bio pellets question

[jrmx635]

I have been running bio pellets for about 6-8 months now.
they are in a tlf reactor with a maxi 1200 almost wide open.
they are tumbling like the setups I see on youtube.
but they are not disolving.seems they are supposed to go away and need refilling but I have the same amount as when it started.
I know other guys they go through twice the amount in this amount of time.
I also still have some phosphates.
tank is over a year old and has mostly softies,and fish.
just looking to see if anyone else has this going on.

 

[wilfx]

I used them on my 120. They dissolved like they were suppossed to. My tank was looking good. Now I have a 90. I am still using pellets, but they are not dissolving and I am having problems with algae. I have been using the pellets for about 6 months.

 

[jrmx635]

oh yeah, I have to clean the glass every day and sometimes twice a day.
a little red slime too.
maybe I will take them out and see what happens

 

[wilfx]

I also have a little red slime.

 

[Reeferer]

I used biopellets for about a year with no measured results or success. It is my opinion that biopellets work for tanks/systems that have high nitrates. Many people on this forum have had positive results from lowered nitrates. If you are trying to reduce phosphates, I would suggest GFO. You can probably use your biopellet reactor for phosphates with little to no modifications.

 

[PSU4ME]

I heard the people had to dose nitrates (cringe) to get the pellets to start working. They need both trates and phates. I ran my reactor for 3 months and nothing so I took it down (which reminds me, I need to sell it!)

 

[higorc]

What's up guys? Not to deviate from the thread's question, but did anyone of you have any issues with corals closing or being unhappy when you first set up your Bio-Pellets?

My Neon Green Leather and Tyree Toad seems to have closed up with no polyp extension since I set up my bio pellets 4 days ago.

Thanks
Higor

 

[jrmx635]

my corals never had a reaction,niether did my water parameters lol

 

[P-Nut]

What's up guys? Not to deviate from the thread's question, but did anyone of you have any issues with corals closing or being unhappy when you first set up your Bio-Pellets?

My Neon Green Leather and Tyree Toad seems to have closed up with no polyp extension since I set up my bio pellets 4 days ago.

Thanks
Higor

Sometimes leather corals will close and shed skin when moved or when you put new stuff in the aquarium. 4 days is nothing, the shedding process takes around a week.
Dont sweat it. If after 8 days they are still closed I would pay close attention.

 

[weyfirstreef]

I just started biopellets a week or so ago.

I have a large system and nitrates have always been fine.
I had not been testing for phosphates regularly till about 3 months ago (system almost 1 year old now)
They were high about .45 , first outbreak of cyno is what made me look into the issue.

I added one 550 tlf phosban reactor and it cut in in half in about a week, but then started creeping up again.
Changed the media. Another significant decrease but creeped up again.
I took this us undersized reactor for the system and added another reactor.
Which did do the trick but still started to tick up after a few weeks.

So I started doing some reading on biopellets and added a third reactor for the biopellets just a couple of weeks ago no significant change in phosphates yet, but there have been some other changes.

A couple of days after starting had a minor cyno bloom (predicted by the reading I did)this cleared without any action right away.
PH has dropped from a very steady 8.19 ( regulated by calc reactor and aeration) to 8.06 ish in the day to 7.99 at night this range of fluctuation is new also. Usually it fluctuates from 8.2 to say 8.17 the lowest. Not sure what to do now.

I had the calc reactor set to come on at 8.19 or above and the additional aeration to come on at 8.19 or below. The calc reactor has not come on by itself in about two weeks. So I manually turned it on for 24 hours to increase alk and calc hoping this would increase ph after turning it off. No clear success with that.

In order to have redundancy I also started a 20 gallon remote DSP not sure if this is contributing to ph drop.

Current plan is to see what happens over time and maybe will bounce back up. Not sure what I will do if it does not. Inclined to adjust settings on calc and aeration down and aim for maintaining the new naturally lower ph rather than buffering all the time?? Any ideas or opinions?.

Thanks

 

[weyfirstreef]

Another point I read about the biopellets uv and ozone are supposed to slow down the seeding process because of the reeducation in the ability for bacteria to get to the biopellets but long term would still work.

 

[reefkeeper2]

Your not going to have success reducing your phosphates with biopellets unless there is also nitrate in your system. Look up redfield ratio. The biopellets will keep your nitrates down, but you will need something else (GFO or algae turf scrubber) to get rid of the phosphates.

 

[jrmx635]

I just tested my nitrates and phosphates the other day and both are undetectable.
I ended up taking some pellets out of the reactor so they would tumble more last week.
maybe that helped,I don't know.
but I stilll get a wicked dusting on my glass everyday.more than any tank I've ever had.
well I will be firing up my basement 90 sump to the system in a day or two when it is stable.
I did it to add more volume for cheato and plants.Maybe a deep sand bed too.
I am still going to run the bio pellets just because they don't seem to hurt anything.

