N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

[tntneon]

-This afternoon the package with bio pellets have arrived
For now i`ve put them in the panty stockings of my wife and putted them in the display drain section of my sump>
For now i say because i saw that within a few houres some of the small holes in the stockings become plugged with detrius and thus decreasing the flow thru the media.
I will poke the bag every day around for now.
I `m gonna make some sort of box with holes that fit around my drainpipe from display , slightly larger then the drain pipe itself and completly inclosing the pipe for maximum fluidising.
tomorow i`ll post some pics , then it wil be not so hot here hopefully....

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tntneon]

hi reefers ,
As promised some pics of the biopellets and set -up where i`m gonna test them in.

here are the start water parameters :

S.G. =1.0262 (lab densitymeter)
NO3=0.3 (salifer)
PO4=0 on salifer kit , but on lab icp tested around 0.05 (measuring all P (in and anorganic))
Ca =420
Kh=9 Dkh
Mg =1320

They are fine , though i have some GHA in the middle on the 2 big rocks and some little bit of cyano on the sand if you look very good (foto resizer takes all of the detail out).
I also have to clean the glass of the display more often the before ,every 2 days at least (when dosing previously vodka this was less)

here `s my nano tank for the moment :

-The pellets have diameter of +/- 5 mm (= +/-1/5 inch)and are more heavy then water.
They have a consistency that resembles that of unboiled pasta from a supermarket.

-I putted it the drain area of my display drain where the flow is the higest due to smaal volume of the chamber.

-You can also see that the panty is clogging detrius where the flow is the greathest , thats why fluidizing reactors will probably be the best for this media as for most other media.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tatuvaaj]

tntneon,

:thumbsup:

Please keep us updated! I am still waiting for my skimmer so no updates from me :mad2:

 

[tntneon]

-I `ve already removed the panty of my wife and puted the pellets dirctly into the drainpipe box.
I did`nt knew what to expect , would they be blown away??
It was a good decision , now the pellets gently fluidizing in that box , w/o entering other area`s of the sump.
The pellets are dense enough that they won`t be blown away .

The dimensions of the box are 4"X4" an has under and overflow holes but on the bottom of the box there lays an bleu filter pad , preventing that the pellets would go thru the underflow holes .
Flow thru the box is approximitly 450 g/h or 1600 l/h.

will post some pictures later on...

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tntneon]

here`s the situation now...

Now i`m gonna post if i see any changes , water clarity is a little
bit beter perhaps then yesterday , but it is way to soon to do some evaluations.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[erbio]

Very cool. Tagging a long.

 

[tntneon]

hi reefers ,

I`m starting to see the first signs of the pellets.

At first the cyano on the sand had got a little bit worse (but nothing to be worrying about) , don`t know it was due to the first adaptation from the pellets or something else.
I syphoned it out and it hasn`t come back (in 4 days).

The second thing i noticed the following days was more water clarity , and the coloration of my stylophora has improved significaly (my wife also noticed it) back more purple .
That coloration was fading since i stoped dosing ethanol 0.5ml /25g a day (i stopped dosing 2 months ago).
this was for me realy the proof that i was actualy dosing carbon in a solid way

Nitrate dropped a bit from 0.5 to 0.2 ppm (lowest on salifert) , but these were always low.
I didn`t had the opportunity to test phosphates on the lab icp , this is something i will do later on this week.
gha is still present but never showing expansion (luckely).

One of the fine advantages of carbon dosing are also comming back to me , i can now wait three days for cleaning the glass !!!:eek1:

for now i`m very happy with the product , and i will keep posting changes good or bad.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[buddah001]

Are these available here in the states. If so where?

 

[erbio]

+ 1, I want to try this already...

 

[tntneon]

-It won`t be in the stores yet in the states , but you can always ask jptenklooster, the developer of the product , about it .
He posted some great info regarding this product on the first page of this topic.
Will ask him when he`s online on the local forum , he will be busy i think.
Here it`s also not available in the stores yet ,
got mine by post.

-there`s one parameter that i`ll keep an eye on , that i forgot to mention , is the development of the Chaeto in my refugium.
With the previous dosing of carbon i saw that as the nutrients dropped that the growth of my chaeto was slowing .
I hope that this effect will be less now .
For now this is not the case .


greetingzz tntneon

 

[tntneon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15696452#post15696452 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by buddah001
Are these available here in the states. If so where?

-The pellets will be in a month in the stores in europe , Jptenkloosters also mentioned that outside europe it will be a little bit longer (how much longer he didn`t mention).

The results are still very good .
The GHA is now covered with cyano , it looks like cyano is the thoughest of all the bad algea , and in a desperate queste for NO3/ PO4 , it`s attacking the GHA , i think ?
any opinions regarding my thought here ?

If the GHA disappears and cyano would shortly follow this would be a very good thing , because even with normal vodka dosing i didn`t seem to do any harm to the GHA.

Chaeto isn`t that great , it`s still green , but it has come more dense and it is growing alot slower than 2 weeks ago
something i whitnessed with vodka too.
to low nutrients for the macro ?

greetingzz tntneon

 

[HighlandReefer]

The cyano is tougher than most algae in that it can derive its needed P directly from organic matter. Probably the algae is dieing off and the cyano is feeding on the decaying algae.

IME, the cyano will persist until the organic build-up from the dieing algae is removed from your water column. In other words, removing as much of the algae and cyano from your water column will increase the rate you acheive control of both the algae and cyano.

Do you believe the bacterial population in your aquarium water column is less than that found when dosing vodka?

