N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

[SimonSKL]

I just recently got some biopellets and will be trying them out on my system. Just a few months ago, my tank did a mini crash and lost quite a few corals. My tank seems to be stabilizing now but I can't get my nitrates to go down. I'm going to see if the biopellets works. Its been on my system for 3 days now and I've noticed my tank has gotten cloudy already. My skimmer is working very hard that I have to clean my 2 litre pop bottle twice a day and top off my water with RO/DI daily. I will be testing for nitrate and phosphate soon.

If you lost almost a gal of water in skimmate per day and replaced with RODI water, will hypo-salinity a concern for those of us whose skimmers are working overdrive because of the BPs?

 

[DJREEF]

I really don't think it would be a problem in a full blown setup like yours. The consumption rate would easily outstrip the carbonate output from the pellets. It would just mean that you would have to buffer less.

DJ


Hi,
Do we know the alkalinity increase is carbonate alikalinity?

It's showing up as an increase on my carbonate (kH) test kit.

DJ

 

[trunks1622]

If you lost almost a gal of water in skimmate per day and replaced with RODI water, will hypo-salinity a concern for those of us whose skimmers are working overdrive because of the BPs?

Good point. I haven't checked my salinity but will do tonight when I get home. I'm also going to be doing my weekly water change so hopefully, my salinity haven't dropped alot.

 

[DJREEF]

Dont know if I get something wrong or mix the products but I think I read somewhere that new bp version (gen 2) will be without carbonate or something like that what was used as a filler.

Gen II (Vertex) is what I'm using + 500ml of the Eco Bak pellets.

DJ

 

[trunks1622]

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I would get an airstone in the display asap. Sounds like a bacterial bloom to me.

Ok. I'll add one as soon as I get home. The output of my reactor goes directly to my skimmer. I was hoping this would help.

 

[drummereef]

Ok. I'll add one as soon as I get home. The output of my reactor goes directly to my skimmer. I was hoping this would help.

It will help yes, but I presume you just added too many pellets at once. A lot of times if you add too many from the start it will cause a bloom. Slowly adding a little over a few weeks is advisable. No worries, from my research, most tanks get through bacteria blooms just fine. The airstone and/or more flow is just a precautionary measure.

 

[trunks1622]

It will help yes, but I presume you just added too many pellets at once. A lot of times if you add too many from the start it will cause a bloom. Slowly adding a little over a few weeks is advisable. No worries, from my research, most tanks get through bacteria blooms just fine. The airstone and/or more flow is just a precautionary measure.

yeah, you're right. I've added a bit more than half of what is recommended for my tank. hopefully, it wouldn't be an issue. I'm going add more flow and the airstone but from what I read, the bacteria bloom shouldn't last too long.

 

[Moser]

well mo, I'm gald that they are working for ya. Wanna trade pellets? Haha. Like I said, I hope my new ones work better this time. I'll keep everyone posted.

Good luck Dave. I hope they work for you. :thumbsup:

Mo

 

[Moser]

If you leave the pellet filter top open enough, the filter will not go anaerobic and you shouldn't get any H2S production

Just for the record, the filter/reactor when I get hidrogen sulfid production when he was off have open top.

Well I guess You must still be getting anaerobic in the base of your reactor. You must have quite an anaerobic bacterial bloom in your reactor?....

Mo

 

[DarkXerox]

Well I have a question that I haven't seen posted. Has anyone set their reactors on a timer and had the pumps go on/off in a cycle? Just wondering because some bacterial cultures perform better when given time to grow undisturbed, especially if they are highly adherent dependent.

So this way the films would blow off and get skimmed sporadically. This is of course assuming dO2 levels don't drop below 0% for too long.

 

[Rwpdunne]

Good luck Dave. I hope they work for you. :thumbsup:

Mo

So Mo are the pellets working for you? and if so what are your nitrate and p04 readings?

IMO these pellets dont work

 

[bluereefs]

Corals closing could be due to a rapid drop in N and P or a reaction to the by porducts and activities related to the breakdown of carbohydrates in the pellets to sugars particulary if there is excess C.
Some Lps, particularly corals like cataphyllia jardinei come from lagoons and such where P and N are higher than on high reefs, so they could have a tough time adjusting to the ultra low N and P levels. My lps ,leathers ,softies and some non photosynthetics and sps do well with PO4 around 0.04ppm and nitrate betwen0.2 and 0.5ppm For me Scolymia, Lobophylia and Entamacea quadricolr reacted badly to sugar dosing.

In my cases PE drop first on sps corals, particulary on stylophora/pocilopora and one hairy acro I have for long time. In the past when I just switched reactor from one aquarium to another (functional bacterial machine reactor who create bacterial bloom in 24 hours) PE drop almost imideatly on those corals. I have same reaction with those corals when I used high dose of vodka, it was actually reason why I stopped vodka dosing, could not get nitrate down with 12 ml on 150 g and those corals do not have PE, stylophora start to lose part of flesh. This time I start slowly with weekly biwekly adition of bp and everything is fine with them.

 

[tntneon]

It's showing up as an increase on my carbonate (kH) test kit.

DJ

I really don't think it would be a problem in a full blown setup like yours. The consumption rate would easily outstrip the carbonate output from the pellets. It would just mean that you would have to buffer less.

DJ


Hi,
Do we know the alkalinity increase is carbonate alikalinity?

-Hi guys ,

I pm'ed Jp about the Kh issue , he said to me that :

-When bacteria consume the pellets they will release OH- that reacts with co2 , and forms carbonates .
I assume that it will be the carbonate alkinity , don't know for sure .

greetingzz tntneon

 

[bluereefs]

Thank you for information from Jp tntneon

My diy reactor now produce loots of bacteria but without bacterial bloom, sponge inside the reactor as well as filter sock on reactor outlet are cloged after 24 hours, clean them every day but from yesterday I start to wash them in second aquarium where are non functional bp, hopefully those bacteria will "ignite" them as well.

