Biopellet reactor question

[lilrodyreefer]

So I bought a two little fishes phosban reactor 150 and some bio pellets from marine depot today. I herd that you have to run the return from the reactor to the skimmer. I think it has to do with putting to much bacteria back into the system. I have herd this method and I have been told that I can run the return line into the return pump side of my sump. Any suggestion and help would be great thanks and happy reefing!!!

 

[MisFit]

just have the outflow of the reactor dump into the sump right in front of the skimmer intake. It doesnt have to be perfect. Its just good to get as much of the bacteria out via the skimmer as you can so it doesnt die in your tank and recycle the nutrients back into the tank. Some of the excess that the skimmer misses can end up as coral food.

 

[PSU4ME]

^^ good advise

 

[lilrodyreefer]

Cool thanks that's kind of what I have been hearing.

 

[lilrodyreefer]

So I have had the reactor on the tank for almost 24 hours and haven't really noticed any changes. I tested my water before the reactor was installed and my nitrates were still pretty high. I am going to test the water tonight and then every other day to track my progress. I only used about half the recommended amount of bio pellets due to my high nitrate levels. Keeping my fingers crossed that this works.

 

[PSU4ME]

What do your phosphates look like? I've heard they kind of work together......you might need to overfeed and kick up the phosphates to get everything to start moving. I know a guy who actually had to add nitrates to his tank (via flourish) to finish off the phates he had......

 

[lilrodyreefer]

Dont have a test kit for phosphates but my nitrite is at 0ppm. My nitrate level is around 40-60ppm.

 

[lilrodyreefer]

So after three pumps on the reactor I finally got all the pellets to start tumbling. I had to use an ehime 1250a pump that puts out about 300 gph I believe. Now my water looks a little cloudy and my skimmer is working over time. I have heard that the water gets cloudy when starting the bio pellets. As of right now my nitrites are at 0ppm and my nitrates are 40ppm. Everything seems to be working well so far.

 

[MisFit]

Did you dose with a bacteria product designed for seeding the pellets like microbacter7 or Bioactiv?

 

[JohnK]

Did you dose with a bacteria product designed for seeding the pellets like microbacter7 or Bioactiv?

Why would you? Our tanks are already teeming with all sorts of bacteria. I seriously doubt that Chris Brightwell has anything majic in those bottles other than a whole bunch of profit

 

[lilrodyreefer]

I didn't dose anything because I have a high nitrate problem.

 

[JohnK]

How are your phosphates?

Bio-pellets drive bacterial growth taking up nitrate and phosphate as long as both are available. Although it's usually the other way around, at least in theory if you have a ton of nitrate a system could actually become phosphate limited at which point the nitrate reduction would slow or stop. I doubt that's the case, but in theory......

Also FWIW the bacterial supplement dosing in addition to carbon dosing (bio-pellets) idea does go around a lot. The idea/argument being that the supplements may introduce different strains of bacteria than are already present and this might somehow be helpful. The counter argument/idea is that if the bacteria in the supplements is viable and useful in our systems then it would maintain it's own population without any need for supplementation (or at least no need beyond the inital introduction). Take it as a debate, I totally respect misfit's knowledge and opinion, I was intending to respectfully question / ask why

 

[JohnK]

So I have had the reactor on the tank for almost 24 hours and haven't really noticed any changes. I tested my water before the reactor was installed and my nitrates were still pretty high. I am going to test the water tonight and then every other day to track my progress. I only used about half the recommended amount of bio pellets due to my high nitrate levels. Keeping my fingers crossed that this works.

Now that I read the whole thread ......

You won't see carbon dosing (bio-pellets, vodka, vinegar, sugar) start to do anything fast. Figure weeks to months for this kind of nutrient managment to get into it's groove. If carbon dosing is making a noticable change in a few days I would suspect a major overdose and expect problems. Go slow, be patient. Defiantely get a good phosphate test too, only by monitoring both phosphate and nitrate will you get a good sense of how the carbon dosing is or is not working.

 

[lilrodyreefer]

Thanks John. If this hobby has taught me one thing it's patients. I was planning on ordering the Hanna phosphate checker from brs. I have herd it was a reliable test and I'm not good at matching up that blue color on most of the tests. I did have another question about the pellets themselves. Do they change at all when the bacteria starts colonize (ie change in color or size).

 

[JohnK]

The pellets don't really change other than slowly dissolving. You might see some bacterial slime on them, but otherwise they just kind of stay the same.

I haven't used any of the hanna checkers so I can't comment on them. That said, you don't need a super precise Phosphate test, more just something to give you a ball park idea. Ie, it's barely detectable vs obviously high. It is quite unlikely that your system has become phosphate limited, more likely the pellets just haven't had time to do much yet. You don't really NEED a good phosphate kit, it'll just rule one thing out but that one thing is very unlikely.

 

[MisFit]

Mostly to kick start the colonization of the biopellets with the proper strain. Im sure we have a ton of that bacteria in our tanks already, but I wanted the pellets to colonize fast. When I set mine up I dumped a bunch in the reactor and let it sit it a day or so with tank water and some light aeration before turning it on since that made more sense to me than dosing my system, turning off the skimmer and hoping the bacteria made its way to the reactor. Not sure if it made any difference or not in the setup since I didn't try it without dosing the bacteria. I did start seeing a difference in about a week though in terms of nitrates slowly dropping. Not dramatic at first, but after about 2 months a lot of the problem algae was disappearing.