BIOpellet reactor

[justinT]

I have not had luck with my TLF phosban reactor with biopellets.

 

I previously dosed vodka, and phased off this and into the biopellet reactor for 2 months. I dosed some bacteria to get any "new" culture necessary for the biopellets. I keep my skimmer clean. The reactor empties right into my skimmer intake. I SWEAR I followed all the advice.

 

Since trying them, most of my corals have been ticked off and closed for a few days, at one point or another. I have lost almost ALL of my acroporas- which were growing very happily before. Of course my favorite one. AND my favorite clam. Its burned tip central on everyone otherwise. And now my purple monti cap which i've seen go from a tiny little chip to a nice big 6" plus colony is losing color, even turning brown.

 

The only measureable change is my nitrates- every other parameter is stable and dead on (bad choice of words....)

 

My nitrates are up to 10 or 20 before I do my weekly water changes, and my water changes have turned into 5 gallons a week on my 28 gal JBJ, from my 2 gallons before.

 

I will be turning the reactor into a carbon/purigen reactor in order to get better flow through these, and I will go back to vodka. These pellets were a bad experiment, I do think.

[Mudfish]

I have not had luck with my TLF phosban reactor with biopellets.

 

I previously dosed vodka, and phased off this and into the biopellet reactor for 2 months. I dosed some bacteria to get any "new" culture necessary for the biopellets. I keep my skimmer clean. The reactor empties right into my skimmer intake. I SWEAR I followed all the advice.

 

Since trying them, most of my corals have been ticked off and closed for a few days, at one point or another. I have lost almost ALL of my acroporas- which were growing very happily before. Of course my favorite one. AND my favorite clam. Its burned tip central on everyone otherwise. And now my purple monti cap which i've seen go from a tiny little chip to a nice big 6" plus colony is losing color, even turning brown.

 

The only measureable change is my nitrates- every other parameter is stable and dead on (bad choice of words....)

 

My nitrates are up to 10 or 20 before I do my weekly water changes, and my water changes have turned into 5 gallons a week on my 28 gal JBJ, from my 2 gallons before.

 

I will be turning the reactor into a carbon/purigen reactor in order to get better flow through these, and I will go back to vodka. These pellets were a bad experiment, I do think.

 

This is similar to my experience. I began using the bio-pellets about seven months ago; I got the system to full nominal performance five months ago. Tumbling smoothly, in the proper reactor, with a new SWC skimmer, with the outlet of the reactor right at the venturi inlet of the skimmer, just as justinT describes. I also dosed "starter" bacteria.

 

Thankfully, luckily, I haven't seen any negative effects. But I don't think I've seen any positive effects, either! My tank, a 40B jammed full of SPS and LPS, has a small but persistent infestation of hair algae. That's why I wanted to try the pellets, as the latest in the string of attempts at its eradication.

 

That's terrible to hear about the loss of your clam and corals. I don't understand why we've had such poor results with these poopy-pellets, when they seemed like such a solid and science-based idea.

[justinT]

I know right?!?!

 

I guess I fell for the latest "snake oil"....even though it seemed caked in science.

 

Oh and I should specify- my nitrates were like 1-2 before, now they're 10-20 even AFTER my doubled water changes.

 

Phooey. Because I can't say what I really think of these pellets.

[basser1]

Justin...... As with anything in this hobby, nothing is a given.

 

I have been running Warner Marines' bio-pellets for several months and I have been very pleased with the results. I have no algae problems at all, and I no longer have to clean the glass every day. Now it's like 2x a week. And the corals look great, good color, polyp extension and growth. Needless to say, I'm happy with them.

 

I think there may be something else going on. Are you running gfo? I have read where this may cause STN in acros. How much pellets are you using? I know there's a happy medium between using too little and too much. How long have you been using the pellets? I know it can take months before seeing any considerable changes.

 

As you are finding out, SPS can be very demanding. It seems everything needs to be just right. One thing gets out of whack and they suffer.

