Bio pellet reactor or GFO/carbon?

[NJ Devil316]

Hello all!
Newbie here looking at purchasing a SCA aquariums 50 gallon and want to make sure I set myself up for success from the start. Im not sure whether it would be more beneficial to have a media reactor with a GFO/ carbon mix or bio pellets. I understand there are pros and cons with each. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated..
Thank you in advance!

 

[andrewey]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

My best advice would actually be to hold off on both (for the time being). To use either system successfully, you need to measure your nutrients pretty well to make sure you don't starve your tank. As such, I would set up your tank and keep detailed logs of your nutrient levels. Some people actually have issues with having high enough nutrients, so obviously installing these from the get go would make their lives a lot worse! That might not be your case, but it's always important to have baseline measurements as well as understand how much your nitrate and/or phosphate increases every week/month. Then you can figure out if your other forms of nutrient reduction will keep up (e.g. water changes, skimmer, etc.). If not, you'll know both that you need some extra help, but more importantly, how much extra help you need.

Happy Reefing!

 

[NJ Devil316]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

My best advice would actually be to hold off on both (for the time being). To use either system successfully, you need to measure your nutrients pretty well to make sure you don't starve your tank. As such, I would set up your tank and keep detailed logs of your nutrient levels. Some people actually have issues with having high enough nutrients, so obviously installing these from the get go would make their lives a lot worse! That might not be your case, but it's always important to have baseline measurements as well as understand how much your nitrate and/or phosphate increases every week/month. Then you can figure out if your other forms of nutrient reduction will keep up (e.g. water changes, skimmer, etc.). If not, you'll know both that you need some extra help, but more importantly, how much extra help you need.

Happy Reefing!

Thank you for the info.. I'll hold off for now. Looks like patience and a lot of monitoring will be necessary for success.

 

[Crustaceon]

Hello all!
Newbie here looking at purchasing a SCA aquariums 50 gallon and want to make sure I set myself up for success from the start. Im not sure whether it would be more beneficial to have a media reactor with a GFO/ carbon mix or bio pellets. I understand there are pros and cons with each. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated..
Thank you in advance!

I think the biggest mistake people make when getting into this hobby is adding way too much nutrient export and shooting for low nutrients. IMO, biopellets aren’t worth it because they tend to end up using all of the Po4 in a system which wreaks havoc on corals and causes a whole myriad of issues that aren’t very easy to resolve. I wouldn’t consider biopellets to be an entry-level product because there are things that you need to continually check and adjust while running them. They’re advertised as set-and-forget but are as far from that as possible. I’ve also seen plenty of really successful systems that don’t run carbon or gfo, including my own. If I had a Po4 issue, I’d run a tiny amount of gfo and then take it out once I reached the desired phosphate range. Same goes for carbon when it comes to water clarity (or odor, lol). In your case, I would add a few liters of seachem matrix or a marine pure brick, along with a protein skimmer to your sump. Between your live rock and thise items, that’ll do the bulk of your denitrifying/export. I also recommend either doing a weekly 5% water change or investing in an automatic water change system on top of it. Lastly, get yourself an auto topoff system. Keep in mind we’re keeping water and having sterile water is not a good thing. It needs to have some nitrates & phosphates floating around in it. Think of how barren a desert is vs. a rainforest.

 

[jda]

If you want success from the start, then forget that GFO and organic carbon exist. Running these from the start will keep your tank from doing what it needs to do by getting an ecosystem going. You will have ugly phases and they will leave. You will need paitence, but you will not be successful if you do not have some.

If you want the best success, then save some money and get some real live rock to start your tank with. Dead/dry rock is a joke and makes things way harder than they need to be. The dead/dry rock will usually cost more money to fix later on. Look at getting some Fiji from livestockusa or some Atlantic from KP Aquatic. I cannot stress enough how much good this will do.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Just stopped in to say #WelcometoR2R and congrats on grad.

I think I had tanks since around graduation and still today. Back then we had to make them from stone .

Not sure if this is your 1st, so I attached one of the more popular of our articles for reference.

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is nowhere near simple. This task is going to take patience, a...

www.reef2reef.com

You can also check out in more depth what @jda is referring to. In my opinion best way to go.

 

[NJ Devil316]

Thanks guys! I have a fish only saltwater which has been extremely successful but this will be my first reef tank and I want to make sure all goes well.. So much to know but it appears that I've come to the right place for advice and knowledge.

 

[frank10]

How is your tank going?

 

[schooncw]

Can anyone tell me what volume of Bio Pellets are appropriate for a medium stocked 125 mixed reef? I am looking at the JNS Alpha 1 and it comes with 250ml of pellets.
Thanks.

 

[HigherStandards]

Always start your pellets with 1/4 - 1/2 cup and increase from there. Pellets are not just fill and walk away, they need monitoring to dial in correctly or else bad things happen. Above poster is correct but they do work well when used correctly