Who uses Bio Pellets

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Who out there uses Bio Pellets? What kind? For how long have you been using them? and your experience with them both good or bad? Do they really make a difference? Thank You.

[reggie_cs]

bump to the top..i wanna hear some opinions also

[surfnsd]

I use the EcoBak pellets and have been for almost a year now. Ive noticed a huge improvement in my corals and water clarity. Things are brighter and more extended. My nitrates have been 0 ever since I started using them. I had a cyano outbreak for about a month when I first started but it went away like expected and I havent had a problem ever since. The key IMO is to get the flow just right in the reactor, not too much but not too low that they just clump together. It took me a little while to dial in but once I got it I noticed improvements in the first week. Im an advocate as long as you follow the directions, get the flow right and keep the pellets clump free.

I did have an issue with algea growing inside the reactor but that was quickly solved by getting a Nextreef bio pellet reactor as apposed to the clear acrylic one I was using that was also exposed to sunlight sometimes during the day. When I see people complain about them and complain about how its not working you can usually trouble shoot to operator error (well thats been my experience). Just remember to start off with about 1/2 to 1/4 of what you need and then work up from there. Doing it all at once can do some damage.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I can now feed a TON without having to worry about it. before I was straining my melted mysis cubes to not have that "dirty" water in my tank. Now I just thaw out the cubes and dump them right in 3 times a day with no issues what so ever. I also have the output of my reactor hooked up directly to my skimmer pump and the nastyness that gets pulled out that way is unreal!

[reggie_cs]

sounds good because i was thinking about ordering this reactor today

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...629849&isKit=0

lmk wat you think...and sry adfb for jacking ur thread

[surfnsd]

Im not sure what media theyre talking about using but that looks way too rough for most bio media.

[reggie_cs]

ball valve for flow control? or just wait for some reviews on that reactor

[surfnsd]

heres a couple examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUbnF3Vralc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COSaqcdkZNA

Again this is for the EcoBak pellets that I run. Flow on others could be different.

[naso tang]

I used the two little fishes bioplastic NPX for about 6-9 mths. I gave up recently, some corals the color was great but others seemed to be missing some trace nutrient that I wasn't able to figure out (or replenish with regular water changes). Before I quit, I was dosing potassium trace elements iron and aminos. I was probably doing something wrong, I wanted to hook up my reactor output directly to the skimmer but never got to it. I think a ball valve on the reactor is critical, and I never figured out if it was important to dose MB7 or other bacteria regularly and on what schedule. I wasn't testing nitrates, but glass algae really never stopped, making me think either I had not enough substrate or not enough bacteria (or not pulling enough bacteria out with the skimmer). Birdsnest was really sensitive to it for some reason, and as soon as I stopped, the birdsnest started looking better, but we'll see. Growth for everything was good throughout this time, I just wasn't happy with the colors and the stress on the various birdsnests I have...

[reggie_cs]

for me the problem was the media...i "thought" i got the flow right then i guess after a while when bacteria builds on the pellets and slows them down a bit they start clumping..i guess thats why that reactor intrigued me with the different flow pattern

[pollywog]

I wanted to be freed of daily vodka dosing which BTW kept nitrates undetectable with the Salifert test kit and phosphates at 0.00 with the Hana Colorimeter so I converted to biopellets. I used the NextReef SMR1 with 500 ml of NP Reducing biopellets. After 2 weeks, I started getting a bad case GHA all over the tank. I thought this was just part of the breaking-in period. I had to discontinue its use at the 8th week period when the GHA growth never subsided and my acros were loosing color with RTN starting to set in a couple of colonies.

I am back to vodka dosing. I might give the WM Ecobak biopellets a try later on. Seems like less issues with them and they are a lot cheaper.

[lpskeeper]

i have a 40 breeder almost all sps. run a two little fishy reactor npx pellets for about a year. had clumping prob at first then i soaked them in ro for 24 hrs and thats really help. it strips the water of every thing so you have really watch your corals. i know when pe gets real good my sps are starting to starve. so i use a few sps foods. i also feed fish more like 3 times a day. but i have a copper band and maindren so i got to.

colors have really started to pop now

all and all i love them but would start out slow. this should be nothing new to the hobby anyway lol.

skim heavy feed heavy then you good.

[adfb]

sounds good because i was thinking about ordering this reactor today

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...629849&isKit=0

lmk wat you think...and sry adfb for jacking ur thread

No problem I'm glad you did, it finally got some feedback thanks.

[adfb]

Surnsd,

I thought the Nextreef reactors were clear? Do they make a different one for bio pellets? Thanks for all that info. I am trying to figure out if I am going to add bio pellets or not and how to do it without causing damage.

[Waves in Glass]

I would not reccommend that one at this time... using a flow inductor and blasting into the media is not what you want. you want just a good flow with slower media contact.

sounds good because i was thinking about ordering this reactor today

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...629849&isKit=0

lmk wat you think...and sry adfb for jacking ur thread

[Waves in Glass]

Surnsd,

I thought the Nextreef reactors were clear? Do they make a different one for bio pellets? Thanks for all that info. I am trying to figure out if I am going to add bio pellets or not and how to do it without causing damage.

They make both, I use a clear one in my system running 1000ml on a 180Gal. Take time to do it right, add 1/4 of recommended amount once a week and at 1 month you should see nitrates dropping, issue will be you will see phosphate release from your system and will need to run GFO to keep them in check or you will have phos related issues as stated in a previous post. There is a new pellet out there for Phos but not very accessable yet. supposed to be better than GFO ... well see.

I modded my reactor to increase spread of flow by drilling extra holes in the outflow adaper at the bottom of reactor. really helped move the pellets.

My nitrates went from a continuous no matter what I did 20 to a .2 after one month of runnin pellets. I have used three different brand and am now using BRS brand pellets, all seem to be about equal. I find I have a depletion of about 1/3 every 60 days. so just top off and keep on running.