N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

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Can I ask again, to those of you whom are using the pellets, are you maintaining your alk levels between 7-8dkh to prevent burn tips and tissue loss like we must do with normal carbon dosing or are you able to use the pellets with higher alk levels. If your using the pellets and maintaining alk levels higher than 8dkh (without complications) please indicate how long you've been using the pellets.

Thanks.

Jeremy
 
well guys, I'm getting really dissillushioned with the pellets. It's been many weeks now and my nitrates will not go down. I've even moved four fish out. You've seen my videos of the tumbling of my pellets, and yet my skimmer is not producing as much waste. As much as I wish these would work for me, they are not. I have cut down on feeding as well to try and reduce the addion od new nitrates..and to no avail. My nitrates are still around 80+. The lowest they got after an almost 50% WC was about 40ppm. I'm ready to call my tank a failure. And it only cost me 150 bucks (sigh).

any new advice is welcome...
 
Interesting. Are you running a GFO? I'd test the nitrate kit on some RO/DI water, too, although your kit sounds like it might be functioning reasonably.
 
have never run any GFO. I have tested the kit on both RODI and freshly made salt water. Both read 0ppm. I guess I'm gona have to run something else to get my nitrates down. But i ike the color and PE from using the NP pellets.
 
Hmm, well, it's theoretically possible that the bacteria are phosphorus-limited for growth. I'm not sure how I'd proceed, though.
 
pic of tank:

CIMG0196.jpg


the sand is about 3" give or take in some areas. The sand is just plain aragonite. Tank is about 1.5 years old.
 
Ok, You don't have enough stuff in there to justify 80ppm of nitrate. You have a nutrient sink in there somewhere. I suspect that it may be the sand. Maybe in the rocks even. You may need more than 3" to help with the de-nitrification process. Most sandbeds don't begin to work right until they're 4+ inches and packed full of bugs. One thing is certain the sandbed isn't functioning properly. Your nitrates would be considerably lower if it was. What's the grain size?

DJ
 
it ranges between fine and sugar size. So I guess like 2mm down to powder. I added more sugar sand about 5 months ago. That brought it up to the 3+ inch mark. But since I don't have any sand sifters other than the nassarius snails, the pod population is crazy high. There are bugs everywhere in and on the sand. But I'm open to adding more. My last tank has a smaller sand bed and the nitrates were always zero. And the rock was moved from that tank. What else could cause so much NO3 but zero PO4?
 
Ok, You don't have enough stuff in there to justify 80ppm of nitrate. You have a nutrient sink in there somewhere. I suspect that it may be the sand. Maybe in the rocks even. You may need more than 3" to help with the de-nitrification process. Most sandbeds don't begin to work right until they're 4+ inches and packed full of bugs. One thing is certain the sandbed isn't functioning properly. Your nitrates would be considerably lower if it was. What's the grain size?
Click to expand...

Silly question but I will ask it anyways...........



Using RO water? Test the newly mixed salt water for nitrates and see what you come up with.
 
daveonbass said:
it ranges between fine and sugar size. So I guess like 2mm down to powder. I added more sugar sand about 5 months ago. That brought it up to the 3+ inch mark. But since I don't have any sand sifters other than the nassarius snails, the pod population is crazy high. There are bugs everywhere in and on the sand. But I'm open to adding more. My last tank has a smaller sand bed and the nitrates were always zero. And the rock was moved from that tank. What else could cause so much NO3 but zero PO4?
Click to expand...

OK, lets see the sump - with all the equipment.

DJ
 
DJREEF said:
Ok, You don't have enough stuff in there to justify 80ppm of nitrate. You have a nutrient sink in there somewhere. I suspect that it may be the sand. Maybe in the rocks even.

DJ
Click to expand...

Agreed. How old is the tank? What kind of skimmer? How old are the rocks/sand(Are they from a previous setup)?
 
Hey guys, sorry of this has been discussed before, but what exactly the difference between these pellets in a reactor and dosing MB7 and Reef BioFuel? I'm currently battling a hair algae and mild-cyano problem and have been thinking about setting up a new reactor with the pellets. But I also have some MB7 and Reef BioFuel here that I could use. I'm just wondering if the pellets have any other advantages other than not having to dose everyday.
 
daveonbass said:
well guys, I'm getting really dissillushioned with the pellets. It's been many weeks now and my nitrates will not go down. I've even moved four fish out. You've seen my videos of the tumbling of my pellets, and yet my skimmer is not producing as much waste. As much as I wish these would work for me, they are not. I have cut down on feeding as well to try and reduce the addion od new nitrates..and to no avail. My nitrates are still around 80+. The lowest they got after an almost 50% WC was about 40ppm. I'm ready to call my tank a failure. And it only cost me 150 bucks (sigh).

any new advice is welcome...
Click to expand...

I was in simillar situation, after I feed tubastrea way to much and experimenting with some diy small food my tank get 100 mg/lit nitrates, probably even more but that was maximum salifert test can measure. Interestingly, phosphates was and still was zero (no phosphate remover of any kind) no live rock just the reef ceramic and no sandbed, inch of crushed sand, also no algae, no cyano, nothing, if the test was not showing 100 mg/lit nitrates there was no visual signs of elevated nitrates in aquarium itself.
I start with 500+ bio pellets in reactor (my tank are aprox 150 gallons) but that was not enough and added another 1000 ml in diy reactor (video from you tube was somewhere in this thread), but the nitrates was not going down. I even start to ad vodka together with bp (start with 5 ml on lit and raise every week for 2 ml, finished with 11 ml of vodka weekly) but even vodka together with bp did not cut down the nitrates, I was very anoying with that tank but I have 1000 ml of bp in the same size another tank (same reef ceramic, same sand) who keep nitrates down to 0. Feeding of that tank was almost the same (medium to high feeding) but was not play with the non photosintetic corals in that aquarium. Because the second aquarium have 0 nitrates I know IMO that BP works and I looking more carefully in my main aquarium searching for reason why bigger quantity of bp could not put down nitrates there. I remove the diy reactor out, that was not fluid reactor but flow throu with the sponges at the intake and outtake. I removed the sponges and they was extremly dirty, loaded with bacteria and food leftover, never saw so much dirty sponges. Also washed bp with aquarium water because they get cloged with bacteria, install valve on the pump intake so BP can fluid this time and remove all kind of obstacles from both reactor. Right now I dont have any kind of sponges or plastic cover on my by reactors, they fluidized very nice and they do not get out of reactors. Also redirected reactors outlet near to skimmer intake, literally inch or two from skimmer intake.

After I do all those modification, my skimmer start to produce skimmate I never saw before and I have very strong skimmers, also almost all water parts of diy reactor get filled with with stringes of bacteria. Literrally just after few days my nitrates get down to 2-5 mg/lit and they are probably even lower now, I even afraid that so drastic nitrates removal can hurt my inhabitants and I feed much more again.
Here is the pictures how my skimmer work now, is always loaded with foam like in pictures, I have a filling that he actually remove nitrated drasticaly daily.
Afternoon
1~69.jpg


next day in the morning
2~65.jpg


I clean him few hours later and he is the evening pictures, few hour after cleaning
3~60.jpg


next morning
1~70.jpg


He skimm like that all the time now, always loaded with foam.

After 4 months of nitrates battle they come down, maybe when the tank have strange situation with nitrates, very high but strange because there was no algae, no phosphates in my case, no cyano, .... there are more time needed for bp to start working.
IME bp need very good fluidization, no sponges or any kind of obstacles who can trap bacteria when they get out of reactors, outlet need to be positioned very close to skimmer intake and strong skimmer.
 
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