Starting NP Biopellets
- Thread starter EvMiBo
- Start date
deepseanige
New member
I'm not currently using Bio Pellets, but from what I've read, water cloudiness usually appears when Nitrate was high.
It will pass with time.
It will pass with time.
bluereefs
New member
IME water cloudines come when the pellets are not agitated very well in reactor, using them that way create enormous mass of bacteria and actually your aquarium are now bp reactor. Is happening to me and also I do that intentionaly on second aquarium for experiment. It is, from my preliminary results, great way to destroy algae in short period of time, also to drastically reduce nitrates. Cloudines will go in next 2-3 days, if you use activated carbon even faster. After that the aquarium will be crystal clear. I would recomend water changes with vacuming decaying algae and removal of bacteria from glass,rocks, corals...
You can even stop the reactor for few days, clean bp very well and clean complete reactor to remove bacteria from them, because if you was in similar situation like me then your reactor is loaded with bacteria, it took me 3-4 washing (with aquarium water) to finaly clean them from bacteria, first buckets was completly white from bacteria. In case you use sponges in reactor remove them completly.
Is few days after I remove bp from one on of my aquarium and water is still crystal clear, I had at least 100 mg/lit nitrata and now are 0,02 mg/lit (Salifert test)
Here are the picture from bp experiment
Cloudiness second day after I install bp reactor
skimmer during bacterial boom
algae before the treatment
for days latter
You can even stop the reactor for few days, clean bp very well and clean complete reactor to remove bacteria from them, because if you was in similar situation like me then your reactor is loaded with bacteria, it took me 3-4 washing (with aquarium water) to finaly clean them from bacteria, first buckets was completly white from bacteria. In case you use sponges in reactor remove them completly.
Is few days after I remove bp from one on of my aquarium and water is still crystal clear, I had at least 100 mg/lit nitrata and now are 0,02 mg/lit (Salifert test)
Here are the picture from bp experiment
Cloudiness second day after I install bp reactor
skimmer during bacterial boom
algae before the treatment
for days latter
dragenfire0
New member
wow wondering about this stuff
bluereefs
New member
Yes my tank cleared up but I removed bp reactor 2 day after the bacterial bloom. Then the tank cleared up. I washed the bp in freshwater and put him again on aquarium day or two ago, now my aquarium are again cloudy but not so much like in above picture. I do some experiment with various reactors in various aquariums and it look, a least for me and from my observation, that specific tumbling/flow throu reactor can cause bacterial bloom and situation like above. It also look that only this bacterial boom can decrease nitrate in short period of time, my nitrate drop from 50 mg/lit at 5 mg/lit in few days.
I can only get bacterial boom in my diy reactor (made from Octopus calcium reactor), in second original fluid reactor, also octopus, there is no bacterial explosion. Just for the notice, with this reactor (diy) I get similar situation in previous aquarium (150 gallons), so far I still experiment.
Dont realy understend why this reactor cause bacterial explosion in every aquarium I put him. I use bp in 3 diferent reactors for 6-7 months, only latelly when I made some changes in diy reactor bp explode with bacteria, for instance almost same quantity of bp in original fluid reactor dont cause bacterial boom at all for 6-7 months, also dont decrease the nitrate.
I dont see livestock afeceted at all, not even fishes, they swim and eat without problem.
EvMiBo
VictoriaConcordiaCrescit
My tank is clear again. I will also say I have had this tank up since early September 09' and I'm getting the nastiest skimmate I've seen. I took a picture earlier today to show everyone later (at work right now). So far so good after replacing the sponges with the new filters. :thumbsup:
martinphillip03
New member
Could it be that the open top container expose the bacteria effluent to the air when the tank water go through the biopellet and up above the container opening and down through the side? Would that be a positive reaction? A normal reactor do not cause that to happen as the plumbing would not expose the effluent to the air but kept that treated water sealed through the journey. In another word, a normal reactor is missing the exposure to air part which cause the bacteria bloom.
Just a theory.
reef_doug
Premium Member
I'm on day 3 and going through the bacteria bloom at the moment. I've read a lot of threads and it seems like a normal cycle for some. It causes the skimmer to get very foamy and the socks to fill up rather quickly. Best thing to do is keep the skimmer running, replace socks daily, and use an airstone in the display for the livestock. It will clear up in a couple days.
Here is a good thread to read also:
http://www.irishfishforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5404
Couple "dont's" when using Bio Pellets:
1. Don't use GFO, at least for 45 days. The bacteria metabolize Nitrates & Phosphates in the same quantity. When you run out of phosphates (due to GFO) then the bacteria wont continue to grow as much and the nitrate number may not go down to undetectable levels.
2. Don't use UV or Ozone. It kills the bacteria.
3. Don't run alkalinity higher than 8 or so. Some corals may get STN in a Ultra Low Nutrient System (ULNS) with alkalinity over 8. IMO 7.5 is ideal.
A couple "do's":
1. Use an efficient skimmer. It is more important with bacteria based systems then other export systems. Direct the Bio Pellet effluent close to the skimmer intake to capture some of the bacteria.
