N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)
- Thread starter tntneon
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bluereefs
New member
Sorry Gromert, really dont know, I am not the bp expert, just sharing my expirience with them in this thread. I think nobody actually know what is going on with bio pellets, this new media probably open completly new dimension in reef keping and many more answer we will get in the future as more study/work will be done with this matter. So far we have carbon dosing (vodka, sugar, vinegar, vitamin C...) but all those system avoided bacterial bloom and have slow start with small weekly adjustement until the results are get, mostly after months and months. With bp most of us get straight to bacterial bloom (serious bacterial bloom) in few days, even without bacterial bloom working bio pellets produce (IMO) much more bacteria then liquid carbon dosing, and I think we simply dont know what is going on within our aquariums with so much bacteria. In your example maybe they (bacteria) after they consume all nutrients simply shut off and your bp do not worked anymore, then nutrients come back fast what was negatively efect your corals, something like high jump and fall in ph or kh...in short period of time, probably big diference in nutrient concetration in short period of time have very severe efects on corals, particulary on soft corals who feed with disolved organic.
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bluereefs
New member
IIRC acording to manufacter advice yes, more you feed more bp you need but is hard to say exact amount of bp because heavy feeding in non photosintetc tank and heavy feeding in sps/lps tanks are very diferent.
Right now I use 500 ml in 600 lit tank and bp produce loots of bacteria, flow measured at the outlet of my reactor are aprox 550/600 litters/hour (somewhere in this thread I post exact flow measure). IMO your 500 ml are just fine for your tank if they work. Do you see bacterial strings/film anywhere in your aquarium? White film on glass panel? Do you have some filtersock, for ROWAphos for example? ROWAphos filter sock are usually easy to get in EU and they are cheap, so you can put filtersock at the outlet of the reactor and see will he clog in 24-48 hours? I use ROWAphos filtersock on my reactor outlet and he get cloged and full of bacteria after 24 hours. Can take picture tomorow so you can see what I mean. Reason for using filter sock is to see does your bp produce bacteria at all right now.
Well, wasn't the result from the bad batch low skimmate production?
trunks1622
New member
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.
So I came home Friday and to my surprise, my tank was super clear. The cloudiness disappeared. I tested for phosphate and it was almost undetectable. Although, I've never really had a big issue with phosphates. I've used both the Hagen and salifert phosphate test kit. Now for nitrates. I usually test my tank every 2-3 weeks and the last several test I did for nitrates had always been 80+ ppm. Now, it was almost undetectable. I've used both API and Hagen test kit and both gave me the same result. Now, I highly doubt that my 4-5g wc every week could have lowered it this much but I'm happy with my results. I don't know if the biopellets works this fast but I like what I see. :lolspin:
trunks1622
New member
I forgot to mention that withthe good result I got, it also came with some bad news. I didn't lose any corals but I see some was affected. My brain coral isn't as bright and big like it used to be. The bubble coral isn't fully open. My duncans have never opened since I have added the biopellets. The zoas aren't fuly openning as well. I'm sure they will recover but it will take some time. Also, my skimmer is still working very hard but I haven't had to empty it as much as last time.
No sign of white films or strings of bacteria. I have a filter sock so I can try this.
Is it possible that the pellets have the potential to increase NO3 when it´s not "working"?
I must be doing something wrong here but I can`t figur out what.
What sort of pump are you using to create the best flow?
Is it possible that the pellets have the potential to increase NO3 when it´s not "working"?
I must be doing something wrong here but I can`t figur out what.
What sort of pump are you using to create the best flow?
bluereefs
New member
Here is filtersock on my diy working reactor, after the cleaning, no bacteria
24 hours latter, full of bacteria slime
If I dont clean sock after 24 hours in 48 hours is like ballon.
here is my skimmer production in 24 hours
Every morning I clean skimmer cup, sponge and filtersock. IMO those a sign of working bio pellets and bacteria production.
I dont know how I can test posibillity that bp increase NO3 when they are not working, I personally doubt that bp contribute to NO3 increase, they not adsorb nitrate so can not leach them. My experiment with jar show that they can completly neutralize nitrate, I still have those jar on my table so I can measure nitrate again to see if they arise, they was 0. What was suprise me is the coming back of algae and nitrate after they was removed (bp) they come back very fast, I dont think that is related with bp but with carbon nitrate removal.
I use old hagen 404 powerhead, flow declared on pump are 1400 lit/hour but pump is old, at the outlet of reactor flow are around 550 lit/hours. Every pump what can tumble the bp are good, IMO.
I suspect, could be wrong also, that your bp somehow stop working, what is the cause I dont know. Put the filtersock at the outlet and if there was no bacteria for few days bp probably dont produce them.
