Advice with GFO and Bio Pellets

[J Rog]

Hi everyone,

On and off I always have an issue with green hair algea.. I run carbon and GFO in the BRS dual media reactor. The problem is the GFO stops tumbling after 2 or 3 days.. I have been thing of switching to bio pellets.. But it kind of makes me nervus because I have heard about coral bleaching caused by the pellets.. So do you think I should just get a new reactor for the GFO or switch to just bio pellets but still keeping the cabon in line? Would love to hear you advice!

 

[skinz78]

Do you use RO/DI and if so how old are the filters?

 

[J Rog]

Do you use RO/DI and if so how old are the filters?

Yep, I use RO/DI. The meter reads 0ppm coming out. So that shouldn't be the issue. Im thinking the GFO starts to release the the stuff it takes out after it stops tombling.. Is that possible?

 

[skinz78]

I'm not sure, I use Seachem's Phosguard and I don't let it tumble.

 

[J Rog]

I have never used Phosguard but I know if GFO does not tumble, it not doing anything..

 

[skinz78]

Honestly I don't use the GFO because it is known to trigger Pinched Mantle in clams so I am scared to use it. The Phosguard is Aluminum based and it is in the shape of little round balls. Maybe I don't have much algae in my tank because of all my clams, I don't know. I do know that I added a few clams to my 20g which was plagued with HA and the HA disappeared almost over night. But I had 3 large clams in there that were just in a QT stage, once I removed them to the 120g display the HA came back.

 

[J Rog]

Wow! i have never owned a clam yet.. I didn't know that they would have that kind of effect oh:

 

[skinz78]

Ha ha I never had an idea ether, I am going to place a few clams back in my 20g today and see what happens.

 

[Tab28]

I also use BRS dual reactor. And I also have issues with the GFO side stops tumbleing. When it stops I will read .03 on a Hanna meter. I end up taking the thing apart and just pull the sponges out of the top holes and unscrew and clean the sponges and put them back in. Without even taking the GFO or carbon out of the inner canisters. The GFO clogs up the sponges, mainly if you but the standard size. Also I really rinse the GFO in a wire mesh strainer. Any particle small enough to get through the strainer would only clog the sponges anyway. After cleaning sponges I will get the 0.0 reading on the hanna meter the next day. I get at he 0.0 reading faster and longer if I see the GFO actually turing on top like a snow drift effect, but not a blizzard or the GFO makes too much dust.

I have used many Phos. removing types and GFO works the best, it took months of a 0.0 reading before the algae starts to die off. I also thought balls and bio-pellets were mainly for nitrates and GFO for Phos. both cause algae problems though.

 

[J Rog]

I also use BRS dual reactor. And I also have issues with the GFO side stops tumbleing. When it stops I will read .03 on a Hanna meter. I end up taking the thing apart and just pull the sponges out of the top holes and unscrew and clean the sponges and put them back in. Without even taking the GFO or carbon out of the inner canisters. The GFO clogs up the sponges, mainly if you but the standard size. Also I really rinse the GFO in a wire mesh strainer. Any particle small enough to get through the strainer would only clog the sponges anyway. After cleaning sponges I will get the 0.0 reading on the hanna meter the next day. I get at he 0.0 reading faster and longer if I see the GFO actually turing on top like a snow drift effect, but not a blizzard or the GFO makes too much dust.

I have used many Phos. removing types and GFO works the best, it took months of a 0.0 reading before the algae starts to die off. I also thought balls and bio-pellets were mainly for nitrates and GFO for Phos. both cause algae problems though.

Hmm, i change out my GFO and Carbon once a month. But I do a full cleaning of all the sponges as well. Maybe i need to clean the sponges once a week?

 

[Tab28]

Mine need to be cleaned once a week. I can get away with bio-weekly if I do a good rinse to get rid of all the dust. The dust is what stops the tumbling it clogs the sponges and the water flow decreases. If I do not have the time to clean sponges I turn the pump flow up abit more until I see the tumbling I like. I can get an additional week before I need to clean the sponges. Then they have so much GFO dust in them I have to clean them. By just cleaning the sponges once a week I get away with changing the GFO to months apart. When a good flow reads .03 I change the GFO. What kit do you test with?

 

[J Rog]

Mine need to be cleaned once a week. I can get away with bio-weekly if I do a good rinse to get rid of all the dust. The dust is what stops the tumbling it clogs the sponges and the water flow decreases. If I do not have the time to clean sponges I turn the pump flow up abit more until I see the tumbling I like. I can get an additional week before I need to clean the sponges. Then they have so much GFO dust in them I have to clean them. By just cleaning the sponges once a week I get away with changing the GFO to months apart. When a good flow reads .03 I change the GFO. What kit do you test with?

Thanks! I have the Hanna test kit.

 

[Tab28]

I clean mine a few times a month. I also do a really good rinse as I stated. The dust clogs the sponges when the sponge is cloged the flow/water pressure drops. I can pull an extra week if I turn up the water flow entering the reactor. But I test once a week (I have OCD) and if my levels are at least .03 I check the flow and or rinse the sponges. I can get at least a month or two from the GFO before I have to replace it. What test kit do you use. I used Salifert but the blue tint reading sucked. i always got a 0 reading. Bought a Hanna and realized my levels were around 0.5.

 

[shred5]

I'm not sure, I use Seachem's Phosguard and I don't let it tumble.

This is not gfo and does not need to be tumbled it is aluminum based. It also should not be used in a reef see Randy Holmes Farleys article on aluminum.

 

[J Rog]

So does anyone recomend adding bio pellets to the system?

 

[Conrad]

I would highly recommend bio pellets. I'm currently using the brightwell katalyst bio pellets and took my GFO offline. I still have the reactor as backup, but haven't used it since adding pellets. I think its still new and will eventually become a big standard of peoples setups. The biggest thing I can say is that you need to start slow and slowly add in more pellets once a week. Also recommend soaking the pellets for a night before adding to the reactor as this prevents them from chunking up and they will tumble very nice than, I learned the hardway.......

After running my bio pellet reactor for a month and a half I have noticed a few things. My hair algae literally started falling off the rock when I blew it with a baster style feeder. Also my nitrates and phosphates dropped to zero. I can feed my tank heavily with zero issues and also I did not have any colors fade at all. I only have a few SPS corals which are just frags, tons of zoa's, lps and also have a S. Gig anemone and H. Mag anemone with 8 fish in the 75G tank.


So all in all, I would say its well worth it! If you decide to use your BRS reactor as a biopellet reactor, you will need to change the sponges out to discs with holes or just buy the guts from them. I decided to go with a lifeguards fluidized reactor as it holds a lot more media


Conrad

 

[jonkruk56]

Hmm, i change out my GFO and Carbon once a month. But I do a full cleaning of all the sponges as well. Maybe i need to clean the sponges once a week?

What size openings does this wire mesh strainer have? How big are the particles that tend to slip through? Would you say maybe like a 100 x 100 mesh as is seen here: Custom Wire Cloth - Belleville Wire Cloth Co - Cedar Grove, NJ

that would mean there are 100 wires per inch, and not much can get through there.

Basically, what size particles are you trying to filter out/let in during this process? It is a great idea, but I think the results can vary greatly depending on the wire mesh size.