N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

[gary faulkner]

-It surely would have the same effect than bypassing the reactor i think.
But i would let the skimmer run though , since in my case , if i stop my skimmer i always have issues to get him started again :rolleye1:
And also when you stop your skimmer , the foam collapses back in the tank / sump water probably releasing some accumulated organics , don't know for sure .

greetingzz tntneon

If you're having trouble getting it restarted you might want to check the impellar magnet. They all swell over time and need to be replaced.

HTH

 

[tntneon]

Thx for the tip Gary , didn't knew that :idea:

If i blow some breathing air into the air line of the skimmer it seems to kickstart the skimmer (air less mass then water ,to move ??)

greetingzz tntneon

 

[gary faulkner]

Thx for the tip Gary , didn't knew that :idea:

If i blow some breathing air into the air line of the skimmer it seems to kickstart the skimmer (air less mass then water ,to move ??)

greetingzz tntneon

That's what I had to do to get mine started. Check against a new impellar and you will see that your old one is swollen. Need to get it replaced before it damages the inside of your pump.

 

[Tony Romano]

Im on week three of brs bio pellets. I mis-read the instructions for the zeobak. For the first two weeks I added 5 drops per day for my 125g. Still no reduction with po4 and no3. I havent noticed anything except my dendrophillias are staying closed most of the time now. I did my scheduled water change two days after I stopped adding the zeobak(but changed about 40%). Do I have cause to be alarmed?

I don't think so. Go slow -- consistancy is more important than fast reduction. I am on 6 months plus and still have never hit 0 on NO3. But I am consistantly under 5 ppm and am seeing less color over time. I feed haeay for fish and corals, hard to find sweet spot and keep tank there. What do you feed your dendrophillias?

 

[Sentari]

Recently added NP Pellets to my system.

Bubble Magus 100 Filter.

I've added 250ml pellets. This weekend i will be adding another 250ml of pellets.

I also have a DSB which i feel has been causing troubles. I will be removing this soon as i feel it has become a nutrient sink.

Here's a video of the reactor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7WuCnzIn70

 

[liver]

?How long can the pellets sit an reactor if the power goes out before bacteria starts dying off and producing sulfur. I am thinking this pump needs to be added to my backup system.

 

[Rhodes19]

I was looking at my tank last night and it looks like the gha is starting to come back with some cyano. The reactor has been running or about 8 weeks and has all 4 cups of pellets in it. I have not increased feeding and I am still doing my regular wc. Have to see what the next couple of weeks bring.

 

[gary faulkner]

I was looking at my tank last night and it looks like the gha is starting to come back with some cyano. The reactor has been running or about 8 weeks and has all 4 cups of pellets in it. I have not increased feeding and I am still doing my regular wc. Have to see what the next couple of weeks bring.

Have you noticed any drop in Ph since the starting the pellets?

 

[thebanker]

Since pellets have been around, and widely available, for at least a year or so... is there a "best pellet" yet?

I'm going to need to add more soon, I'm thinking of changing brands from Vertex to TLF. I like the shape of Julian Sprung's pellets.

 

[Rhodes19]

Have you noticed any drop in Ph since the starting the pellets?

Hi Gary,

No, I haven't noticed a drop, but it tends to hover around 8.2. Never checked it at night or first thing in the morning though. I just got a new nitrate test kit (Elos) so I can get a better read. My phos is 0.009. I would have thought that was low enough to prevent gha but a friend always reminds me that if I have gha then I have high trates and or phos. The low readings only means that the gha is taking up most of the trats and phos. I'll have to test my new water and see if I'm get any trates or phos from it.

 

[Tony Romano]

Recently added NP Pellets to my system.

Bubble Magus 100 Filter.

I've added 250ml pellets. This weekend i will be adding another 250ml of pellets.

I also have a DSB which i feel has been causing troubles. I will be removing this soon as i feel it has become a nutrient sink.

Here's a video of the reactor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7WuCnzIn70

A live sand bed is not a "nutrient sink", a dead one is. I have 2 tanks common plummbed, one with DSB one BB. The tank with DSB has better overall consistant health. There are a couple of things for health sand, food and lack of things that eat worms and pods.

I am actually adding sand to BB tank to create food source for my NPS corals. I also strongly believe in using sponges as natural filtration. PM me if you care to hear more.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A live sand bed is not a "nutrient sink", a dead one is.

A sink means that nutrients go in and don't come out, or at least there is net inflow. A source has net outflow. Did you mean a live sand bed is not a nutrient source, but a dead one is?

