so long to bio pellets

hkgar

Active member
Time to go back to RowaPhos in my reactor.

Although Phosphate is undetectable, Nitrates are up to 10+ (from 2 or less when I started. Algae is starting to appear on rocks and cyano on the sand bed. At least I think it is cyano - more brown than red but similar in general appearance.

Although the Phosphates ar undetectable, I think they are just being taking up by the new appearance of algae - which I haven't had for 4 years or more.

I have been running the pellets since May in a 3 fishes 150 reactor driven by a maxijet 1200 pump with what I believe to be good tumbling and the discharge going into the skimmer.

Was this just a passing fad that really doesn't work all that well?
 
I've had very good success with the bio pellets...


Give us a little more info and let's try help you.


What skimmer you got?

What kinda of internal circulation, sump layout, wager change frequency etc
 
I have been running NPX bio-pellets since June, in the same set up your using. My nitrate and phosphate levels have remained near zero. So, IMO, and based on my experience, I think they work at least as well as the traditional GFO and I would not agree that they are a "passing fad".
 
You may want to try reducing your water flow to get more bacterial growth or perhaps add more pellets. I woudl try reduced flow first. ;)
 
I've had very good success with the bio pellets...


Give us a little more info and let's try help you.


What skimmer you got?

What kinda of internal circulation, sump layout, wager change frequency etc

I have the aquaC EV 120. 30 gallon sump. 3 sections. 1 - Return from tank, skimmer and return from reactor. 2 - BP reactor. 3 Aquaclear filter. 4 - Return to DT with Mag 7.


Primary SPS tank 90 Gallon. Four Korolia evol pumps - 2 1400's and 2 750's

Two AI Sol Leds. Just added 4 65 watt PC's (2 Actinic and 2 10K)

Oh and 10% water changes generally weekly. Sometimes I miss a week.
 
I had tried bio pellets, and gave up on them, too. I'm sure it works well for most, and it did keep my nutrient levels in check; however, I always had that slight bit of cloudiness in the water which I could never get rid of.

I turned to a DIY algae scrubber and I couldn't be happier. Nutrients are in check and the water is crystal clear.
 
I had good results with pellets. Ran for 6 months on and now 6 months or so off. Since I've taken them off I have seen an increase in algae, decrease in pe (don't know if I can contribute this to the pellets..won't know unless I put them back on), and an increase in nitrates, and phosphates. However the increase of these levels has been to the point where everything has stayed in acceptable ranges so I haven't been in a rush to put the pellets back on. I originally took them off as an experiment. I had been running them almost right from the start of this tank, and I was very happy with my parameters however I wanted to see if it was my husbandry or pelltes doing the job. I also had some cyano. Removing them did show an increase in nutrients in my tank, and even with my efforts to cut back my feeding as a result of removing the pellets I am unable to achieve the same nutrient levels as I was before. Went from sub .03 phos, and 0-1 nitrate to a .03-.11 phosphates, and 1-5ppm nitrate. To keep my parameters down I've had to cut out oyster eggs, and drastically reduced feeding nutrient heavy foods, and spot feeding my LPS. This also resulted in the unintentional reduction in my bioload.. Anthias did not like the food reduction and I lost a few before I noticed so my overall fish load has decreased a fair bit. The bottom line for me, is it's been more work since I took them off. I also have had to up my water change amounts.

I did buy a new pellet specific reactor, and eventually plan to return them to the system but only when I'm ready to re-plumb my tank as a bigger goal of mine is using my one over sized return pump and manifolds to power my display tank, frag tank, the pellet reactor, and my GFO/Carbon reactor.

In order to reduce the number of pumps in my tank and my overall electrical consumption. I can't wait to go from 4 pumps to 1.
 
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They work pretty well for me. I had a pump issue and didn't tumble them enough and after a couple weeks got cyano issues beginning, but that's fixed now. Some people seem to do better with a liquid carbon source.