Nitrate drop from 50 to 5 mg/lit in last week, there are small turf of bryopsis and glass need cleaning every 3-4 days, there was no water changes at all last month or two. Contrary to advice that bp can not be overdosed in my case and only with my diy reactor they can be overdosed and to much of them start bacterial bloom in very short time. Probably is a good advice to start with low dosage and ad more weekly until desired results are get. Functional bio pelets can produce a really loot of bacteria, maybe to much if is started with big quantity.

 

[Moser]

So Mo are the pellets working for you? and if so what are your nitrate and p04 readings?

IMO these pellets dont work

Hi,

On my smaller tank, nitrates are 0 and phos was 0.04. I added some phos remover and now run at 0.01.

SPS colours are good and I'm adding zeo products as well now.

Polyp extension is very good.

:thumbsup:

Mo

 

[daveonbass]

Sorry if I understood incorrectly but are you saying that your skimmer never worked as good as usual when you had NP-biopellets in the tank?

yes that is what I'm saying. The original NP Bio Pellets reduced my skimmer nog. I have better/normal skimmate NOW that I am using different pellets. (also when I had no pellets.)

 

[tntneon]

...sponge inside the reactor as well as filter sock on reactor outlet are cloged after 24 hours ....

-That is something i would remove IME , bleureefs.
not only it is a hassle to clean them every day , they trap bacteria and detrius , and could become nitrates and phosphates factory's.
-I too had some overflow pads in the past , but when i removed them , water clarity was the same and i never had to clean them again .
Also your corals will get more feeding particles , suspended in the water , to eat .

greetingzz tntneon

 

[Gromert]

Using NP (500 ml in a 500 L reeftank) since may 2010. First a bloom then a decrease of N and P (zero) and after that an increased N up to 25-50. Now problems with cyano. I have removed the Deltec reactor (using a MJ1200 pump) till I have some reasonable explanations for what´s going on. Have also lost a couple of acros and there are softcorals that are severe bleached. The reactor and pump is set up properly with the BP tumbling moderately and the out put of the reactor is going to the inlet of the BM200 skimmer. Any suggestions what to do??

Regards
Nils

 

[drummereef]

What is with all the bacterial blooms with the NP Pellets? I haven't noticed this with other brand pellets. Seems like something is funky here.

 

[bluereefs]

-That is something i would remove IME , bleureefs.
not only it is a hassle to clean them every day , they trap bacteria and detrius , and could become nitrates and phosphates factory's.
-I too had some overflow pads in the past , but when i removed them , water clarity was the same and i never had to clean them again .
Also your corals will get more feeding particles , suspended in the water , to eat .

greetingzz tntneon

Thank you for advice tntneon, I know for troubles with sponge and filter socks, actually I writed in the middle of this thread about trouble with them, but this time I start different and sponge/filtersock are used mostly for visual examination of bacterial production. IIRC I start again month ago with new aproach and until week sponge/filtersock was very clean what was telling me that bp do not produce too much bacteria, last days I need to clean them daily and that show me that bacteria production are on maximum, particulary filtersock are full of bacterial slime/gelationous film. I have open reactor, taking out sponge located at the top of reactor are very easy as well as cleaning the filtersock, those bacteria from sponge/filtersock I use now for testing purpose trying to seed my second non functional reactor, also removing so much bacteria can IMO help removing the nutrients asociated with bacteria. Many bacteria pass the sponge/filter socks because my skimmer work much more stronger now. I beleive that some will pass the skimmer also and finished as a food for corals.

Sponges, filtersock and skimmer production are IMO best sign of working bio pellets, or not working.

Using NP (500 ml in a 500 L reeftank) since may 2010. First a bloom then a decrease of N and P (zero) and after that an increased N up to 25-50. Now problems with cyano. I have removed the Deltec reactor (using a MJ1200 pump) till I have some reasonable explanations for what´s going on. Have also lost a couple of acros and there are softcorals that are severe bleached. The reactor and pump is set up properly with the BP tumbling moderately and the out put of the reactor is going to the inlet of the BM200 skimmer. Any suggestions what to do??

Regards
Nils

I dont have expirience with your exact situation but I remember when I move my diy reactor after he created bacterial bloom and wiped out all algae/organic from aquarium that nitrate and algae come back very fast, much faster then I expected, litteraly after few days algae start to grow again even they was completly destroyed days before, what is unusual they start to grow again in the same place, same species of algae. Maybe your bp stop working, no bacteria production and nitrate/algae come back. Do you use sponge in reactor or filtersock/prefilter system so you can check are they loaded/contain bacteria strings/slime?

What is with all the bacterial blooms with the NP Pellets? I haven't noticed this with other brand pellets. Seems like something is funky here.

I think I readed in every bio pellets threads about bacterial bloom (not only NP bio pellets) personally I think they are all the same and have same issue. So many bloom or not working bp or any kind of trouble with bio pellets in this thread is IMO because they was first and much more people use them, also is obviously that after this thread manufactures now advice smaller quantity with the slow adition of more bio pellets, some advice/recomend bacterial aditives.... and there will be probably more advice/recomendation from the RC threads. Is a quite simple explanation, all those companies dont have hundreds of differents reef aquariums where they can test bio pellets in various situation so they can write exact instruction for use, they just read threads here and in other forums and then made "advanced" bio pellets. I beleive they are all the same or with very litlle diference. Dont see any kind of diferent expirience in other bp threads, some have bacterial bloom, some not, some can not get bp to work and reduce nitrate, some can, some have issue with soft corals other not.... for me that all look the same as here.