Biopellet Questions...

[snipertwobe]

Ok, i'll start off with yet i have elevated nitrates, have had them since my cycle ended over 2 years ago i have gone many route and i am now going to be trying biopellets i have been fighting nitrates in the range of 20-40 bouncing , i have done water changes up to and including 120% at one time the corals don't seem to mind much i still get good growth, but not what i think i should be getting out of most of these corals (i have a mixed reef, mostly sps) my phosphate levels are not zeroed but not high (.10-.04) would like to get both of these properties down as i feel it would give all of the corals and fish i own a better life.

i have over 50 different corals in my tanks and my fish list include 4 yellow headed jaw fish, 2 true percula clowns, one regal tang, one watchman goby, one spotted mandarin, one yellow assessor. i house all of these in a 125 gal 72x18x20 40 gal sump and 46 gallon frag tank/refugium. with approx. 350 lbs of live rock main display has a 3-4 inch sand bed ( yes i have vacuumed and stirred this bed) (as well as blown the rock multiply time ) i run socks on occasion when doing mass cleanings to catch all the nastiness...
my questions are has anyone running biopellets ever tried running them until starting to see a drop in nitrates and cutting back on them?
as to not strip the system so quickly and or just to a point to maintain at a lower level i would be happy with 5 ppm nitrate or less as i have read that problems start arising with a ULNS (like alk rising)

another question i have has anyone run them until stripping nitrates, then removing the reactor from the system, rinse and repeat as needed? i know long setup time for cycling hence the reason i am asking about cutting back the pellets so as not to strip the system completely

i have tried multiply things, AZNO3( my work scheduled doesn't allow Consistency{same with vodka,and vinegar}) Sulfur reactor( very finicky, and have had an issue with pump/ media) i run a aqua-c 240 skimmer and i have no problem with skimmate , powered by a mag 12. also the refugium/ frag tank is a 46 gallon bow front bare bottom with 40 lbs of live rock.

i feed frozen mysis twice weekly and algae sheet twice weekly, i will not feed less if anything i would like to feed more. photo period is from 10 am to 8 pm
i do not have a hair algae problem as of yet i do get cyano once in a while i vacuum out during water changes. i have chetto and calerpa on the refugium on a revers light cycle as well as some natural sunlight on that tank.

parameters are as followed
nitrite 0.00
ammonia 0.00
nitrate 20-40 ppm (bouncing weekly)(yes verified by 2 diffrent LFS and my own test kits, so it's not just my kit)
calcium 480-495
alk 8.2
salinity 1.025
phosphate .04-.10

 

[mbg75]

How big is the fuge? Does the macro grow fast? How often do you trim it back?

 

[snipertwobe]

the fuge is part of the 46 bow front, i trim it when it take up half the tank, i try to keep it to about 1/3 of the tank, mostly trim calerpa.

 

[mbg75]

Is there alot of detritus when you baste the rock? Any detritus in the sump and fuge?

 

[jaa1456]

I didn't even read your post, but if you plan on using them skip them. I lost a tone of corals the day after I started biopellets. I even went way under the recommended usage. I will never use that crap again.

 

[snipertwobe]

every bit of what i can find get siphoned and or filter out during maintenance and water changes

 

[snipertwobe]

I didn't even read your post,

atleast your honest, one mans trash is another mans treasure...

 

[cali_reef]

You should rinse the mysis in RO\DI water, they are dirty.

I am using TLF Bio-pellets. Started with 1/2 of the recommended dose and hadred slim algae for about two months, I am not sure if that is part of the initialcycling of my new tank or caused by the bio pellets. I decided to go full blaston the bio pellets and up the bacteria culture dosing, after blasting off thered slime from the rocks they have not come back in the last 6 weeks.

My PO4 is still at .08 and NO3 is at 0. My bioload is pretty heavy, plus mywife won't take out the dead fish when I am not home.

I also run about a full cup of Phosban that gets changed out every 4 weeks,I never had a 0 PO4 tank so I am not sweating it. I do dump a shot of cheap vodka in the tankdaily when I am home too, don't see much difference when I do it for a week ortwo than stop for a week or two.

Good luck with it.

 

[snipertwobe]

I always rinse mysis thru a brine shrimp net in ro/di water after thawing(also in ro/di water) I am just hopeful biopellets will help me lower my nitrates, I do run gfo in a tlf reactor and carbon in another tlf reactor. Water clarity I have not had an issue with as of yet. The times I have had any clarity issues I have run a sock and a micron fiter on the water going from sump to return pump and has always cleared in a few hours.

 

[Reefkings12]

I believe that's a huge part of your nitrate problem right their , 350 pounds of rock in a 125g tank ? Having more rock then needed only does the same thing as bio balls and will cause nitrate issues 1 pound per gallon is recommended

 

[snipertwobe]

125 main display, 46 gallong frag tank and 40 gallon sump plus water in skimmer/reactors and plumbing let's call it a 225 gallon system, @1 - 1.5 lbs per gallon that ranges from 225lbs - 340 lbs.. I am sure if I take 10 lbs out that will solve everything..... the main display has about 225 of those pounds, and is far from crowded. I started running bio-pellets last friday and going to be doing my tests later today.

