What's Your Problem With Bio-Pellets?

[Crab Rangoon]

Anyone ever had this particular problem with their biopellets . . . ?

I've been using BP's for about two years, and my current brand of pellets + model of reactor for 12 or more months.
I've just never seen this before, don't understand what started it, or how to get rid of it (beyond physical removal).
It appears to be something much different from the average white bacterial growth that is common to find on the pellets / in the reactor. The colors in the photo are accurate, the affected pellets appear the be encased in a grey "sack" of sorts, and the sack seems to have white growth here & there on the outside.

Sorry for the poor photos, but we begin moving this weekend and the camera is packed up. I'd love to solve the BP problem before I set the reactor up again on the new tank.

 

[S2minute]

Hi Folks. It's been awhile but here's an update. I added another 1/2 cup of Vertex. This went well. I produced more skimmate Now i'm not sure when this happened or if it was a gradual thing but, the Brown cayno that i did have, is no more and it's never come back.. However, i also bought a Hanna Ultra Low Phosphorus checker. I was not happy. SO, i added HALF the recomended amount of ROWA Phos to a phosban reactor. That helped except the GHA i did have due to me slacking off on my husbandry was going away but slowly. Rather to slowly than i would have liked. This was due to that old MH fixture i was still using until i finnished building my new fixture. This fixture @ 6' was an energy HOG with 3-250 MH, 4- 96w PC and 2- 110 VHOs. One ballast died so down to two MH bulbs and one PC bulb went plus the MH bulbs were in desprate need of replacement.
I refused to do the maint. on the fixture because my new DIY LED fixture was nearly ready. This was a MAJOR factor in the GHA problem. Now the 100% LED fixture is complete and when it was turned on. The difference in light and the effect it had on EVERYTHING was stunning. Within 3-4 days the GHA was nearly all dead. It's been 2 weeks now and the GHA is reduced to 2 small patches on the BB and it's dull brown and dissapearing.
The DT is looking awesome. GHA all but gone, no trace of brown cayno. I had Red cayno too. The LEDS made it go away in a matter of days. I have these type of duster worm in my sump, hundreds of them actually. Real skinny and fragle soft tubes. I'm thinking the Bac using the Vertex has found an equalliberum in the water column because those duster worms, sponges and even the coral polops seem to be doing well. I no longer use a filter sock. I syphon the sump each week.
Just one more thing. I know this is a bit off topic but, if your looking for a cleanup crew for your DT. Try www.reefcleaners.com . The Dwarf Ceriths kick A** and the Fuzzy Chitons are wicked cool. They remind me of those new vacume cleaner robots you see on TV lol.
One last thing, i sat back for a while and tryed to think of a way to use the Vertex so i woulden't have to use a pump or have it not fully tumble in your standard reactors we pay out the A** for. As my DIY mind went to work on the problem...i found an answer. I'm currently in the "test" phase. :thumbsup:

 

[uglyfish]

I switched from zeostart3 carbon dosing to biopellets. On zeostart3, po4 and no3 were 0. When I switched to pellets, my po4 rose. I suspected limited no3. I tested zeostart3 for nitrate and found it does contain nitrate, 500+ppm (not sure exactly) - probably to balance the 16:1 no3 to po4 consumption ratio.

 

[KCombs]

Anyone ever had this particular problem with their biopellets . . . ?

I've been using BP's for about two years, and my current brand of pellets + model of reactor for 12 or more months.
I've just never seen this before, don't understand what started it, or how to get rid of it (beyond physical removal).
It appears to be something much different from the average white bacterial growth that is common to find on the pellets / in the reactor. The colors in the photo are accurate, the affected pellets appear the be encased in a grey "sack" of sorts, and the sack seems to have white growth here & there on the outside.

Sorry for the poor photos, but we begin moving this weekend and the camera is packed up. I'd love to solve the BP problem before I set the reactor up again on the new tank.

Yes .....
I simply dumped them in a bucket and swished them around...the film/fungus /or whatever it is hasn't been back ...
might try removing a few pellets ?

.

 

[KCombs]

oh one more thing...I'm misunderstanding the "nutrient striping" thing..
can't you or shouldn't you just feed more/more often?

 

[CarlosS]

Hi Guys:

I have read all your messages and I think to remove my BP. Currently I have a refugium growing some caulerpa species and chaetomorpha. They are growing well so far.

