Vertex Pro Bio Pellets
- Thread starter bmwaaron
- Start date
bwarron ur tank is a lil worse than mine, however its been 3 days for me already and nothing! my skimmer is skimming awesome though, i mean i have to empty the cup like twice a day.. as far as flow i was running a maxi 1200 in a dual brs reactor with 500ml and i noticed they stopped tubling so i went to a rio 2100 that got them tumbling and now my water is even cloudier!
bmwaaron
New member
Well there is comfort in knowing that these seems to be a normal situation. My tank this morning is still very cloudy. Everything is still alive and my PH and Redox are holding strong.
My Redox and PH seem to have bottomed out according to my graph so maybe the water will start to clear today.
My Redox and PH seem to have bottomed out according to my graph so maybe the water will start to clear today.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I just placed an order for 6 liters of this product for my tank from Premium Aquatics, since the other media is sold out currently from Marine Depot. I have a quick question though, how much flow do you put through the reactor? Is the media moving similarly to GFO? Is this product essentially the same material as the one from the Netherlands in the other thread? Ill post my results when I get this thing up and running.
I wish the company could jump in this thread and help us out..
In the mean time im tossing this product, its garbage.. IMO
my water is cloudy as hell, i first tried 500ml in my 150gallon tank and then tried 250ml
Im chucking it today, my sps corals have no polyp extension what so ever and some of my fish are getting a tiny bit of ich..
In the mean time im tossing this product, its garbage.. IMO
my water is cloudy as hell, i first tried 500ml in my 150gallon tank and then tried 250ml
Im chucking it today, my sps corals have no polyp extension what so ever and some of my fish are getting a tiny bit of ich..
bmwaaron
New member
Well tonight I got home and the Tank is getting clearer, I took a picture for comparison but I'm not sure if its going to show as much a difference as I can see. I would say that this morning it was the worst I have seen, I couldn't see much more then an inch inside the tank.
I also found something funny in my sump. The foam from the protein skimmer had completely covered the skimmer.
I also found something funny in my sump. The foam from the protein skimmer had completely covered the skimmer.
bmwaaron
New member
Well I haven't seen any of the Manufacturers post about these particular products but from what I have been reading a bacterial bloom is not uncommon and no one has been able to find the common link to all the tanks that get the bloom.
I can say the bloom definitely made some of my SPS mad but so far I wouldn't say there has been any damage. I don't see any signs of ich on my fish at this point either.
bmwaaron
New member
I have seen a couple mentions of the bacterial bloom with the EcoBak also but I cant seem to find a common source. It may be too much flow through the reactor or a reaction with another type of bacteria that was already in my system.
bmwaaron
New member
I have not contacted anyone. I'm not sure this is really a problem at this time due to the fact that there are many people using a pellet product that have a had a bacterial bloom.
I believe that the tank is getting clearer at this time and am going to give it a couple more days.
I believe that the tank is getting clearer at this time and am going to give it a couple more days.
reef_doug
Premium Member
I had a bacteria bloom using EcoBak. Not quite as bad as the picture. I had to empty the BM250 skimmer cup 2x daily. If anything my flow is too low. I'm using a ZEOvit reactor that has 1-1/4" output. The beads are barely moving but I'm spinning it to clean them off. My Nitrates at start were 5 and PO4 0.3 per Salifert kits.
bmwaaron
New member
Thats interesting. Im also using a Zeovit reactor and my flow was what I would consider high. I have since reduced it dramatically. I also have the BM250 skimmer and I have to empty it more then 2 times a day but its mostly foam. I just adjusted it so it basically has no restriction on the outlet.
Maybe it has something to do with the Zeovit system. I have read another thread from Ireland where he switch from Zeovit to the NP bio pellets and had a bad bacterial bloom that lasted 4 days.
ghstrider
New member
I think you guys are running too much flow through it and in turn adding to much of the bacteria into your system at once. I have mine in a TLF reactor and a bit faster flow than i ran my GFO through it but not much. the pellets barely tumbled the first day then they got stuck together the day after. I pumped up the flow for a day to try to get them to tumble and my skimmer went nuts so i stopped it. If i woulda let it run full blown I think id have the cloudy water and bacterial bloom you guys are dealing with. Instead I saw it was putting too much bacteria into the tank too fast so I put the flow back down to where it was (no pellets tumbling) and my params are near perfect, water is crystal clear, skimmer is perfect, corals/fish seem happy and all is good. I dont know where this "tumble idea" came from but once the pellets start tumbling and settle the next day DONT kick up the flow.
Just my observations and thoughts....
Just my observations and thoughts....
The tumbling motion was to stop the buildup of bacterial slime in the reactor so maintenance was not so tedious daily. The surface area of these biodegradable plastics are usually the most important part of nitrate and phosphate reduction. So companies that are saying that there pellets are more efficacious than the competition just have a larger surface area (smaller pellets). By doing this you can quickly buildup bacteria to reduce nitrates and phosphates.
The actual bloom people experience is from the large food source that becomes available, in addition to organic and inorganic substances in the water already. The skimmer goes into overdrive pulling out the bacteria/organic wastes and overflows the cup. Some people have no issues with a bloom while others have devastating effects.
My only advice is to slow down on either the amount of biopellets being added to the tank or slow the flow into the reactors. Either way, you reduce the amount of food available to the bacteria.
The actual bloom people experience is from the large food source that becomes available, in addition to organic and inorganic substances in the water already. The skimmer goes into overdrive pulling out the bacteria/organic wastes and overflows the cup. Some people have no issues with a bloom while others have devastating effects.
My only advice is to slow down on either the amount of biopellets being added to the tank or slow the flow into the reactors. Either way, you reduce the amount of food available to the bacteria.
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