 

[Reefkings12]

I believe it goes by display tank volume not the display sump and whatever others you have hooked up to the system , but good luck I've had yet to have any nitrates due to the filtration I have down below but just because I have a hard core reef guy I wanna start useing bio pellets just for that extra security in case something ever did go wrong , let me know how they work for you

 

[Reefkings12]

"I am a hard core reef guy " lol

 

[NYreefNoob]

there is alot of mis-conseption in reguards to pellets, personally as someone who used them for over a year, i dont think water volume matters but more so on how the tank is stocked and with what

 

[Reefkings12]

@nyreefnoob , what do you think about bio pellets since u have used them ? , I have 0 nitrates and my water quality is perfect , but I like to go over the top with my system explaining why I have such great water quality but as far as using them I wanted to for the simple fact of extra security

 

[Reefkings12]

Because my tank Is 90% sps and I like to safe guard my systems water quality as much as possible via the start of using bio pellets as extra protection

 

[NYreefNoob]

i never had a issue with them, but i also used a reactor that was big enough and allowed proper flow and tumbling. when i started using them i stopped phosban and carbon both and used only the pellets, but i also had a heavy sps stocked tank with alot of fish, plus ive always ran a good skimmer, here is a link to the tank i used them on
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/62814-73-gallon-set-up-7-17-09-a-19.html

 

[Reefkings12]

For some reason link did not work but , I'm curious as to how your tank did when u ran bio pellets and removed GFO and carbon , I am running GFO and carbon and planing on adding bio pellets as well I would never remove GFO and carbon from system I will just incorporate the bio pellets with it , I also run a large skimmer minimum double my tank size as well as I use DSB for the removal of nitrates as well

 

[robscool]

My (almost) 1 year Bio Pellet Anniversary

I wanted to share my experience with Bio Pellets.
Tank: 75 Gallon display with 29 gallon custom sump/refugium. Deep Sand Bed and ~ 90lbs of live rock. Mix of SPS, LPS, Softies. LOTS of fish.
The tank has been set up for 5 years and I have always had a nitrate problem...this should not be surprising, I run a very heavy bio load and feed several times a day. 11 months ago I bought a new Salifert Nitrate Test Kit to see exactly where my Nitrates measured....well they were off the charts (over 160ppm). At that time, I was new to SPS and wasn't getting much growth and the coloration was pretty crappy. My LPS and softies have always grown very quickly. I know I will get the smack down and I should know better, but I very rarely perform water changes...When I clean out my sump every 6 months (pumps, skimmer, etc) I will drain and replace 15 gallons.
I decided to do some research on Bio Pellets, spending hours on this forum and others, scouring the web for stories and information. I decided that I would go with Dr. Tim's NP-Active Pearls and run them in a modified phosban 150 reactor. I started with a 1/4 of the recommended dose. After 1 week I started to get an outbreak of Cyanobacteria....nothing out of control, but noticeable. After doing some additional research, I decided that my current reactor was not up to the task for biopellets, so I purchased a reef octopus bio pellet reactor. Upon setting up the SRO BP Reactor, I was immediately amazed at what a better job it did. Dr. Tim's instructions are to not touch anything for about 6 weeks....let the bacteria seed the pellets, let them do their work. I did just that. At about 8 weeks the Cyano started to disappear and I noticed that the pellets seemed to be getting slightly smaller. I decided at that point to add the additional pellets to get to the full dosage for my setup. A few days after doing so, a little bit of Cyano appeared, but went away after a few weeks (I always either syphon or turkey baster the cyano off the rocks).
Here's what I have found and I wish I created a log book and actually tested my Nitrates each week, but I didn't. When I tested my nitrates before Bio Pellets, I was at the 160ppm or above mark. About 4 months in, I tested at about 20ppm. Today, even with more fish and other tank additions, I am at 0ppm. My SPS has colored up and is growing nicely. My LPS still grow rapidly. I should mention that during this entire time I continued to run BRS Lignite Carbon and BRS GFO in separate reactors.
With all of that said, anytime that I replenish Bio Pellets, I notice that I do get some Cyano. I recently purchased Dr. Tim's Waste Away to see if this helps with that...maybe it will, maybe it won't, but I am sold on these little plastic balls of fury. I will report back on whether or not the Waste Away works..
Remember, every system is different, every reefer is different. If you are going to start, start slower than they recommend.
I will try to take some tank shots for you to see my setup. If anyone has additional questions, shoot me a PM.
<end rant>

 

[Reefkings12]

Thanks for that info but now I'm thinking I will live without it lol , my system is insanely overstocked and I have 0 algae 0 nitrates and phosphate because of my filtration system down below , but yeah that's weird start to finish for your tank lol ,