Right now I have some ciano and I would prefer to go with old methos like GFO, that is confirmed to control phosphates. Also have some SPS bleaching, that never had when using GFO.

My question are:

.- Could I remove the biopelles entirely in one time? Or do I have to remove them in stages? I mean 25% weekly for example.

.- When should I do to add GFO again?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[schriss]

oh one more thing...I'm misunderstanding the "nutrient striping" thing..
can't you or shouldn't you just feed more/more often?

I think its crucial to increase feeding when using bio pellets. When people complain their corals starve, it's because bio pellets are so powerful in what they are supposed to be doing. One way to control them is to have recirculating reactor where you can dial down the out flow, so the reactor is processing less water in given time, so removing less nutrients.
But as usual, when increasing feeding do it slowly and observe corals reaction.

Ironically, I'm at a point when I wonder how to safely get rid on zoas and mushrooms, they just grow too quickly.

 

[happyjack]

Im running a huge SRO300SS in a 400 gallon fowler with large triggers and other aggresive fish I had bad hair algee but now just a slight film of cyano .I feed heavy and have zero nitrates and almost zero phosphate.Since I'm not feeding corals I swear by the reactor.

 

[Psionicdragon]

has anyone have their biopellets just completely stop working even when there are nitrates and phosphates?

 

[schriss]

No. Maybe try dosing some Microbacter7?

Sent from my PadFone 2

 

[schriss]

Unless it's the pellets, maybe some cheap brand and no more carbon in them?

Sent from my PadFone 2

 

[Psionicdragon]

I am using TLF brand and they were working for months, but all of a sudden it stopped...so not sure what the deal is.

 

[badonkadonk]

I am using TLF brand and they were working for months, but all of a sudden it stopped...so not sure what the deal is.

By "stopped" do you mean you are seeing algae? For me it was just the opposite - too much nutrient removal (I think I overloaded the system, too much biopellets and had absolutely no algae, but the corals went downhill). I've been doing vinegar dosing with a cheap peristaltic pump now for the past 8 mos. and things are good again - a little algae here and there (clean the glass every 4 or 5 days to remove a very slight dusting of algae, viewable from the side on the front glass) and coral growth/appearance is where I want it. With vinegar or other liquid dosing you know exactly how much carbon you are adding to the system. With biopellets it seems more variable - suppose some people can get it dialed in, but you have to be very patient and not think more is better. It takes a while for the system to respond and reach steady state, and even then the biopellets might start to break down faster for various reasons, and put more carbon into the water column.

 

[burnah]

i stopped using my biopellets, which were hanging in a filter sock in the sump after getting green cyano, on spots with little current and it got more and more.

after taking out the pellets, waterchange with siphoning cyano and switching to vodka i see a decrease in cyano growth.

it covered the top layer of my sandbed in the fuge, and clumped it. it grows on sand, rocks and glass. it leaves detritus under its deadly coverage. i stay with vodka, easier to control (3channel dosing pump, vodka with the magnesium), and vodka does not produce cyano for me.

i suspect the cyano living off the buildup of some byproduct of the consumation of the pellets. also my water got significantly clearer now that i switched to vodka. i cannot say if using a reactor would have changed this.for me, adding vodka to a tank is simply necessary, like two part and magnesium. even if i dont do it to the maximum, where its balanced with N and P, i want to dose just a little to help remove nutrients together with my skimmer and macroalgae.


greetings, martin

 

[Psionicdragon]

By "stopped" do you mean you are seeing algae? For me it was just the opposite - too much nutrient removal (I think I overloaded the system, too much biopellets and had absolutely no algae, but the corals went downhill). I've been doing vinegar dosing with a cheap peristaltic pump now for the past 8 mos. and things are good again - a little algae here and there (clean the glass every 4 or 5 days to remove a very slight dusting of algae, viewable from the side on the front glass) and coral growth/appearance is where I want it. With vinegar or other liquid dosing you know exactly how much carbon you are adding to the system. With biopellets it seems more variable - suppose some people can get it dialed in, but you have to be very patient and not think more is better. It takes a while for the system to respond and reach steady state, and even then the biopellets might start to break down faster for various reasons, and put more carbon into the water column.

