N/P reducing pellets (solid vodka dosing)

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Tunze Foam Extractor

Tunze Foam Extractor

reeftivo said:
little over a week in and everything looks good.

had a touch of cyano on the sand before I started the pellets and strangely enough it's gone.

Don't know if it's due to the pellets or just good husbandry of late.

I read of cyano blooms but so far the opposite is happening for me. Things are looking much cleaner than usual.

po4 is still at .02 and nitrates are at just below 5ppm with the tunze measuring box.

My Tunze 9410 works well, even with the smaller volume system. I'm used to dry skimmate but right now I'm getting foul smelling tea.

Don't know if I'll get back to this one day or not with the pellets
Click to expand...

I looked up the skimmer - very kool little gadget with the foam extractor...

The pellets do tend to make your skimmer produce a lot more slimy foam, with an extra dose of foamy slime just after you add new pellets (even to an established batch) IME.

Sheldon
 
Scej12 said:
I looked up the skimmer - very kool little gadget with the foam extractor...

The pellets do tend to make your skimmer produce a lot more slimy foam, with an extra dose of foamy slime just after you add new pellets (even to an established batch) IME.

Sheldon
Click to expand...

Thanks sheldon,

Not much except for smelly tea right now but perams are holding nicely.

The 9410 skimmer has been the best of the performers I've had on my little system since tearing down my 90 a few years ago. It has the antifoaming feature that pulls water in through the air intake if the foam starts to go berzerk. It also clears the airline whenever you remove the extractor for maintenance. Things I don't like about it are the output sock assembly which works great but is an annoyance to clean and also the slight vibration I get from the hydrofoamer pump. I had to put soft rubber furniture pads under the unit to keep it quiet. With that being said, the skimmer is running at 13 scfh with the valve turned to 1/4 closed and can do 18. Not bad for such a short skimmer!

I'm purchasing one of the warner marine MF 121's in a couple months to try that out and hopefully give me a slightly quieter experience with less occupied space and easier maintenance.

So far so good with the pellets but it's only been a short while so we'll see.

I'm still dosing my zeo sponge power, xtra and bac but I've cut down. I love not having to pump that darn zeo reactor 2 times a day and dose the start. Makes it more enjoyable for me!!

Tivo
 
ronhjr said:
Im new to dosing bio-pelles on my 180 fowlr aquarium.

Do I stop using activated carbon and phosban as well?
Click to expand...

I've done the same thing, about 6 months ago. Works great, nuisance algae 99% gone, corraline exploding everywhere. You should be fine with just carbon for water color/clarity.

I've been adding more carbon and GFO lately as I've been adding SPS to my system. I only used the GFO because of the corals, to get rid of that last 0.1 PO4.

Bottom line is I'd continue running GAC and not waste the $ on GFO unless you want the last bit of PO4 gone right now. It should go down to zero on its own over time.
 
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In my system the opposite has been working beautifully-- no carbon but continued use of GFO. When I get lazy and the GFO needs changing the corals grow slower and the algae on the glass grows faster. This has been the way my tank works pretty much since I started the bio-pellets 9 months ago.
 
I'm going to cintunue the GFO while running carbon passively in a bag (return chamber). Seems to be working well so far.

I've noticed practically no algae dusting on the panes since starting the pellets. Also, my clear vinyl tubing for my chiller is almost deposit free now. Can this be? Are the pellets clearing the beige slime I had in the tubing? I was going to back flush the line this weekend but the flow out of the chiller has slightly increased and the deposits are clearing up.

Very interesting!

Tivo
 
I started 2 months ago, I removed the GFO 4 weeks ago, I can't tell a difference without the GFO.... The only think I have noticed on the pellets is the coral color has improved slightly and the skimmer is beyond awful!
 
great to hear!

have you found yourself having to supplement any more Mg than usual?

