My Bio Pellet Experiance

[iroll253]

I had very good experience with mine. I used 250ml of the brs pellets in their reactor for my 70g cube with 20g sump. I noticed it most in the lps. They seemed to grow faster and get way fatter after a few weeks.

[aquaman30k]

I would highly recommend the use of biopellets. I have been running them on every system I own with no ill effects for over 2 years now. I can attest to the pellets stripping the water quickly but not so fast that there was harm to either the fish or corals. One thing many newer reactors have implemented is a 3 way valve or recirculation method allowing for total control over the amount of water being processed. This allows for as little or as much water to be discharged from the unit without worrying about over stripping the system. Take a look at Jeff Macare's you tube video explaining how this process works.

 

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[aquaman30k]

Also make sure your using a good biopellet like EcoBak or BioStimulant Crush. Both have proven track records for great NO3 reduction.

 

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[Toby Flenderson]

Any updates on the biopellets?

[reefnjunkie]

Any updates on the biopellets?

 

I know we spoke about the pellets when you cam over but I figured a post with an update was in order.

 

I added another 1/2 liter of pellets about 3 weeks ago and had been testing both NO3 and PO4 up until then about once a week and the levels had been pretty steady with the PO4 .07 and NO3 around 15 -20

 

 

Well I did a 50 gallon water change yesterday and tested the water, PO4 is at .01 and NO3 was around 10. I do run the ROX GFO from BRS in 2 separate 2 LFS reactors but I dont think the GFO has a lot to do with the reduction since the GFO is maybe 10+ weeks old.

 

So the changes I have noticed are that for some reason my Cali Torts all started to just melt slowly, they ( I have a large colony and then I have/had about 7 frags) would get very faint in color and then the tissue would just melt away. I am not sure if this is remanent stress form the AEFW treatment debacle, or if its related to the pellets. I kept hoping it was going to stop but it did not and last week I took the one large piece I had and what frags were left to Saltwater Fantaseas and Patrick has been keeping them. I've checked on them over the course of time they have been there and they are doing great. So whatever was going on was related to my system.

Every other coral is doing fine, actually great even. I have corals I have had for over a year that have never looked so good. I have to attribute most of that to the fact I no longer have AEFW and perhaps the other is to do with the pellets.

 

I have had a few different things taking place ( the recent removal of all acros for the treatment of AEFW) with the tank so its tough to pinpoint what is responsible for what but I can say that so far it has not been a bad choice. There are a few other things I'll post about later that have taken place but I want to keep this somewhat shortDOH!

[kriz2fer]

You closed your Aefw thread and I was wondering how things were doing with that? I have not seen any Aefw in my system for a while now and think they may have subsidized.

[reefnjunkie]

You closed your Aefw thread and I was wondering how things were doing with that? I have not seen any Aefw in my system for a while now and think they may have subsidized.

 

Well I never saw any eggs after week and week two's dipping produced 2 flatworms if I recall correctly. After the 3 weeks dip I did not see any FW but it was also within an couple hours after that last dip that things went south, so I had no choice but to put all the colonies back into the display, and all the frags back into the frag tank.

I never made it to the final goal of 6 weeks dipping and am hoping that since I saw no eggs after week 1 and no FE after week 2 and 3 dips I got them all.

 

I did dip all the frags again (that I had to return to the frag system) after 2 weeks later and no FW. I can only hope I beat them, all signs say so but time will tell.

[reefnjunkie]

So its been about 3 months since I added the BP to my system. At about week 5-6 I increased the inital dosage of .5 liters by adding another .5 liter. Remember I am using Aquamaxx line of BP and I have seen different brands recommend different volume levels, not all are the same-this is very important and note worthy.

 

On post 27 Aquaman30k mentioned Jeff Macare's YouTube video on BP, its a great video and worth watching, that design of reactor is what I would recommend and is what I may mod current one to be like.

 

So my NO3 is holding steady at 10 which for the amount of food I feed and the fact I do a 10% water change approx. every 30 days IMO is fantastic. I still have my TLF GFO reactors running and am consideriing taking them off line I'm not sure. The reason for that is my PO4 is 0 with my hanna meter and 0 is not ideal, .03 +/- .01 IMO is ideal.

 

I did have the issue with the red turf algae which I am nearly positive was a direct result of the BP but I added 2 pin cushion urchins and 4 tuxedos and that solved that, it was the pin cushions that really did the work ( those suckers are workhorses!!!) the tuxedos for my size tank were much less the effective.

 

I would recommend BP and stres the slow approach, if you are worried like I was of losing 100's of dollars (or in my case, slightly more) in corals, start with half the recommended dosage on their lower scale and gradually ramp up. Even more important is using the proper reactor, I cant speak highly enough of that style reactor Jeff Macare is using and mine is not even that style but it makes sense and again I may mod mine so its the same idea, a recirc with cotrol for the effluent rate.