badlands25
Non-member
I am looking into getting one or the other to control phosphates. I have heard mixed results on the bio pellet. I have used Gfo before but it gets $$. I would like to hear your experience and recommendations. TIA!
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Biopellets or Gfo
- Thread starter badlands25
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badlands25
Non-member
Oh yeah would be using a reactor for this. So if anyone is selling one pm me 
Biopellets helps to lower both Nitrate and Phosphate at the same time. But it helps to control alot more Nitrate than Phosphate. And you also need a very good skimmer for it to be effective. On the other hand, GFO is great at lowering Phosphate. To control only Phosphate I would suggest using GFO.
If I may suggest, Water change and vacuuming the debris out of the tank and sump are your best weapons against both Nitrate and Phosphate.
If I may suggest, Water change and vacuuming the debris out of the tank and sump are your best weapons against both Nitrate and Phosphate.
acrofragger
Non-member
pmdya
badlands25
Non-member
No nitrate problem at all skimmer is aqua c. Sea urchin seems to work well. 125g with 30 sump
If you have no nitrates, the biopellets are not going to do anything. This method is for people that feed very heavily that cannot reduce nitrates to zero simply through water changes.
A lot of people that start the biopellets end up using GFO as well because they get to the point where the nitrate gets to zero, but there is still phosphate.
And BTW, these levels never truly get to zero, or else everything in the tank would die.
So again, biopellets are not going to give you much benefit. You can regenerate GFO which reduces the cost significantly over time.
A lot of people that start the biopellets end up using GFO as well because they get to the point where the nitrate gets to zero, but there is still phosphate.
And BTW, these levels never truly get to zero, or else everything in the tank would die.
So again, biopellets are not going to give you much benefit. You can regenerate GFO which reduces the cost significantly over time.
badlands25
Non-member
Is that the baking method to regenerate? How do I figure how much to use in a reactor?
acrofragger
Non-member
1-1 and half cups acording to tank size
No, it's more complicated to regenerate GFO, but from what I hear it is well worth the effort.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/10/chemistry
Depends how much you care about saving money!
badlands25
Non-member
Explain Andy
Explain what part? If you mean the GFO, it is expensive and doesn't last that long. Regenerating is cheap and gets you several uses from the same GFO...there is a limit because every regeneration degrades the GFO somewhat.
When I say it depends how much you care about money, I mean the trade off between spending money of expensive GFO and throwing it away after one use, or regenerating and going through yet another process of maintenance and time taking care of the tank.
If you are talking about the biopellets, they work by using bacteria that consumes both nitrate and phosphate to live. The problem is the bacteria consume the nitrate faster than the phosphate. Once there is no more nitrate, they cannot consume any more phosphate and therefore the pellets no longer work against phosphate. This is a biological process. GFO absorbs phosphate through a chemical process and doesn't need anything else to do so.
When I say it depends how much you care about money, I mean the trade off between spending money of expensive GFO and throwing it away after one use, or regenerating and going through yet another process of maintenance and time taking care of the tank.
If you are talking about the biopellets, they work by using bacteria that consumes both nitrate and phosphate to live. The problem is the bacteria consume the nitrate faster than the phosphate. Once there is no more nitrate, they cannot consume any more phosphate and therefore the pellets no longer work against phosphate. This is a biological process. GFO absorbs phosphate through a chemical process and doesn't need anything else to do so.
I've heard that in tanks without much nitrate, people actually dose nitrate (cringe) to keep the BP's working. If you like to feed your tank, you should be ok but make sure to pipe the reactor output into your skimmer chamber. The bacteria is also good for the corals I hear but i can't explain that past I was told it helps to feed them. If you're running a BP reactor and see your phates starting to go back up, dose nitrate (in whatever form you want).....as pointed out, they need both trates and phates.
I run a BP reactor.
I run a BP reactor.
badlands25
Non-member
Got a 2 little fishes 150 reactor with Gfo last night off a fellow reefer. Pretty sure they can be retrofit to use bio pellets no?
I have heard of nitrate dosing in theory, and I asked Randy once and he agreed that in theory it could be employed with carbon dosing in if/when a system became nitrate limited. That said, I don't think I have heard any accounts of anyone actually doing it. Have you? I'm curious....
I have heard one guy do it......basically he said that originally he had everything at 0 but then the phates started to climb. He said he dosed "flourish" and then they dropped. He keeps an eye on it but as he continued to stock his tank it seeed to balance out and he said it is working fine now. Nothng "scientific" but as you said, in theory it should work. I prefer to feed more!
Not familiar with Flourish, but it seems to me that you would be a hell of a lot better off just feeding your tank a lot more and getting nitrates that way. Then you get the biopellets to do their job and the benefit of feeding a lot.
Of course, maybe the balance between N and P would still be off, in which case you would be back to square one...I don't know.
Definitely a balance issue and that's why i think people experience some "inconsistencies" over time. I got this new food which i'm hoping is low in phates (larrys reef food) so hopefully it is more trates than phates.
I have my tank fallow at the moment so its all screwed up!
I have my tank fallow at the moment so its all screwed up!
nicks387
Non-member
I will not get into how they work or any of that, I will say that I used biopellets for over a year and a half and never have I had so many issues with corals becoming sensitive to light, fading in color, bleaching, dying, etc. etc. The tank looked pristine, water was clear as can be, but corals were suffering. I did everything, dosed Aminos, added more fish, more feeding, less pellets, less flow through reactor, more flow through reactor, etc. etc. I lost a lot of sps colonies, and I am not alone. I am not a chemist, but my extensive experience with them showed that something that the corals needed was being stripped from the water. I kept Nitrate at 0 and had phosphate a little higher than zero at about 0.04, my sps would routinely burn on the top side facing the light. This is why I believe the corals become sensitive to light as they never would burn like that before the pellets. When I finally got off the pellets, corals began to get deeper colors within 2 weeks. I never went back and never lost anything since, nor have I had any of the above issues again. Just sharing my experience with biopellets. Take it for what its worth.
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