Bio Pellet and GFO ??

[Carz]

Thoughts on running a GFO reactor and a Bio Pellet reactor on my 75 setup. I just cleaned up the sump area of my tank and moved the equipment in the closet behind the tank. I have more room and was thinking of adding a bio pellet reactor. I know they can do some harm if not careful but I just want to keep any algae breakouts to a min. I only have 5 fish in the tank and I am not a heavy feeder. Just not sure if it would be needed to add one

 

[Jen_h]

I run both gfo and bio pellets on my reefer 350. Love bio pellets but like you said you have to be careful with them. If you don’t really have a problem with nitrates and phosphates I wouldn’t bother. I constantly have to feed my coral and fish just to have nutrients in the water. I actually dropped my phosphates to fast last week and now my some of my acros have stn on the tips. It’s hard to find a happy median! Good luck!

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thoughts on running a GFO reactor and a Bio Pellet reactor on my 75 setup. I just cleaned up the sump area of my tank and moved the equipment in the closet behind the tank. I have more room and was thinking of adding a bio pellet reactor. I know they can do some harm if not careful but I just want to keep any algae breakouts to a min. I only have 5 fish in the tank and I am not a heavy feeder. Just not sure if it would be needed to add one

Algae growth is normal but if you can't control it with clean up crews then other means of nutrient export like gfo or bio media can be used. Till then, I wouldn't worry about it. My tank has been up for nearly 3 years and I still have a hard time keeping nutrients. Don't over feed and don't run your lights too long. You should be fine. Consider though, with corals, nutrients are your friend. Corals, bacteria, and algae take up nutrients. The circle of life happens this way.

 

[sa6hir]

I started using bio pellets and my nitrates kept going but soon as the measured 60 I had enough and started carbon dosing (NoPoX) it striped my nitrates within 5 days so I carried on using NoPoX but halved the dose then every other day, I think the pellets have kicked in now and my nitrates are 0 phosphate 0.2. Also have cyno now [emoji22]

 

[reeferfoxx]

I started using bio pellets and my nitrates kept going but soon as the measured 60 I had enough and started carbon dosing (NoPoX) it striped my nitrates within 5 days so I carried on using NoPoX but halved the dose then every other day, I think the pellets have kicked in now and my nitrates are 0 phosphate 0.2. Also have cyno now [emoji22]

Dosing nitrates will help get rid of cyano

 

[sa6hir]

Dosing nitrates will help get rid of cyano

How would you dose nitrates? Or was this ment to be a funny comment [emoji23]

 

[redfishbluefish]

You need both nitrates and phosphates for biopellets to work. I'd recommend not running GFO until you find out if there is an imbalance in N's and P's. If you get the nitrates down to where you want them and phosphates are still too high, then you run GFO.

 

[reeferfoxx]

How would you dose nitrates? Or was this ment to be a funny comment [emoji23]

No it's not ment to be funny. There are several ways but the natural way is to not run bio media that would otherwise reduce nitrates. That includes, bio-pellets, pond matrix, bio blocks etc. Running chemi-pure filter media will reduce nutrients as well. If you find your phosphates to be high(0.10ppm or higher) but measure nitrates at zero, increasing nitrates will reduce phosphates. The same for the opposite. High nitrates with zero phosphates, you'd increase phosphates. This is because bacteria consumes nutrients. The sweet spot for nutrients is Po4 - 0.02-0.08ppm and NO3 - 2-10ppm.