Bio pellet ?

[coldhybrid]

i have a 20 gal nano tank set up with a 30gal sump 1 blue devil damsel about 15-20 inverts (hermits/snails). I use to run what i call dirty water tank up until about a month ago. Basically i ran the tank with all current livestock without biopellets and with tap water and yes tap water ive been blessed with 0 tds tap water here in this tiny back woods town lol. anyway i recently setup a biopellet reactor on it and have noticed after one month i get this white stuff on the sides of the tank periodically and i noticed the coral growth have slowed way down. Current coral load is about 15 lps acans candy cane's favia's zoa's mushroom's SPS green slime montipora spongeodes cyphastrea porites and monti digi i dose 2 part as well as dose kalk and feed lps nightly like i have done over the last year. Param's are dkh 11 temp 79.2 nitrate 0 phos 0 Amon. 0 nitrite 0 SG 1.026 ph 8.1 calcium 475 mag 1300ish lighting is a 250w halide it has plenty of flow. Could the pellets be affecting the growth and coloration of the corals and should i stop using them?

 

[kuansreef]

my tank used to look like a jungle until I stated running Ecobak. Corals started dying, bleaching etc. I would never touch it again.

 

[coldhybrid]

so pellets killed your corals etc

 

[fragmatic]

I've been the bio-pellet gig.. didn't get the t-shirt... and found it no advantage to my reef. ...Same with some other forms of carbon dosing. In fact I had some declines in my corals and felt like it could of been the carbon concept.. but never pinned on anything. .............Now I heavy feed, dose parts 1 & 2, dose trace elements, dose Coral Kolor, dose an iodine solution, and all is good.

 

[icycoral]

I personally like bio pellets for nutrient control along with heavy skimming and a fuge area in my sump for macro. I have noticed the bio pellets can work too well. They can strip your water of all nutrients. Having a valve on my biopellet reactor I can slightly control how much water goes through the reactor and how quickly I can reduce my nutrients. However, left to its own devices, they will still take your nutrients down to levels that will starve corals. I keep my corals happy by using amino acid additives, "phyto feast", and "oyster feast". With bio pellets and heavy feeding I get a high import, high export, of food going through my system. It seems to work well for me I have been using them for a year and a half.

 

[coldhybrid]

So should i take the pellets offline or no?

 

[fragmatic]

It is your call.. try it both ways and decide.. every tank is different.

 

[coldhybrid]

seems like once they kicked in thats when things slowed down and looked funny i mean i can't complain about the perfect water quality but at the same time id rather scrap the glass daily and have live healthy corals etc then perfect water and half dead ones. That reminds me i haven't had to clean the glass in over a month now that i started them. Plus i have 0 coraline growth anywhere now.

 

[fragmatic]

OK..I feel like I've been slinging some opinions around lately.. but shrug.... here goes.. this is IMO....

Your last post is about exactly what I decided too. I have began to enjoy running the mag scrapper around the glass... why.. my tank needs it done about every third day and it isn't too bad... but it has become an indicator that my nutriments are where my tank likes them.. no bio-pellet running anymore.. (converted it into a skimmer) and I haven't ran my GFO or carbon in months. I think my tank does best when it is "a little" dirty, meaning lots of nutriments flowing around to feed everything. Somehow it becomes magical. Even the algae behaves in my display. .... at present... LOL.

However, as we all know every tank is different and every one has a right to their opinion .. those differences and willingness to share our opinions are how we are learning so fast as a reef keeping team.

 

[coldhybrid]

i think im gonna take them offline everything seemed so much happier when they were not running and i had good ole gfo and carbon going. thanks for all the help fragmatic. What tipped me off was my zoas and my green slimer i could pull a chunk of the fire and ice zoas out and with in a few days they'd be filled in now theres been 0 growth in over a month and my green slimer well you could tell it was growing now notta which i know typically sps don't grow fast but this one when i got it was just one branch which a month prior to this it had put off 3 branches now no change period

 

[fragmatic]

I would like to add.. if you take it off line, remove it and empty the water out, clean it. .. . that water will go bad in a hurry.

EDIT: and remove the used pellets....


I did fill mine with LR rubble and run it as a "LR rubble reactor" for a while.. I took it off line.. and do not recommend that.

 

[coldhybrid]

never heard of that one what happened with that

 

[fragmatic]

never heard of that one what happened with that

If you are referring to the "LR rubble reactor" it was one of my experiments.. I'm always pushing the envelope on behalf of myself and the reefing community. .. I'm squirrley that way... thinking we need to keep reaching for better ways...

It worked well but didn't really make any kind of news worthy breakthrough. And .. I got concerned about the trash it was trapping so I nixed it. The idea came from years ago when I ran gravel in a filter canister in a freshwater set-up.. it was a big success. ...but not this time with salt....

 

[coldhybrid]

yeah thats what i was talking about it sounded interesting. I could see how it would help though constantly pushing water through the LR kinda like bio balls.

 

[fragmatic]

yeah thats what i was talking about it sounded interesting. I could see how it would help though constantly pushing water through the LR kinda like bio balls.

I never did disprove it as a viable idea, I more than anything lost interest in it. Nor did I prove it as an asset, so.. for that reason only, I can not recommend it.

 

[coldhybrid]

i think with proper cleaning and prefilter of some sort to catch the deitrus then it would work really well. i did something like that a few years back when i had my 75 reef set up. i had a chamber installed into my overflow drain tube filled with live rock it worked really well just had to really watch that it didn't clog up kinda one of those trial and error deals

 

[fragmatic]

i think with proper cleaning and prefilter of some sort to catch the deitrus then it would work really well. i did something like that a few years back when i had my 75 reef set up. i had a chamber installed into my overflow drain tube filled with live rock it worked really well just had to really watch that it didn't clog up kinda one of those trial and error deals

I think the eco theory is fairly solid. I never did really work out at what volume to adjust the flow.. either, to give it a fair shot.

 

[.AcroKiller.]

One thing people don't know about bio pellets is that you have to feed your tank heavy once the pellets are established.

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[Hendogg0]

ive been doing bio-pellets for almost 2 years. i feed really heavy. but im only doing water changes once every 4 months with no issues.

 

[fragmatic]

One thing people don't know about bio pellets is that you have to feed your tank heavy once the pellets are established.

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This is true. It is another way to build up and keep a large community of bacteria. ..as I understand... which must be fed.
... but I do that by heavy feeding and no bio-pellet reactor.... too.

.. but... LOL... I am in the Feed Heavy camp anyway... so my vote there is moot.

It is interesting how many variations there are to the basic principals of keeping a healthy reef.
Then when you adjust for reasons it starts to get mighty gray. I am no one to push for colors, and am after an eco balance thing... I like colors but they are not high on my agenda. Others, perhaps most, are interested in colors. So, they and I, for example will come at this hobby from two different perspectives. I'm driven hard to find ways to extend the water change thing and am making some discoveries in that direction, but it is way to soon to start claiming I know anything worthwhile in that discipline.

Now after that trumpet blow.. I have to admit I have started to dose Brightwell's Koral Color, however it is more from a trace element perspective.. NOT... LOL. .. well, I guess that is somewhat true to be honest.