 

[reefkeeper2]

I would stay away from the deep sand bed. I had one and it worked for awhile. Eventually I think they all fail in time.

 

[Greg Hiller]

> I stilll get a wicked dusting on my glass everyday<

You might also want to just get a few more snails.

Are people overall happy with the biopellets? About how much would you say to use for a particular tank water volume?

Do you have the effulent coming out of the reactor go straight into a skimmer. I'm thinking about taking the plunge. Years ago I tried the vodka dosing thing, but got ugly bacterial mats growing here and there about the tank. Seems to me you really need to Export any bacteria biomass you create to accomplish anything.

 

[Intheflesh]

On the topic of biopellets, I just ordered a Zeovit starter kit. I am turning to the dark side.

Going to document, and take before after pics. My first mission is to get my alk down from 10-11 to 6-7. Just ordred a doser, and going to dose either 2 part or balling lite 3-part. Currently dripping kalk via aqualifter. I think the 2/3 part dosing will help lower my levels in a nice, controlled way.

Its probably going to be at least a month before I mike the switch.

 

[reefkeeper2]

> I stilll get a wicked dusting on my glass everyday<

You might also want to just get a few more snails.

Are people overall happy with the biopellets? About how much would you say to use for a particular tank water volume?

Do you have the effulent coming out of the reactor go straight into a skimmer. I'm thinking about taking the plunge. Years ago I tried the vodka dosing thing, but got ugly bacterial mats growing here and there about the tank. Seems to me you really need to Export any bacteria biomass you create to accomplish anything.

I think they work. Generally you need to use less than the recommended amount. I used vodka once too. You don't get bacterial growth everywhere in the tank with the pellets like you do with the vodka. I don't think there is much export of biomass with them. You would need a sizable bloom in the water for that IMO. But I believe the bacterial populations consume nitrate and some phosphate just maintaining themselves. My nitrates are always undetectable. As time goes on you need less and less of them. I use about one quarter the amount I used to.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I'm willing to try new things, but only if I think they make sense from my basic understanding of biology, chemistry and physics.

>But I believe the bacterial populations consume nitrate and some phosphate just maintaining themselves. <

But unless they grow and are removed, how do the nutrients leave the system as a whole? If nitrate is removed and forms nitrogen (and basically 'bubbles off') one would think that would need to happen only in an anaerobic (low oxygen) environment. Not on a bead suspended in highly oxygenated water. I suppose it could happen in the interior of the bead? For phosphate, I cannot think of a final form of the elements that would somehow be removed from the water. The phosphate doesn't get 'used up'.

Anyone out there have actual data where they put biopellets on their system and nitrates or phosphates were X and went to Y?

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Hi Gregg! All I can tell you is that I began using biopellets a few years ago. The hair algae is completely gone. BUT...I have struggled with dinos...or maybe it is just bacterial mats invading my tank. I stopped the bio-reactor last week and voila...the bacterial mats are dissappearing. BUT...the hair algae is coming back. I finally decided to buy a low range Hanna phosphate meter and measured my phosphate at 0.08 mg/l! I think I am going back to doing more water changes. When I had an automatic water changing system (5 gallons every day!) I had no problems with algae, dinos, etc. I am also going to convert my biopellet reactor back to a phosphate reactor with Iron Oxide phosphate absorbing material and closely monitor the phosphate levels. So my observations are that the biopelletws work, but not without deleterious effects. I think that using them in a fluidized bed reactor with low flow to establish an anaerobic environment is the more effective at nitrate removal than using them in a bag in your sump/filter. According to Randy Holmes article...phosphate export is better acheived with Iron Oxide, especially if your nitrate levels are already low or at zero. In addition the instructions on the biopellets say that aggressive protein skimming is essential to prevent bateria from entering your tank. My recommendation is to start out with less pellets than what is recommended while measuring phosphate and nitrate to monitor effectiveness. Then add more pellets and increase flow until you see a reduction in these level.

 

[reefkeeper2]

I'm willing to try new things, but only if I think they make sense from my basic understanding of biology, chemistry and physics.

>But I believe the bacterial populations consume nitrate and some phosphate just maintaining themselves. <

But unless they grow and are removed, how do the nutrients leave the system as a whole? If nitrate is removed and forms nitrogen (and basically 'bubbles off') one would think that would need to happen only in an anaerobic (low oxygen) environment. Not on a bead suspended in highly oxygenated water. I suppose it could happen in the interior of the bead? For phosphate, I cannot think of a final form of the elements that would somehow be removed from the water. The phosphate doesn't get 'used up'.

Anyone out there have actual data where they put biopellets on their system and nitrates or phosphates were X and went to Y?

I suppose my skimmer could be removing excess bacteria. Either way, the pellets eliminate nitrate in my system. There are many threads here and on RC with success and failure stories about biopellets. I think success depends upon your water chemistry when you start (redfield ratio plays a big part here), the amount you use in the beginning and the amount you use to maintain after that.