2. Do use GAC. GAC will remove some of the DOC that the bacteria may not metabolize. When running in a ULNS, small changes can be dramatic for corals. I'm going to use 1/2 the amount of carbon (1/4c p/ 50 gal) than I would normally run and change it every couple weeks. I'm also going to use a weaker, less aggressive coal carbon.
Like to here anyone else's views and tips too.
Here is a good thread to read also:
http://www.irishfishforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5404
Couple "dont's" when using Bio Pellets:
1. Don't use GFO, at least for 45 days. The bacteria metabolize Nitrates & Phosphates in the same quantity. When you run out of phosphates (due to GFO) then the bacteria wont continue to grow as much and the nitrate number may not go down to undetectable levels.
2. Don't use UV or Ozone. It kills the bacteria.
3. Don't run alkalinity higher than 8 or so. Some corals may get STN in a Ultra Low Nutrient System (ULNS) with alkalinity over 8. IMO 7.5 is ideal.
A couple "do's":
1. Use an efficient skimmer. It is more important with bacteria based systems then other export systems. Direct the Bio Pellet effluent close to the skimmer intake to capture some of the bacteria.
2. Do use GAC. GAC will remove some of the DOC that the bacteria may not metabolize. When running in a ULNS, small changes can be dramatic for corals. I'm going to use 1/2 the amount of carbon (1/4c p/ 50 gal) than I would normally run and change it every couple weeks. I'm also going to use a weaker, less aggressive coal carbon.
Like to here anyone else's views and tips too.
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Statement 1 isn't true. The bacteria might use nitrogen and phosphorus in a fairly fixed ratio, but they'll use a lot more of the nitrogen in terms of weight. The Redfield ratio is one example of this.
Statement 2 had better be false, or the pellets are dumping ozone into the water column, which is what they're designed not to do.
The other points are reasonable, IMO.
Statement 2 had better be false, or the pellets are dumping ozone into the water column, which is what they're designed not to do.
The other points are reasonable, IMO.
TheFishMan65
New member
bertoni, I am confused I would have agreed with statement 2. Why doesn't ozone and UV kill the bateria?
reef_doug
Premium Member
On statement 1, my plan is not to use GFO for 45 days. I should have said until nitrates are undetectable. My thinking is then if the phosphates are undetectable then I may not want to use GFO at all. Agree many of the tanks have more phosphates than nitrates. Some people in Europe actually add ammonia to get the nitrates up to help the bacteria to control phosphates.
I based it on this experience (answer to 1st paragraph, pg 5):
http://www.irishfishforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5404&start=60
I based it on this experience (answer to 1st paragraph, pg 5):
http://www.irishfishforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5404&start=60
Last edited:
The bacteria should be living on the media, well, the growing ones are. The bacteria that get sloughed into the water column, if any, need to be removed via skimming, and killing them should be fine, if the UV unit can do that. The usual aquarium ozone setups don't produce a high enough concentration of ozone to do any sterilization.
TheFishMan65
New member
Ok, but how does that dump ozone into the system
"Statement 2 had better be false, or the pellets are dumping ozone into the water column, which is what they're designed not to do."
"Statement 2 had better be false, or the pellets are dumping ozone into the water column, which is what they're designed not to do."
Hello all. I posted above about getting a bacterial bloom. I decided to ride it out with my reactor runnning. It did clear up after about 3 days and all live stock is fine. I did take the output from my reactor tho and moved it to my skimmers intake. This has seemed to worked very well. All my parameters from nitrates and phosphates are 0 and i havent had to clean my tanks glass in over a week. Just now i am seeing a little algea on the glass but not much. Also as stated above have a good skimmer or your results may not be that great. Forgot to add i have a vertex uf-15 reactor with 500ml in it with about 350pgh going thru it with a ball valve.
reef_doug
Premium Member
Sounds like you had enough flow. Some people get the bacteria bloom, and some don't. Tough to tell if it's tied to flow or nutrients, or what. I have the bacteria bloom 3 days in (2nd day w/ the bloom) and my Nitrate is 5 and Phosphate .03 (Saliferts). My alkalinity is a bit high at 8 and Ca at 400.
I have 2 airstones in my display until the bloom ends. My skimmer is a BM250 w/ stock mesh wheels. I've ordered the Red Demon pin wheels for consistent and better efficiency.
Glad your tank came out ok in 3 days, I'm hoping for the same.
Tony Romano
New member
I don't get this...are you saying if ozone does kill bacteria it is due to pellets adding to total?
I am planning on running Ozone and pellets, so we will have test of sorts.
On the PO4 level vs NO3 - isn't NO3 less harmful than PO4? PO4 = GHA, slow calcification, NO3 = brown acros...
Exciting time to be in reefing, so much new, good stuff!
:dance::dance::dance::dance:
TheFishMan65
New member
That was a quote from bertoni that I don't understand either. I would like him to clarifiy it.
As I understood (maybe I'm wrong though) ozone kills the bacteria so if you run ozone it my slow the growth of the initial bacteria colony. I don't see how they can put ozone in even if you use ozone.
As I understood (maybe I'm wrong though) ozone kills the bacteria so if you run ozone it my slow the growth of the initial bacteria colony. I don't see how they can put ozone in even if you use ozone.
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