N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

[tntneon]

well with me GHA and cyano is completly gone .
Cyano was the thoughest one to compete , patience is the key.
So the pellets have done there job for me (and keep doing that hopefully ...), PE and coloration are very good and are staying the same for a month now.

An other indicator is the cleaning of the glass , this i have to do every 3 to 4 days.
I used to do that almost every day , so that`s a real improvement too.

My chaeto is still green , but is growing very slow , i prune and flush it every week.
I`ll keep it for the little misis shrimp and amphipods that live in the ball , biodiversity is also important.


greetingzz tntneon

 

[recife111]

How are you adding nitrate?

I either add ammonia or brine shrimp waste water.

When it was most likely the added food that caused the improvement. Not the increase in nitrate.

Unlikely for me as i feed the same foods. i have not increased the foods.
100% for sure that my corals do better with a little nitrate.

 

[tntneon]

...100% for sure that my corals do better with a little nitrate...

I`m conviced that corals do need a small concentration of nitrate , but how small is that ?
I think we can`t (amature reefkeeper) measure precisly how much nitrate/phospate we have in the water / or leaching from rocks in the water.
I measured 0.5 ppm nitrates and zero ppm po4 for month`s but still i had to clean the windows every day and GHA was thriving in the display.
I now look at the days between glass cleaning as an indicator of no3/po4 concentrations : 1-2 days =could be better ; 3 days is good ; 4 or more days = too poor.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[tntneon]

-Somebody asked earlyer about skimmer performances , now take a look at my DIY skimmer :bigeyes:!!
-This morning it was even worse , if you look closely you`ll find there is a small vent hole in the lit ,this morning the foam was actually coming out of the vent hole :bigeyes: !!

You see skimmer is working like crazy , i could reduce the foam mass if i install a foam breaker on the inside of the top lit .
this i`ll gonna do later on this week.

greetingzz tntneon

 

[catman78]

I have a BRS Carbon/GFO reactor that's fed by a maxi-jet 1200.

Can I replace the GFO in 1st canister with NP pellets?

Or should I get a separate reactor for NP pellets.

Also, how much NP pellets per tank volume?

Thanks

 

[tntneon]

I have a BRS Carbon/GFO reactor that's fed by a maxi-jet 1200.

Can I replace the GFO in 1st canister with NP pellets?

Or should I get a separate reactor for NP pellets.

Also, how much NP pellets per tank volume?

Thanks

As for the tank volume / bp ratio , i now use 200 gr on a 30 g (120 liters) system (including sump) and have very good results .
At first i started with 100 gr , after 1.5 month`s i added the following 100 gr.

I don`t know if you can mix GFO with bp .

greetingzz tntneon

 

[Jk5]

Bacteria has a high afinity for phosphate.

This is the same case with vodka...

In aerobic conditions bacteria uptakes po4.

If you have an unbalanced no3/po4 ratio with too much po4 you can use po4 removers.
If you have a balanced no3/po4 then po4 is needed for the bacterial growth.

 

[Frogmanx82]

Just to be clear, the whole NP reduction is based on the bacteria themselves being removed from the system. So if I have the biopellets in a canister with no tumbling, I won't slough off much bacteria. A stable bacterial population won't really reduce N or P.

Do the bacterial produce any N2?

Will enough bacteria slough off the pellets from the water flow?

I also have a good number of bristle worms crawling among the pellets. Does that have an effect? Would a bristle worm eat the pellets?

 

[bertoni]

Some bacteria might release N₂ via endosymbionts. I don't know any way to quantify the amount. Even without tumbling, it's possible that the reactor would slough off a lot of bacteria.

 

[kaskiles]

Can anyone post the approximate average diameter of the pellets?

 

[tntneon]

+/- 5 to 6 mm or 1/4 "

greetingzz tntneon

 

[Frogmanx82]

I would say an eighth to a quarter inch in diameter. They are more disk shaped than ball shaped.

 

[kaskiles]

Can anyone weight about 1/2 cup (100 ml) of them in grams, dry?

 

[rsuplido]

Will it work to just add the pellets in a container inside the sump, near the skimmer?

 

[tntneon]

Can anyone weight about 1/2 cup (100 ml) of them in grams, dry?

-It will be around 80 gr , and yes it is heavier than water , because the pellets a round you 'v got alot of air between the packed pellets

Will it work to just add the pellets in a container inside the sump, near the skimmer?

-If you can have some sort of flow (= important) through this container (drainpipe display , recycle line of returnpump ) it will work imo

greetingzz tntneon

 

[Frogmanx82]

I didn't get any comments on what bristle worms will do the the pellets. I would assume they could eat them as they are quite able to bore through carbonate rocks.

 

[tntneon]

I didn't get any comments on what bristle worms will do the the pellets. I would assume they could eat them as they are quite able to bore through carbonate rocks.

I don`t think they could harm or eat the pellets IMO

greetingzz tntneon

 

[recife111]

Has anyone got updates on how the pellets are performing?
Its very quite:fun2:

 

[GeoffM1968]

Only little bit over a week for me so too early to report anything. Should be case for many of people ordering them from AS as they shipped first batch same day to everyone.

 

[kentrob11]

So would using this stuff elimenate the need for a phosphate reactor?