Should i start running Biopellets??

[SchnitzelReef]

was hoping to get some advice from some of you veteran SPS guys. my tank has been running for over a year, and about 8 months ago i started keeping mainly sps. Ive had some issues with growth due to my DIY led light not having enough par. i currently changed around my whole light setup, and stole ATIs idea. Im running 4-80w T5s retrofit and 90-3w leds. Im hoping to get alot more par and better growth.

as of right now i am vinegar dosing on a daily basis by hand. I am running a calcium reactor, and do not want to buy a doser just for vinegar. my goal would be to get the BP reactor to save me from daily dosing, or from having to buy a doser Ive seen so many nice SPS dominant tanks and almost all of them seem to be running BPs. I have just read so many bad experiences with them, and feel some people have given me bad advice due to their bad experience and lack of knowledge. my main concern is starting to run BPs on a 1 year old sps dominant tank, versus starting it from the beginning. heard of lots of guys that have started BPs and lost all of their coral, or lost nice pieces to STN/RTN.

so would u guys recommend running Bio pellets? any pros or cons? personal horror storys or success storys? is it really worth it? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

if i did run BPs, i was going to run Cadlights BP reactor. ive heard its the best.

tank info: 180g Leemar, 60g sump, Super Reef Octopus xp3000 skimmer, Korallin Ca reactor, refugium, mp40&tunze 6105, led/t5 hybrid. heavy bioload with lots of tangs and a big sargassum trigger.

all of my SPS are frags and im hoping they will all grow to nice colonies.

(my camera skills suck, and with leds ALL of my pics look washed out blue.)

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Couple pics my buddy took with his cannon macro

Everything is still really small. Hoping this big light change will help ALOT!

My params have been very stable the last 5 months. (Took me awhile to get the hang of my Ca reactor)
Alk-8.5
Mag1350
Ca-420



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[SchnitzelReef]

Sorry for the horrible pics, but here's a colony I've had for awhile, and the tiny booger is my Tierra Del Fuego.

Older shot of my sargassum

Ok that should be enough pictures for u guys to see that obviously I suck at picture taking. Lol. One of my next investments is going to be a quality camera. I promise


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[fishyguy7]

from all my reading it is best to start with 1/4 of the recommended amount of pellets then slowly adding more. Seems like all the failures come from rapid depletion of PO4 NO3 levels and the corals starve.

 

[toothman]

is your evaporation rate stable:
What are you doing for top off water, if you do not have one, ato is a nice brand.
You can put vinegar in your top off water.

 

[toothman]

Bio pellets, do work but can be tough to control.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Currently I have a solenoid and my rodi directly to my tank. So no top off reservoir


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[smalltime]

Definetly go with a cadlights recirculating reactor. Have the output of the reactor near your skimmer intake. I made the switch to pellets recently also to get away from daily dosing. Take it slow and you will be good. Only thing I do daily is feed the fish now.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Anyone else got any info? I'm really debating what I should do and ur guys help would be great!


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[fishyguy7]

I will also say that a recirculating reactor is the best way to go. gives you much more control

 

[BKNYx43]

I was thinking of going with BioPellets but I decided to use the Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim instead. I started it this week.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Anyone else have any personal success story's of adding Biopellets to an existing SPS tank?


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[gojk]

If you run them be prepared to does Amino Acids or feed extra heavy to keep the corals from turning pale. It is nice to not have to dose vodka everyday. It sounds like the problem can also be solved with the recirc reactor. I have yet to convert my reactor or buy a recirc reactor.

 

[dowtish]

I would highly suggest using EcoBak from Warner Marine. And like it was said before, start off slowly. 1/4 of the suggested amount and wait about 4-5 weeks and add another 1/4. And be sure to test your levels after week 4 to make sure you dont strip your system too fast. Keep the tumble slow and just keep testing. I have run Ecobak on nmy tank for 2 years now, and have had excellent results.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

I would highly suggest using EcoBak from Warner Marine. And like it was said before, start off slowly. 1/4 of the suggested amount and wait about 4-5 weeks and add another 1/4. And be sure to test your levels after week 4 to make sure you dont strip your system too fast. Keep the tumble slow and just keep testing. I have run Ecobak on nmy tank for 2 years now, and have had excellent results.

Thanks. This was my exact plan. I'm just scared because of all the horror story's of guys stn/RTN all there Fav pieces after trying bio pellets


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[XxreeffreakxX]

I would highly suggest using EcoBak from Warner Marine. And like it was said before, start off slowly. 1/4 of the suggested amount and wait about 4-5 weeks and add another 1/4. And be sure to test your levels after week 4 to make sure you dont strip your system too fast. Keep the tumble slow and just keep testing. I have run Ecobak on nmy tank for 2 years now, and have had excellent results.

I'm in the same boat using ecobak with no issues and agree with the steps above ... But I set my tank up with pellets online within the first 3 days, I attempted to add pellets to my sps frag system and it was one of the worst possible things I could have done, hair algae and cyano like crazy. Adding them when setting up is the best way to go with pellets but as long as u add small amount slowly and keep an eye out you should be fine . hTh

 

[jg93]

After a lot of research on this I personally went with a BRS 1.1 doser and vinegar. Very contrallable, cheap and easy to get going. I'm on week 3 now, still slowly increasing dosage.

 

[stangchris]

ok i know i dont have many posts but you can look at my profile for my build to see i do love sps. ive been using pellets for around 2 years now. when i first ran them they stated you couldnt over dose them, which you really cant but i kept upping the amount and really took too many nutrients out and had to feed alot to keep color and dose trace elements. when i set up the 150 i decided to toe the line, i run half to 3/4 the recomended amount and run a fuge still. coral look so much better this time around. also i still have some probs with cyano as i did the first time, but it didnt show up this time till after the 6 month mark. so latley i added dr tims waste away to help keep tank clean, and cyano in check. its really helped and im very happy with results. also ive used many diff reactors and the reef octo is great, the new bio churn looks promising but i have the older model with inverted cone at bottom.

 

[danil]

If you find your sweet spot with vinegar I would rather get a doser for it. BP could work in your case since you are doing carbon dosing but vinegar and BP are not the same. With dosing vinegar you have less chances to run into cyano problem. My position if it's not broken don't change it.

 

[cthedaytrader]

Currently I have a solenoid and my rodi directly to my tank. So no top off reservoir


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I know this is an old post but I was researching the cadlight biopellet reactors and this popped up.

I just though I would point out that if you have a solenoid hooked up directly to your for auto top off then you likely are creeping TDS into the tank. The filters tend to leach back TDS back into the water as it sits in the RO/DI unit which is why you generally have to run the RO/DI for a short period of time prior to using the water. If you are auto topping off your tank directly from your RO/DI unit then you are slowly adding TDS to your tank every time you top off your tank which will add up quickly and is most likely the source of any nutrient problems you might be having.

Of course my post is meaningless if you have a method to discard the initial water that comes out of the RO/DI as waste rather than topping your tank off directly from the RO/DI.