Change the water and start to feed them (target feeding) in case of bleaching move them in shade and feed, I would also use some kind of reef food (frozen/blenderized) with small particles what can trigger the feeding response in afected corals. If the situation do not improve I would remove the bp and start to feed aloot. Something like that was happening to me during one bacterial bloom, some corals get afected and bleached, move them in shadow (trachyphyllia) and target feed, as well I dump toons of blenderized diy food to rise the nutrients again. I think bp and bacterial bloom remove to fast everything organic from the tank including food for those corals what afected them.
bluereefs
New member
No problem, hoepfully you will fix the issue with your aquarium.
One more thing if they smell bad, like rotten eggs, that is not a good sign, that is hidrogen sulfid, here is good post about hidrogen sulfid posted by tmz
Hidrogen sulfid should not finished in aquarium, he is very toxic. If your bp produce hidrogen sulfid during working then your problem are not shortage of bacteria, but not proper tumbling/agitation/flow throu the reactor. Is your reactor still conected/working on aquarium or you disconent him but with the seawater inside? Hopefully you just leave the reactor off inside the sump and then he produce hidrogen sulfid in stagnant water but those water are not drained in aquarium.
HighlandReefer
Team RC
It would be interesting if someone devised an anaerobic reactor using the BP which allowed the gases to escape through proper ventilation. Perhaps anaerobic bacteria would be more effective for reducing nitrate.
Might be too much organic carbon in one place with low flow to prevent anoxia and consequent sulfate reduction with hydrogen sulfide issues.. If someone want's to try though , something like a sulfur denitrator with pellets in it instead of sulfur could create the hypoxic environment at least intially. but I think it would go to sulfate reduction quickly.
lolgranny
The DQ King
99 pages.... 20 done. This thread is insane.
Im setting up a 40g breeder and im looking into trying this once my cycle ends / tank matures. ~3more months, will put me at the 6month mark. Have we come to a conclusion about using these things? From what ive read they look positive with little mishaps.
I was planning on using them in a sock below my drain pipe so they would get good flow / oxygen and tumble so i would have to worry about buildup.
Im setting up a 40g breeder and im looking into trying this once my cycle ends / tank matures. ~3more months, will put me at the 6month mark. Have we come to a conclusion about using these things? From what ive read they look positive with little mishaps.
I was planning on using them in a sock below my drain pipe so they would get good flow / oxygen and tumble so i would have to worry about buildup.
tntneon
SPSahollic
@bleureefs :
-That's exactly the kind of skimmate / gunk that i pull out every day
, same color , foam structure ....
Only i have connected a 2 G skimmate container to my skimmercup , so i don't have to clean my cup every day.
@lolgranny :
-Even with alot off flow , socks tends to clog very fast with bacteria.
only if the mesh is big enough (sock) and the pellets are not packed to dense inside the sock , alowing alot of flow between the pellets it would work .
If not , the flow would be reduced between the pellets who are in the middle of the sock.
What could leed to H²S production wich is toxic .
greetingzz tntneon
-That's exactly the kind of skimmate / gunk that i pull out every day
, same color , foam structure ....Only i have connected a 2 G skimmate container to my skimmercup , so i don't have to clean my cup every day.
@lolgranny :
-Even with alot off flow , socks tends to clog very fast with bacteria.
only if the mesh is big enough (sock) and the pellets are not packed to dense inside the sock , alowing alot of flow between the pellets it would work .
If not , the flow would be reduced between the pellets who are in the middle of the sock.
What could leed to H²S production wich is toxic .
greetingzz tntneon
daveonbass
New member
100 pages...woot! Congrats on the huge thread...
small update. I checked NO3 yesterday, it WAS around 5-10, but now I can definitely say it's 5ppm. This is the lightest it's ever been. Hopefully the SWC pellets I'm trying are the cause of this, I hope to be able to update in another week or two and announce close to 0ppm. Fingers crossed. My tank looks better than ever. (one way or another)
small update. I checked NO3 yesterday, it WAS around 5-10, but now I can definitely say it's 5ppm. This is the lightest it's ever been. Hopefully the SWC pellets I'm trying are the cause of this, I hope to be able to update in another week or two and announce close to 0ppm. Fingers crossed. My tank looks better than ever. (one way or another)
tntneon
SPSahollic
100 pages...woot! Congrats on the huge thread...
small update. I checked NO3 yesterday, it WAS around 5-10, but now I can definitely say it's 5ppm. This is the lightest it's ever been. Hopefully the SWC pellets I'm trying are the cause of this, I hope to be able to update in another week or two and announce close to 0ppm. Fingers crossed. My tank looks better than ever. (one way or another)
I hope these SWC pellets will do the trick for you
BTW where does the SWC stands for ?
greetingzz tntneon
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