass alone for a full week. It used to be only a couple days that my glass would be cover with green film algae.
While my trates and phosphate are low, I still see bubble algae starting to show its ugly head. I think I may have 3 tiny ones in the tank right now which I will siphon out during my waterchange....

Hi this is me ,

Even if you have undectectable P & N , you can experience little out breaks of algea .
I run my system for over 2 two years undectectable , but due to some dead spots (no flow) in the back corner of my tank i'll experienced alot of sedamentation of debris in that corner and after a while there has started to grow a little bit of caulerpa.
Also when something (big fireworm) in the rocks die they to will relaese P & N to the surronding rock , in wich the rock feeds the algea .
If you do your WC's regulary and keep up good husbandry it will go away.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[rkaires]

system is still holding stable with no adverse effects at all. Went out of town for 5 days and came back to only a light dusting on the glass. animals were all fine. NO3 went from 2ppm to 5 ppm but water change brought it back down to 2pmm. My PO4 is holding at .03 and stays consistant with no rise.

still waiting for a 0 to 1 ppm reading for nitrates on my tunze measuring box kit but I'll settle for the 2 ppm it's holding at now. I will cross check the NO3 with another test kit because my tunze reagents are over a year old. No problems to date and the Mg levels I had issues with have been resolved.

I have yet to see any drop in pH other than night drop (pH 8.3-8.4 consistantly). likely because of the tunze skimmer aeration and the good surface movement.

No complaints yet!

Sounds great reeftivo. I've been using zeo for a few years now and my main issue is when work and travel keep me away from my system. Pumping the stones twice a day is getting old as well.

I'm in the process of using up my zeo supplies and will be giving NP Bio-pellets a try.

 

[Bababooy]

If and when you transition, up remember to start with half the recommended amount of pellets. Then ramp up from there. I would also keep some of the zeo supplements like bac, snow , xtra. Sponge power should not be necessary since many report alot of sponge growth with only the pellets.

 

[cherubfish pair]

When comparing bp to other carbon dosing, don't forget the nutrient export if the reactor's output is directed into the skimmer. A lot of the bacteria will be pushed up into the collection cup. You don't have nutrient export with the other forms of carbon dosing.

 

[rkaires]

If and when you transition, up remember to start with half the recommended amount of pellets. Then ramp up from there. I would also keep some of the zeo supplements like bac, snow , xtra. Sponge power should not be necessary since many report alot of sponge growth with only the pellets.

Thanks,

I plan on a slow transition from zeo to bio-pellets. The plan is to run both reactors simultaneously. I'll start with 1/4 the recommended amount and increase each week by a 1/4 while reducing zeo in 1/4 increments.

 

[rkaires]

When comparing bp to other carbon dosing, don't forget the nutrient export if the reactor's output is directed into the skimmer. A lot of the bacteria will be pushed up into the collection cup. You don't have nutrient export with the other forms of carbon dosing.

I'll be placing the BP reactor in the same chamber as my skimmer. My zeo reactor is in the same chamber as my return pump. I don't get too much mulm from my stones when I pump them.

 

[larryfl1]

hey all,

i have been on the fence between no pox carbon dosing or pellets..i own both and have the octopus reactor if i go that route..

i am 1 week into no pox and i have a lot of cyano....

what is the pro/cons of changing to the pellet route? will it overstrip the tank for a mixed reef?

i have very heavy fish population in a 350 and feed heavily...i also can dose...

so in everyones opinion why should i change from carbon dosing that hasn't kicked in yet..but have cyano all over to bio pellets?

also if i do change over...since i have been dosing carbon for about 9 days is there any issue just sopping and changing over??

 

[bertoni]

Nine days isn't very long. You could give carbon dosing more time, or switch. Either should be safe enough at this point. I don't know which approach would be more effective. That seems to vary from tank to tank.

 

[larryfl1]

what should i do about the cyano?? do i just wait for the carbon dosing to really kick in? i have 0 phosphates already and nitrate is only about 2.5 or so...

 

[cherubfish pair]

What do you pellet tumblers have for tank bottoms? I can't decide between a dsb with plenum in one of my tanks or pellets. I've never tried the dsb/plenum thing and now is the time to do it if I do. I can always take out the dsb and switch to pellets.

Who knows? Maybe both will be the right combination.

 

[cnaegler]

I have SSB in my display and a DSB in my fuge. The DSB is more for the critters than nitrate reduction. I like a DSB, but with the pellets, i find that it's pretty much "set and forget". Of course, so is a DSB, but the pellets also keep my PO4 lower than any other nutrient export system i have used and i've tried DSB, Zeo and pellets.

 

[cnaegler]

what should i do about the cyano?? do i just wait for the carbon dosing to really kick in? i have 0 phosphates already and nitrate is only about 2.5 or so...

IMO, you should try to siphon as much cyano/ algae out as possible. I found that, although the pellets work great to maintain the water clarity, they don't remove cyano or algae....at least in my case. I had to manually remove it, with a toothbrush in a 300 gallon tank, a couple of times but now that it's gone i haven't seen any sign of it's return.

 

[HighlandReefer]

You don't have nutrient export with the other forms of carbon dosing.

Why do you say that?