Grr just letting off some steam

[ninkylou]

So I am about 3 wks in to using the BRS Bio-Pellet reactor...following the instructions of just leaving it alone for 4 - 8 wks. Well, my nitrates have been running high and I actually lost 2 heads of a torch and one off a nice frogspawn. I was a few days late with my water change, and honestly I have never had nitrates get that high even before the reactor....so this morning I was debating getting rid of the thing...hair algae starting despite a scrubber in the sump. My phopban reactor has been off per the BRS instructions....

 

The reactor is sitting on the floor behind the sump..I am looking at it and the media is not tumbling....so I pull the darn thing out and low and behold a layer of bio-pellets are smashed up against the top grate and stopping the flow.....I am so pissed off....

I have relocated it all to a more visible place but one would hope that would not happen if the reactor was designed right.

 

I will admit I have not been as attentive to it as I should have been I guess, but it did say to just leave it alone....Here's hoping they catch up and start working. I am tired of the high nitrates...I am close to packing up the reactor or using it for Purigen....

 

I guess having read a few of the posts lately I should be glad I didn't flood the living room....

[steelhead77]

I battled high Nitrates for months in my 180....I tried Vodka, MB7 a few other things. I came back from Singapore last summer and my nitrates were around 100. I bit the bullet and just did a series of 50% water changes. 50% each Saturday for 4 weeks. I went thru a lot of salt but this brought my Nitrates down to around 5 where they've stayed ever since. This convinced me that the only way to get the Nitrates down quickly is water changes. All the other stuff, just won't do it quickly enough.

 

Good Luck