Biopellets, real or another snake oil?

[dz6t]

Opinions welcome. Actural experience will be the best. Thanks

 

[MikeG]

well it is a form of carbon dosing. Are you asking if carbon dosing works or if biopellets are a reliable source of carbon dosing?

 

[Bobbofin]

I used them for about a year. Wasn't fighting hair algae or other issues. Phosphates and nitrates were always pretty low because I run carbon and PhosGuard in a reactor and change bi-weekly. I did start to see cyano that others have complained about when using bio-pellets because the cyano has a bacteria source to live off of. Removed the bio-pellets several months ago treated with Chemi Clean. Still have cyano but it is 75% better. I'd have to say I had no results or minimal results using them. Funny thing is there are no quantitative studies proving that they do anything or set guidelines (amount, flow, etc) for implementing them.

 

[nicks387]

I used them pretty much since they first came to market. They do work, in that they keep nitrates at zero and phosphates low but not quite zero. If you have too many, then you will need to dose other stuff like aminos etc. I don't know what else they strip from the water, but they do strip something. I got tired of the balancing act of fighting cyano, and trying to dose to keep my sps from bleaching out, and finally put a fuge online so the chaeto could grow while the pellets melted away. Best thing I ever did. Colors on my sps started to get deeper right away. The more the pellets melt away, the better my corals are looking. I look forward to having them melt away completely so I can go back to natural filtration. In my experience they are just a balancing act. They work but in proper doses and not as a sole source of filtration. In my opinion, a small amount in adition to whatever else you already do is a good idea. While using alot of them is a bad idea.

 

[SteveDola]

I ran them on my fathers 90g that had a wicked HA problem...cleared it up within 3mths. After that it was a difficult balancing act to keep up with so we discontinued use. I ran them on my tank for a little while (7 wks) and never saw any results but my No3 and Po4 are low to begin with, his was extremely high. my opinion is that there are better ways to export nutrients.

 

[Skeeter7424]

I use them. It started as a start to control a hair algae issue. Now I just leave it cause I think if its not broken, dont fix it. Just like Nick mentioned though, I run the amount suggested for about a 40 gallon tank on my 115 gallon system. I run about 3 inches in my reactor along with another reactor with again a under dosed amount of GFO. Been having good luck with it thus far, and it (along with manual removal) really is helping with my phos and trate issues.

 

[firstimer]

i recently took mine off. not sure why but it didnt fly for me.

 

[dz6t]

well it is a form of carbon dosing. Are you asking if carbon dosing works or if biopellets are a reliable source of carbon dosing?

My question is if biopellets are a reliable source of carbon dosing. Also, what exactly is in those polymer based beads.

 

[dz6t]

I used them pretty much since they first came to market. They do work, in that they keep nitrates at zero and phosphates low but not quite zero. If you have too many, then you will need to dose other stuff like aminos etc. I don't know what else they strip from the water, but they do strip something. I got tired of the balancing act of fighting cyano, and trying to dose to keep my sps from bleaching out, and finally put a fuge online so the chaeto could grow while the pellets melted away. Best thing I ever did. Colors on my sps started to get deeper right away. The more the pellets melt away, the better my corals are looking. I look forward to having them melt away completely so I can go back to natural filtration. In my experience they are just a balancing act. They work but in proper doses and not as a sole source of filtration. In my opinion, a small amount in adition to whatever else you already do is a good idea. While using alot of them is a bad idea.

They melt? Thanks for the information.

 

[Reef_Wizard]

Awesome experiment here - http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-chemistry/carbon-dosing-method-testing-started-107232.html. It is still ongoing but early result suggests that biopellets work better than GFO and vodka (page 28).