 

[Tony Romano]

A live sand bed is not a "nutrient sink", a dead one is.

A sink means that nutrients go in and don't come out, or at least there is net inflow. A source has net outflow. Did you mean a live sand bed is not a nutrient source, but a dead one is?

Yes more a less, everything we feed to tank is either recycled, consumed or exported. My personal oponion is sand is a very good thing in reef. -- I think a sand bed is more than just bacteria and sand, the worms, pods, etc are a big part of DSB. A bed that is too shallow or too course gets detritus buildup fast making it hard to impossible to get NO3 and PO4 to zero. I guess my concern is removing all of the sand in a tank will upset the current balance of tank, removing small amounts over time is less of a stress on system.

 

[reeftivo]

any x zeovit users having success?

any x zeovit users having success?

any users of BP's that have switched from zeovit?

Too much traveling for work lately with no end in sight so I'm thinking of taking the reactor off line and exploring the BP's. PO4 is .03 to .05 (hanna photometer) and NO3 is 2-5 ppm (tunze measuring box). Small tank, med bioload, 4 fish fed daily w spectrum pellets with no direct sps coral feeding except for an occassional silverside to the LPS.

The zeovit works well but it has really become a chore to get help with the dosing and reactor maint. when out of town.

Just wondering if an average joe x zeohead has had success with the pellets.

Tivo

 

[Aquarist007]

?How long can the pellets sit an reactor if the power goes out before bacteria starts dying off and producing sulfur. I am thinking this pump needs to be added to my backup system.

I routinely clean out the reactor and the pellets. This can be done very easily if you dump the contents into a plastic container like a juice container and rinse the pellets with tank water. I find the foam filters in the reactor can plug up and stop the flow.

That said, I would not take a chance on it with a power failure and rinse it out

 

[Aquarist007]

Since pellets have been around, and widely available, for at least a year or so... is there a "best pellet" yet?

I'm going to need to add more soon, I'm thinking of changing brands from Vertex to TLF. I like the shape of Julian Sprung's pellets.

I don't know if there is a best pellet. I did switch to TLF's pellets about 6 weeks ago. They were alot cheaper then the np pellets, mix well with them and seem to be doing the same job.

 

[purge43]

7 weeks into brs bp's/dosing zeobak zeostart and zeofood. I took the system off line. It may be a bit early but I saw no cloudiness(the bloom), and no reductions of po4, no3. I did however have some negative affects. Six dendropillia clusters closed up and stayed closed, two duncan colonies also closed up and stayed closed. All the asterina starfish disappeared leaving me in a questionable state with two harlequin shrimp. The dendros and duncans have been with me for three years and survived some horible events, I directly attribute them closing to the pellets and/or additives. The asterina starfish and harlys have been with me about two years and the balance of appetite vs. population had been near perfect, I also directly attribute this to the pellets and/or additives.

 

[pecan2phat]

Does anyone know if using liquid phosphate remover is detrimental to the bio-pellets?

I use bio-pellets in my fowlr system and it has done it's job very well with No3 (from 150 ppm down to 10 ppm but the Po4 never budged and is over 2.75 ppm. Was thinking of 1st reducing the Po4 with the pool phosphate remover until I can get it down to a decent level and then maintaining with GFO.

 

[Aquarist007]

Does anyone know if using liquid phosphate remover is detrimental to the bio-pellets?

I use bio-pellets in my fowlr system and it has done it's job very well with No3 (from 150 ppm down to 10 ppm but the Po4 never budged and is over 2.75 ppm. Was thinking of 1st reducing the Po4 with the pool phosphate remover until I can get it down to a decent level and then maintaining with GFO.

we will need Randy's expertise on this one.

That said I would never use pool chemicals of any kind in a reef tank---they are made with alot of impurties that reef chemicals do not have
Secondly you don't want to remove all the phosphates from your tank as certain corals need a basic level of them.
Thirdly if you reduce any substance rapidly in a reef tank it can lead to problems with coral adapting to such a rapid change

 

[pecan2phat]

I believe that a while back, I did some research and Sea kleer pool phosphate remover is basically the same component as the uber expensive trade liquid P04 remover. Joe at Atlantis Aquarium in LI NY uses this in his 20,000g reef tank.
I would have to go through a literally ton of GFO to remove 2.75 ppm of P04 from a 300g system.
Not that worried about reducing the P04 by 100ppm every 5-7 days since it's basically a fowlr system with just hammers & frogspawns but thanks for the concern about reducing levels at a quick rate.