I always check my water prior to WC's but by weeks end my Mg has fallen off to around 1100 the last two changes. I'm attributing it to wet skimming but any thoughts would be appreciated.

temp 77, dkh 7.5 and Ca 420, sg 1.026, Mg 1300 (down to 1100 after day 7)

Not a big concern. Just curious!

tivo
 
Two weeks in. I'm starting to see some brown stuff on the sand. Doesn't look to be cyano. Not sure if it's from the biopellets or my lighting. Just upgraded from Cree XP-G led lighting to Cree XM led. The XM is a lot brighter.

Also, my skimmer has not been skimming a lot out of the water anymore. Is this normal? It was skimming very skim and skinky stuff for the first 1.5week. For the past couple days, it's been very dry and little. PO4 and NO3 remain undetectable.
 
Today is two weeks for me as well. Skimmer is performing well adjusted to wet skimming.

I'd say as long as your levels of po4 and no3 are good then it shouldn't be of too much concern.

I wish I had the $$ for LED's! I spent a few bucks for a lumenmax 3 fixture w/ dimmable ballast when I should have probably held out for LED's. My fixture is nice though so I'm not too upset.

Could be your lighting so I'd just shorten the photo period by an hour or so and see what happens. Easiest thing to start with!

Is you browning looking like stringy algae or just shading?

If it's stringy there's a chance it may be a touch of dinos. I've read some people having break outs.

Tivo
 
reeftivo said:
I'm going to cintunue the GFO while running carbon passively in a bag (return chamber). Seems to be working well so far.

I've noticed practically no algae dusting on the panes since starting the pellets. Also, my clear vinyl tubing for my chiller is almost deposit free now. Can this be? Are the pellets clearing the beige slime I had in the tubing? I was going to back flush the line this weekend but the flow out of the chiller has slightly increased and the deposits are clearing up.

Very interesting!

Tivo
Click to expand...

just barging in..... I'm new at this also so don't take my testimonial as an indorsement but instead as supporting "data"

anyway: ditto (pellets & GFO & CArbon) but my GFO & Carbon are running in-line and after the bio-pellets (3-4 mos now)...
...a 90G started w/250ML NPX then added another 250 ml after 8 weeks-ish

...one thing I might add ...my tank was new so I suspect very little organic and/or phosphates were "bound" in the sytem....yes; my 1st batch of GFO exauhsted pretty fast (as 1st indicated by algae growth) but 2nd batch is lasting longer (or the bio-pellets are taking up the slack)

...I have bleached some sps frags but not sure if its related or not ...otherwise I haven't had the reported issues as others...fingers crossed
 
update!

No bloom to speak of yet just a day past two weeks. po4 is down to .02 (hanna photometer) and no3 is down to 2 ppm (tunze measuring box).

feeding more daily (spirulina soaked brine,mysis and spectrum pellets). May be my imagination but the tank seems to look better with the increased feedings.

Happy so far!

Tivo
 
anyone have experience with this reactor.
picture.php
.

I have this model in my garage and while the BRS seems to be working well, it still seems to channel the pellets a bit.

I'm thinking of transferring the pellets to this reactor but wanted to see if anyones had any experience with the aquamaxx first.

The plate at the bottom is designed to channel the water flow from openings just below the bottom collar. In addition to the channels, the collar has several holes as well which stir the pellets.

I saw a video of this one and it churned the pellets very uniformly.
 
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So I have been battling different kinds of algae for the past couple of months, did the lights out, tried vodka/vinegar with nothing working. So I had a bag of NP bio pellets laying around and decided to give that a shot in my nextreef BP reactor..I started off with a little bit of the pellets maybe 1/4 of the recommended dosage. I have been running them for about 5 days or so and been kick starting them with some MB7 along with another lights out period. So I just looked at my reactor and it seems that algae is growing on the top strainer part of the reactor. Now I have no light under on my sump at all. So I was wondering is this possibly the "good" bacteria populating or could I just be fueling more bad algae to grow by using the pellets and the MB7?Or could it just be dead algae that has died from the dosing the pellets, mb7 and lights out??
 
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