Trying Bio Pellets, again

Richocet83

Richocet83

New member
I've been using liquid carbon dosing (Red Sea NoPoX) for a few months now and have had great success maintaining very low nitrate levels. But, I do forget to dose occasionally and was looking for something a little more hands-off. So, I'm trying Bio Pellets again, with some modifications to my TLF Phosban Reactor.....

Went to FAOIS and talked to John. Drilled a hole in the top of the reactor and fit a 1/2" Uni-Seal in it. Ran 1/2" PVC through that and plumbed it up to an MP1200. Waiting for the pipe glue to dry but a quick test looked promising.

I currently have about 100mL of pellets in reactor which I believe is 1/3 of the recommended total amount for my 75. I hope this round with bio pellets I don't have the clumping problem that constantly occurred with the non modified reactor. Any suggestions/recommendations beyond what I've done? I know John recommended placing a grate on the bottom to prevent the pellets from back-flowing in the event of power loss but I forgot about that suggestion until after I did the mod, maybe a future mod. Also, this is not a recirculating mod. I'm hoping to avoid the extra plumbing by running high flow with minimal pellets.





 
I have an unopened 900ml container of Dr Tim's NP Active Pearls (bio pellets) for sale for $40 or trade for some corals. Let me know if you're interested.
 
My experience the maxijet didn't the have enough flow when you get a decent amount of pellets in the reactor. I'm running a mag 7 on mine with a tee so I can adjust the flow through the reactor and sometimes it needs a boost in pressure to get them separated and tumbling again but my system is twice your size so I'm running a lot more pellets, I think I'm at 400ml
 
MJNTWise said:
Is the Bio pellets worth it? Thinking about switching over to them.
Click to expand...

As of now, my NO3 is around 1ppm but I attribute that to the NoPoX as the pellets have only been on the system for 3 days. My skimmer started going crazy today so maybe bacteria is already starting to colonize. I'm not sold on them yet but I didn't give them enough time on my first attempt. I'll keep you up to date.
 
They worked great on my 150 I always had algae issues due mostly to myself and maintenance so I tried them and it took some time to get going just like most carbon sources and getting the reactor dialed in also took some experimenting but then it was great. I would add a small amount every so often to replenish what was being used and everything starting getting better and cleaner even with my lack of maintenance . It worked great until my tank move now I'm back to square one again
 
You just have to be careful with them. Use 20-40 percent of the recommended dosage for your tank and it will be used as a supplement to your tank maintenance. Overdoing it or relying on pellets alone will lead you to issues. Cyano outbreaks being a common one...
 
Just a quick update. I know it's early on but so far opening the pipe diameter in the reactor to 1/2" is doing the trick... pellets are moving and no clumping seen yet. This is with an MJ-12, not sure I really need anything larger/stronger with the new pipe diameter. :)
 
chadraay86 said:
you just have to be careful with them. Use 20-40 percent of the recommended dosage for your tank and it will be used as a supplement to your tank maintenance. Overdoing it or relying on pellets alone will lead you to issues. Cyano outbreaks being a common one...
Click to expand...

+1
 
Any update? And also what are the best pellets to get? Going to get some and get them started cooking so the are ready when i do the switch to the 180.
 
MJNTWise said:
Any update? And also what are the best pellets to get? Going to get some and get them started cooking so the are ready when i do the switch to the 180.
Click to expand...

Tested Nitrates yesterday and they are holding steady at 2.5ppm.
PO4 @ 0.02ppm. This is while feeding 3-4x per day for my Anthias, and a 30-40% water change every other week.

I'm using the NPX pellets from TLF. So far, so good!
 
Richocet83 said:
Tested Nitrates yesterday and they are holding steady at 2.5ppm.
PO4 @ 0.02ppm. This is while feeding 3-4x per day for my Anthias, and a 30-40% water change every other week.

I'm using the NPX pellets from TLF. So far, so good!
Click to expand...

Ok, Thanks..
 
Biopellets work great, I ran them for a good 6-8months, got tired of them clumping and clogging so just dose vodka. It doesn't matter if you have a large pump or large inlet or otlet pipes, eventually the mulm will line the outlet pipe and slowly constrict the flow.
 
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