If I had a turf scrubber I'd also run some carbon. Every turf scrubbed tank I've seen (and most with macroalgae) have some yellowing of the water (and sometimes a lot) and while you might be scared of taking good things out, the yellow gelbstoff isn't what I'd call good.

Mammoth - I like a simple system too, but aren't you worried that by putting everything on one pump the drag in the plumbing will negate the power savings from reducing the number of pumps? Genuine question
 
I have the aquaC EV 120. 30 gallon sump. 3 sections. 1 - Return from tank, skimmer and return from reactor. 2 - BP reactor. 3 Aquaclear filter. 4 - Return to DT with Mag 7.


Primary SPS tank 90 Gallon. Four Korolia evol pumps - 2 1400's and 2 750's

Two AI Sol Leds. Just added 4 65 watt PC's (2 Actinic and 2 10K)

Oh and 10% water changes generally weekly. Sometimes I miss a week.

If I'm not mistaken, the output of the BP reactor should go really close to your protein skimmer so the skimmer can take care of the waste. From what you wrote, it sounds like it is in a section by itself.
 
Curious as to what your tank pH runs at. There is some research that found at pH levels higher than 8.2 the bacteria don't do as well.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the output of the BP reactor should go really close to your protein skimmer so the skimmer can take care of the waste. From what you wrote, it sounds like it is in a section by itself.

The reactor is in section 2 but the return from the reactor goes into section 1
 
Mine were always channeling in the reactor and building up some nasty smelling stuff so I took them off. I'm happy with GFO and weekly water changes.
 
They work pretty well for me. I had a pump issue and didn't tumble them enough and after a couple weeks got cyano issues beginning, but that's fixed now. Some people seem to do better with a liquid carbon source.

If I had a turf scrubber I'd also run some carbon. Every turf scrubbed tank I've seen (and most with macroalgae) have some yellowing of the water (and sometimes a lot) and while you might be scared of taking good things out, the yellow gelbstoff isn't what I'd call good.

Mammoth - I like a simple system too, but aren't you worried that by putting everything on one pump the drag in the plumbing will negate the power savings from reducing the number of pumps? Genuine question


Hmm not sure to be honest. I'm already running this pump and had to turn it down which is creating drag or it will overflow my display. I figured sectioning it off will at least allow me to use the pump to it's full capacity.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the output of the BP reactor should go really close to your protein skimmer so the skimmer can take care of the waste. From what you wrote, it sounds like it is in a section by itself.

I never agree'd with this. I did the opposite I put the out put of my reactor direct pointing toward my return pump to push as much bac as possible into the display for the corals to consume. I was always under the impression this was the main original points of carbon dosing (bacteria cultivation). Way back when all the euros were flooding this forum w/protibo, and zeovit.
 
I have been running NPX bio-pellets since June, in the same set up your using. My nitrate and phosphate levels have remained near zero. So, IMO, and based on my experience, I think they work at least as well as the traditional GFO and I would not agree that they are a "passing fad".

same here: same time-frame, same brand....
I did notice once I got them tumbling with a reactor mod, things settled down:
cloudiness went away, 0's across the board.....
...i'm using GFO with them anyway:

MJ1200-->BRS dlx reactor w/NPX bio-pellets-->BRS dual reactor w/GFO & Carbon ---> Octopus NW150
 
I love my pellets. Running a mix of WM Ecobak and TLF ones in both tanks....over the last two months I've been able to wean my tanks down to almost 1/4 vodka I used every day. I've been as high as 36ml/d in my 160net gal 175 and 16ml in my 60net gal 90. I'm dosing 4ml in the 175 and 0.5ml in the 90 and going down 1ml in the big tank/wk and 0.5ml in the smaller tank.

Because I dosed my tanks for 2 years I did start with 100% of the recommended pellets.

Just like with vodka, alk 7-8 and ph of 8 seems best so I'd agree with Highland Reefer.

I also took my gfo offline in both tanks and my growth and color of a year ago returned. A year of experience with my Ca reactors doesn't hurt either:spin1:--tough after over 10yrs of dosing as trouble shooting and results are less sudden.
 
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