 

Keep us posted.

 

BTW, I started to use the pellets in September. And I just added some more to replace what was depleted.

[moto826]

my pellets are doing good too

[Mudfish]

I'm still using GFO, even though I know most of the authorities recommended not to. IDK, I was just afraid to remove it. I didn't get any coral issues, but my algae hasn't gone away, either.

 

Justin - I apologize for the hijacking.

[moto826]

I'm not using gfo or carbon jest pellets

[justinT]

lol Mudfish, no apologies needed. I'm still here!

 

I'm running floss, purigen and chemipure elite in my media rack, which I also ran with the vodka dosing time period.

 

basser- I forget exactly how many pellets I'm running, but I remember when I started I used the amount it said to run for 25 gallons....a volume close to what I have in my 28 jbj I'm sure.

 

I'm starting to wonder if it was a change in the water from the bacteria going from "the tank" during vodka dosing, to being centralized on the pellets? There has to be some change in the water column when this change occurs.

 

The other thing I might experiment with, is changing the media basket I have. I really think that the water is not flowing all the way through the purigen/chemipure at all. It seems a lot spills over the back, a problem I didn't have before. I might switch to a carbon that compacts less (seachem has the round ball type) to let more flow through.

 

If I can get better flow I might keep running the pellets for a while to give them more time, since it seems there are believers out there.

[Naturalreef]

There are many variables with these bio-pellets which makes them tough to implement. My experience with them has been overall good. I started with 50ml and added 50ml every couple of weeks till I reached my recommended amount(200ml), and I made sure they are tumbling at a reasonable rate. By doing this I didn't experience a bacterial bloom and oxygen depletion. I made sure my skimmer was skimming wet to remove the excess bacteria and still did a gallon water change on my Biocube 29 once a week to replace what was lost in skimming.

My corals reacted differently at first. My sps colored up with polyps wide open and were loving the low nutrients and zero trates. My soft corals were not happy at first, but after building a good bacteria colony in the reactor and starting to feed heavier, everything came around. The only negative was that around the second month, I experienced a huge hair algae bloom which I attributed to not having a big enough bacteria colony in the reactor. The hair algae has stopped and is almost gone. My glass needs cleaning "maybe" every 10 days or so and my water is crystal clear. The sps probably were nutrient deprived and with the water clarity started getting the burnt tips in my opinion.

It does take a little while to establish a good bacteria colony and you may get a few things out of whack(hair algae, sps pissed off) but so far my acropora has grown and colored up tremendously, and other corals are still showing good growth and color....I feed heavily though with phyto, marine snow and pellets to keep the corals happy with NO algae and trate issues now...Using Biopellets is like starting a new tank..you have to deal with some things before a good bacteria colony builds up...

 

 

 

lol Mudfish, no apologies needed. I'm still here!

 

I'm running floss, purigen and chemipure elite in my media rack, which I also ran with the vodka dosing time period.

 

basser- I forget exactly how many pellets I'm running, but I remember when I started I used the amount it said to run for 25 gallons....a volume close to what I have in my 28 jbj I'm sure.

 

I'm starting to wonder if it was a change in the water from the bacteria going from "the tank" during vodka dosing, to being centralized on the pellets? There has to be some change in the water column when this change occurs.

 

The other thing I might experiment with, is changing the media basket I have. I really think that the water is not flowing all the way through the purigen/chemipure at all. It seems a lot spills over the back, a problem I didn't have before. I might switch to a carbon that compacts less (seachem has the round ball type) to let more flow through.

 

If I can get better flow I might keep running the pellets for a while to give them more time, since it seems there are believers out there.

[CONSTANTNE]

I tried out pellets for 3-4 months. SPS lost their color and I had cyano/diatoms on the sandbed every day. I am now back to basics with carbon and GFO and tank and SPS couldnt be happier.

[pweissma]

Could someone please post some links regarding GFO and Biopellets? Thanks