Stopped as in nitrate and phosphate is coming back up or staying leveled kind of. I also did vsv and didn't seem to make a dent. Someone told me that I was using too much so I reduced it by half and nothing has changed. So..not sure what is wrong iwth the tank/system? I even dose live bacteria from TLF and IO...nada. Corals aren't browning out, but PE has been affected.

 

[Supapee]

Greetings from the UK!!

I've got a 300l system which has been running for almost a year now, and I've run Vertex bio-pellets in a Vertex reactor from the start. Salt was initially TMPR.

Initially there was no live rock, just Riffsystem ceramic rock and some live sand. Had the usual diatom/cyno outbreak just after cycling, and then just a hairy green coating on the ceramics. No corraline growth...

My PO4 and NO3 readings have been consistently low (0.008 and 1ish) with Elos test kits although the green hair algae has managed to keep a foothold.

I lost a few SPS colonies and tank raised frags to RTN, despite all of the tests coming back in the usual areas, and salinity/KH/Ca/Mg & temperature all being stable. Perhaps completely coincidentally, I changed salt to Bio Activ during this time.

A thread on UR mentioned K depletion, and when I tested, it came back at 290ppm, so dosed to bring it back up. I also added a couple of kg of live rock.

I also modded my Vertex to follow the recirculating method. PO3 and NO4 test results were unchanged.....

I put another 3 SPS colonies in just over 2 weeks ago, and one (Montipora Digitata) began to fade after just a couple of days. I've since upped the frequency of the water changes after I noticed that it's colour improved after a 10% water change (back to TMPT by the way) so I'm wondering if I have either depleted levels of something that the SPS needs, or there's something being leached into the water column that I dilute below the threshold that affects the Monti...

I have a couple of small areas of what I believe is cyno - on the sand bed, but not in an area of low flow.

I'll continue with the water changes and report back in a few days.

Great forum by the way!!!!


Karl

 

[badonkadonk]

Stopped as in nitrate and phosphate is coming back up or staying leveled kind of. I also did vsv and didn't seem to make a dent. Someone told me that I was using too much so I reduced it by half and nothing has changed. So..not sure what is wrong iwth the tank/system? I even dose live bacteria from TLF and IO...nada. Corals aren't browning out, but PE has been affected.

I have heard of cases where people run GFO with biopellets and the trates rise since the GFO is adsorbing the phosphate, leaving too little phosphate for the bacteria to consume with the nitrates, so nitrates rise since they aren't incorporated into biomass. But it is odd that your phosphate is rising too. Do you have algae growth?. I had problems with my pellets taking out too much, not even bryopsis would grow (which would be great, except my corals went downhill fast due to lack of nutrients or shock). I ended up doing big water changes, like 50% a few times after taking the pellets off line. Then just went with vinegar dosing, now things are fine. You might want to do water changes, that fixes lots of things, and reduce your pellets to a tenth of where you were (I'd vote for eliminating them altogether after my experience). Also, like everything else, it takes a while for biopellets or other forms of dosing to reach an equilibrium state - have to go slow.

 

[Psionicdragon]

I have heard of cases where people run GFO with biopellets and the trates rise since the GFO is adsorbing the phosphate, leaving too little phosphate for the bacteria to consume with the nitrates, so nitrates rise since they aren't incorporated into biomass. But it is odd that your phosphate is rising too. Do you have algae growth?. I had problems with my pellets taking out too much, not even bryopsis would grow (which would be great, except my corals went downhill fast due to lack of nutrients or shock). I ended up doing big water changes, like 50% a few times after taking the pellets off line. Then just went with vinegar dosing, now things are fine. You might want to do water changes, that fixes lots of things, and reduce your pellets to a tenth of where you were (I'd vote for eliminating them altogether after my experience). Also, like everything else, it takes a while for biopellets or other forms of dosing to reach an equilibrium state - have to go slow.

Ya i have a lot of algae growth and since the pellets stopped working, my tank has been going downhill. A bunch of my SPS colonies RTN/STN .

 

[Psionicdragon]

Nitrate based off of API is around 10-20ppm
While Phosphate based on Milwaukee is around .05-.07 +/- error rate.

 

[badonkadonk]

I'd do some heavy water changes. Do you have a sand bed? if so you might want to remove it. Sounds like there is a nutrient sink somewhere. Save some of the old water you change out and swish your live rock around in it, you might have detritus piled up in it, or under the rock.