 

[tntneon]

In my first observations, i would think so .
While previously dosing vodka i saw more slimery strings (bacterial )on the rock .
But i have to mention that i was dosing pure ethanol at a rate of
0.4ml/25g ( a fairly high dosage) , and i found it hard to dose this daily and correct.

The third or forth day i had the pellets in my system , i saw a little bit of slimery string appearing on the rock , but now i see non.
water clarity is great (beter than ever), and i hope that the cyano will leave the system soon after they eaten the GHA .
And sometimes i can wait 3 day to clean glass , sometimes 2 days.
hopefully this could be extended to 4 or 5 day clean , then i would be really happy , i love reefing but cleaning the glass is not my favorite thing to do

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tntneon]

I had the change again to measure my phosphorus on a lab icp.
they have dropped to 0.01 ppm organic and inorganic P , NO3 is about 0.1 ppm on the salifert kit.
I syphoned the cyanos`s from the dying GHA , it `s realy cool that i now can syphon them both off .
I had a little bit of cyano back on the sand as well .
Hopefully the pellets won`t fuel the cyano`s (as they are bacteria to )?

water clarity and coral coloration is very good as well growth rates.


greetingzz tntneon

 

[tatuvaaj]

tntneon,

Great news!

I moved the pellets from canister filter to a media bag. I think it's easier that way. I also got my new skimmer, finally! :celeb1:

I'm now using less than half vodka+sugar mix I did before and I'm already seeing nitrates dropping closer to zero. Unfortunately I still have a lot of phosphates, I think I'm going to add some GFO to get PO4 concentration down.

 

[erbio]

Perhaps you should only use the pellets and see how fast the levels drop? That would help tremendously. If I can see that this product works I plan to purchase a good amount and sell it in the states at no profit. I think this product could be huge if it works well.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15737420#post15737420 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tatuvaaj
tntneon,

Great news!

I moved the pellets from canister filter to a media bag. I think it's easier that way. I also got my new skimmer, finally! :celeb1:

I'm now using less than half vodka+sugar mix I did before and I'm already seeing nitrates dropping closer to zero. Unfortunately I still have a lot of phosphates, I think I'm going to add some GFO to get PO4 concentration down.

 

[tatuvaaj]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15737503#post15737503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erbio
Perhaps you should only use the pellets and see how fast the levels drop? That would help tremendously. If I can see that this product works I plan to purchase a good amount and sell it in the states at no profit. I think this product could be huge if it works well.

erbio,

I might do that in future but currently I don't have enough pellets. The amount I use was chosen with the DOC dosing in mind. My goal was to reduce the dosing as I had to add quite large amounts (20+ ml/day) to keep the nutrients in check... I still think some DOC dosing can benefit at least some filter feeders like sponges.

But maybe I'm wrong and producing bacterioplankton is more beneficial than feeding the symbiotic bacteria inside sponges?

 

[tntneon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15737420#post15737420 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tatuvaaj
tntneon,

Great news!

I moved the pellets from canister filter to a media bag. I think it's easier that way. I also got my new skimmer, finally! :celeb1:

I'm now using less than half vodka+sugar mix I did before and I'm already seeing nitrates dropping closer to zero. Unfortunately I still have a lot of phosphates, I think I'm going to add some GFO to get PO4 concentration down.

a good skimmer is essential , good luck with the new one.
last week i putted my DIY skimmer as well as a new DIY sump under my display , not that my old one was bad , but i couldn`t resist the urge to built me a larger one myself .
I have 2 hobby`s reefing and DIY reef stuff making...

Tatuvaaj ,
You sad that the po4 is quite high , how high may i ask ?
Do you have algea or did you have them ?

"...maybe I'm wrong and producing bacterioplankton is more beneficial than feeding the symbiotic bacteria ..."

I think so too , and this is an effect i`m already seeying on the corals , my stylopora and acropora are looking more colorfull and more PE than ever , this will be the result of bacterioplancton i think .

with me the media bag cloged after 2 days , thus decreasing the flow through the media
I like it more now , in the display drain box .

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tatuvaaj]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15740989#post15740989 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tntneon
a good skimmer is essential , good luck with the new one.

I've had the new foam machine a week now and it is the best I've had, ATB Medium.

last week i putted my DIY skimmer as well as a new DIY sump under my display , not that my old one was bad , but i couldn`t resist the urge to built me a larger one myself

Very nice! I'm not so good with DIY myself

You sad that the po4 is quite high , how high may i ask ?

Extremely high, 0.1 ppm PO4 and about 2 ppm NO3

Do you have algea or did you have them ?

That's the strangest thing! I did not have any algae problems. I was actually so curious about this that I started to dose some extra iron but couldn't produce any major algae growth

But things happen fast here: like I said I moved the Biopellets from the canister filter to a media bag inside sump. This effectively cleaned all bacteria from the pellets (a lot!) that I allowed to flow into the display tank.

This morning I decided to check the water parameters again and much to my surprise almost all my nutrient problems had vanished. Now I have < 0.02 ppm PO4 and < 0.2 ppm NO3! I must say that is very impressive result! Water was also noticeably clearer.

I'll see how it goes for a couple of days and then I'll start to reduce the DOC dosing again to find out just how much DOC the Biopellets can replace.

 

[tntneon]

-Sounds very intresting
With me it`s been quite the opposite , low nutrients but always some sort of algea that i have to keep an eye on, never had any massive outbreaks luckly .
GHA is now the longest with me , even with previous carbon dosing it would stay .
This is the reason i wanted to try this methode.

greetingzz tntneon