Mr. Microscope Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Hello All, I've been giving the idea of running biopellets a try to help minimize algae. Though, through my research I've found most people seem to ditch them after a year or so and either switch to a zeo system if they can afford it (which I cannot BTW, so please don't try to sell me on it) or just stop carbon dosing all together. Are any of you out there having long term success with biopellets (two+ years)? Are there any diehard biopellet supporters out there? Link to comment
Scorched Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Having used them for over a year, I find they work too well. It is too easy for them to remove all of the nitrates and phosphates and drop them to absolutely nothing. You need to run a fairly low Alk level and even then bleaching and necrosis is possible when the corals are starved for nutrients. I'm feeding my corals every day and still corals barely hang on. I used to run GFO, Carbon, and biopellets but that lead to zero phosphate and higher nitrate. Now I just do biopellets and activated carbon for clear water. Its best to lower them both in balance and then hold it around a few ppm of nitrate and .03-.1 phosphate. The holding part is what is so hard. So far Im just running a VERY small amount of pellets, probably 1/8 cup for my approx 16 gallons of total water and that still might be too much. From various reading I've done it seems that people that use standard reactors recommend putting them on a timer so that they only run for a small amount of time each day. The better solution is a recirculating reactor that reuses the water to cause the fluidation but only draws in and releases a tiny amount of filtered water at a time. Link to comment
BeardedReeferLLC Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 I ran them for 3-4 months and had nothing but issues. Link to comment
malawian Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 I put them on relatively recently and am having problems, makes me wonder if theyre contributing... that said my tank is in a state of chemical chaos so Im not really sure wtf is going on...I cant possibly point to one thing but this is one possibility I had not thought of previously. Link to comment
BeardedReeferLLC Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Yah I added slowly as recommended. But for the last 4-5 weeks running it I had the worst Red Slime issue and nothing could take care of it until I pulled the pellets and 2 days later I had no Red Slime and I was shocked at the outcome, that it dissipated so quickly. And never had it since. +1 Biopellets suck. Link to comment
Walker Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 When I did my research biopellets seem to be prone to cyanobacteria if overdosed. I eventually ended up choosing vinegar instead. Been using that for close to a year now. Link to comment
ALexpsycho Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Instead of running B/P why don't you put your 5-10 dollars and make an ATS?It is much more trouble free and the perfect match for lazy hobbyists(I don't want to be hooked over my tank). If you still want to start with B/P I could sent you mine for free(over a liter). Link to comment
Arkayology Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 I have not used them in a tank for 2-3 years, but I did have them on my 60g cube for a little over a year. I never had any issues on that tank at all! They worked awesome and I only did a wc every month to replenish trace elements. I tried them on my current tank for 6 months and they were too effective and I got STN on my acros. I couldn't dial them in so I pulled them. FWIW I never have seen cyano when using the biopellets. I think they are a good option if you are willing to tinker with them and really take the time to learn how to use them properly and how your tank responds to X amount of pellets and flow through reactor. Link to comment
ALexpsycho Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Ark do you remember cleaning your reactor regularly and often? Link to comment
Arkayology Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Ark do you remember cleaning your reactor regularly and often? Nope. Never cleaned it. Link to comment
hey Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 lfs set up their 500g to run biopellets, it looked like crap for about 6 months nothing but a cloudy mess... took it off and the tank was clear within 2 weeks. Not saying they didn't mess something up but if messing up causes that much of a mess I don't feel it is worth it. Instead of running B/P why don't you put your 5-10 dollars and make an ATS?It is much more trouble free and the perfect match for lazy hobbyists(I don't want to be hooked over my tank). If you still want to start with B/P I could sent you mine for free(over a liter). If every ats I have ever seen diy'd didn't look like it was going to flood my house burn it down and mold over I would consider it a better option too. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I have been using them for over a year. They work great at controlling nitrates but they use phosphate up in a much smaller ratio so I find they work great for nitrates but meh @ phosphates. If your ratio of phosphate is much higher than your nitrate, then you will still need to run GFO or some phosphate reducing media. I have never seen issues with them as long as you go VERY slow. The tank needs to slowly adjust to the biopellets and you need time to fine tune them (flow and amount). You can't just add a full dose at once. Start with 1/2 or even 1/4 then add more 6-8 weeks later. They also take a long time to work too (mine took several months to kick in). You need an effective oversize skimmer or you will just kill your tank as the dieing bacteria won't get skimmed out. I find vodka to be much more potent but I guess easier to overdose too. Sometimes I dose a little with my biopellets and my skimmer really kicks out the crud. Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Someone once told me that if you put one pellet in the skimmer, the skimmer becomes more effective at skimming. I'm not sure how true this claim is, but I've been using Biosphere biopellets for the past 1.5 months in my sump and it works really well. Nitrates are usually at 0ppm and never exceeds 5ppm after broadcast feeding of frozen and paste food. Phosphate levels also tend to never exceed 0.03ppm and usually stay at 0ppm. Link to comment
Arkayology Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Someone once told me that if you put one pellet in the skimmer, the skimmer becomes more effective at skimming. I'm not sure how true this claim is, but I've been using Biosphere biopellets for the past 1.5 months in my sump and it works really well. Nitrates are usually at 0ppm and never exceeds 5ppm after broadcast feeding of frozen and paste food. Phosphate levels also tend to never exceed 0.03ppm and usually stay at 0ppm. You know, I had some biopellets that accidentally got sucked into my skimmer. I thought the same thing about it being more effective. I wonder if anyone has thought about combining a skimmer and biopellet reactor into one. If they do, you and I should get a piece of the action lol. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I would buy a bio-pellet + skimmer combination. Considering many people try to mod the output of their reactor directly into the skimmer, it should be popular. Link to comment
gahumphrey Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Just came across this thread. I just ditched my Biopellets. Major STN on my SPS and all LPS are shrinking and have very faded colors. I really wanted them to be a good long term solution but they just stripped out too many nutrients/trace elements. Even with dosing and extra feeding... Link to comment
seabass Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Someone once told me that if you put one pellet in the skimmer, the skimmer becomes more effective at skimming Hmm... I've pretty much given up on the idea of starting a bio-pellet reactor, but I might just try the single pellet skimmer mod. Link to comment
glennr1978 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Hmm... I've pretty much given up on the idea of starting a bio-pellet reactor, but I might just try the single pellet skimmer mod. What is this mod that you speak of??? Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 lol, i tried this and the pellets just fell out of it. Seems pointless IMO. I've been running BP for about a month now and I'm just now starting to see results. Note, I'm only using about a fourth of the recommended amount. I'm also supplementing feeding with Reef Chilli and will start using Red Sea Reef Energy A&B if I start to see things decline, but so far so good. Link to comment
seabass Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 What about putting in a single bio-bones pellet (NP Reducing BioPellets XL)? That should stay put, shouldn't it? Link to comment
kraig949 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Biopellets are just another form of carbon dosing. You should dose bottled bacteria like mb7 so the good bacteria out compete the bad bacteria like cyno. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Just came across this thread. I just ditched my Biopellets. Major STN on my SPS and all LPS are shrinking and have very faded colors. I really wanted them to be a good long term solution but they just stripped out too many nutrients/trace elements. Even with dosing and extra feeding... Did you try a smaller dose or tumbling slower? Did you work your way up? In my experience, they have to be "dosed" correctly as anything else. The recommended calculators are pretty much crap since its all going to depend on feeding/bioload, circulation within the reactor, and skimmer size not solely tank size. Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Biopellets are just another form of carbon dosing. You should dose bottled bacteria like mb7 so the good bacteria out compete the bad bacteria like cyno.mb7 is a different kind of bacteria. The kind on your rocks. carbon dosing and biopellets feed a different kind of bacteria from what I understand. Link to comment
kraig949 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 mb7 is a different kind of bacteria. The kind on your rocks. carbon dosing and biopellets feed a different kind of bacteria from what I understand. From my understanding carbon dosing isnt about giving bacteria food, its about giving bacteria the basic building block of life which is organic carbon that the bacteria use to multiply. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Biopellets are just another form of carbon dosing. You should dose bottled bacteria like mb7 so the good bacteria out compete the bad bacteria like cyno. I have read this but I don't understand it. That is like saying there isn't any good bacteria in the tank already. I haven't seen any proof/studies that bacteria in the bottle out competes whatever is in the tank. I think this is just one of those "sayings". Hell, the bottled bacteria doesn't even reliably shorten cycling time. Link to comment
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