bio pellets and prodibio

[Vmacisback]

i am really looking for an answer here. I currently have a new tank with nitrates at about 25ppm and phos at about .12. I am thinking about running wm ecobak pellets ina reactor but i have also been using prodibio biodigest and bioptim. Can you use these 3 safely together? I plan on keeping a lot of fish but my system is sps dom. I am hopiing for a clear answer or just evidence to support just running one or the other. Thanks. I know i can keep po4 down with GFO but not nitrates. This is why i am wondering if the addition of pellets will work for the nitrate and prodibio for the phos and to feed and add more bacteria to the system.

 

[creefer]

I've been searching for this because I read an article about sing the two together. I can't find that article now. I've been using them together and have not had any issues with the health of my SPS. Color and growth have been very good. I do have other issues that I'm fighting right now, but I can't attribute them to the addition of prodibio because the issues were there prior to the start of prodibio. It's only been a couple months for me on prodibion + ecobak.

Hope to hear others chime in.

 

[ReefHero]

I am currently dosing prodibio's BioDigest and biooptim.....I am not currently running any pellets......I am only running GFO and carbon.....I have thought about running some pellets but my nitrate and po4 are usually a zero reading.....sometimes a day or two after I do a big feeding to my coral with lights out the po4 has gone up to 0.02 or so but nothing big..... I would also like to see others comment on this.

 

[KSzegi]

I'm running ecobak pellets along with biodigest and bioptim. I've had great luck with the two together - I ran the pellets alone for a couple months but couldn't quite kick the cyano and was still running gfo - although the pellets really did help the po4, just couldn't quite seem to get it all. I increased the flow to the pellets and began adding biodigest and bioptim - I've taken my gfo offline to give it a try, have not run any in about 5 weeks now. PO4 is not zero - but it is fairly stable at about .03 to .05.... and that works for me. I've also increased feeding during that time.

 

[Vmacisback]

awesome responses thank you!

 

[Vmacisback]

who runs gfo with pellets?

 

[creefer]

I'd like to kick this back up. I'm interested in hearing more about people's experiences. I can say, as mentioned above, I have issues. Since I've started prodibio plus biopellets, the issues have not gotten better, maybe even slightly worse. That said though, I have great color on my SPS and decent growth.

 

[DaveMorris]

We brought Marc Levinson out to San Diego to speak to our club and he talked some about the success he has had using the pellets with Prodibio. He likes it a lot and has been happy with the combination. I am in the very slow process of building a 129g tank and I will be using Prodibio with bio pellets from the get go.

 

[Vmacisback]

We brought Marc Levinson out to San Diego to speak to our club and he talked some about the success he has had using the pellets with Prodibio. He likes it a lot and has been happy with the combination. I am in the very slow process of building a 129g tank and I will be using Prodibio with bio pellets from the get go.

Thanks for posting as i still think this is a great topic with a big impact on people trying to reach and sustain ULNS tanks.

Some of my questions have been answered byt some still loom. I am currently using the combo of pellets and prodibio. I dont have much to add because i only started a week ago. Hoping though that because i have always used prodibio colonization on the pellets will happen faster...doubtful. I would like to add though that pellets can be tricky once they really do strart working. I saw my nitrate levels drop but my phos stayed steadily to high for my liking. I then added both GFO and carbon and overnight nuked my tank. All my sps was bone white to the skeleton. Some corals recovered and i once again added gfo but no carbon and had better results with no dead corals.

I am hoping this time around on my new tank that prodibio and pellets and will just be enough in order to get rid of the chaeto in the fuge and take the gfo offline. As i am currently running pellets and gfo, which i still am having to change in order to keep my phos at a decent level around .10. I do see a drop in phos when i added the prodibio but it is short lived. Hope my mistakes help someone and that it should be known that carbon, gfo and pellets combined is overkill...literally

 

[Vmacisback]

I'd like to kick this back up. I'm interested in hearing more about people's experiences. I can say, as mentioned above, I have issues. Since I've started prodibio plus biopellets, the issues have not gotten better, maybe even slightly worse. That said though, I have great color on my SPS and decent growth.

Creefer,

I am somewhat confused but interested in your post. What do you mean by "gotten worse"? Phos levels? Nitrate levels? How long have you been running pellets? I read that you only need the Biodigest and not the bioptim in order to help seed and fuel the pellets. I run Ecobak and Tom Warner wrote me saying that Prodibio was a good thing to add when running pellets. Also if your coral looks good and you are having good growth what seems to be the problem? Isnt that what we are all striving for? Have you reached ULNS with pellets yet?

 

[Laborator]

I have been running BP and prodibio for 6 mos now on a heavily stocked 120 it maintains my Nitrates at 20 ppm and phos at 0.04.

 

[Vmacisback]

I have been running BP and prodibio for 6 mos now on a heavily stocked 120 it maintains my Nitrates at 20 ppm and phos at 0.04.

20ppm seems high if the pellets are actually doing their job. How much pellts do you run? Phos seems like its working with the pellets but usually its the other way around with the nitrates being near zero and the phos still being sort of high. Are you running Ecobak? Do you use GFO?

 

[Laborator]

20ppm seems high if the pellets are actually doing their job. How much pellts do you run? Phos seems like its working with the pellets but usually its the other way around with the nitrates being near zero and the phos still being sort of high. Are you running Ecobak? Do you use GFO?

I'm using 700 ml of WM Ecobak on a Reef Octopus Biochurn 120-int I recently removed the GFO as a friend suggested and it dropped the phos from 0.10 to 0.4 ppm since nitrates need to consume phospate from what I'm told and sure enough 2 weeks later it dropped.

I also learned that using BP is not a substitute for good husbandry so I reduced feeding and increased water changes the last 2 weeks and will do water test this weekend, and did I mention I have a very heavy bioload : )

 

[Damon]

I'm not sure what the probio is, but as long as it's a bacteria innoculation, you have to be careful when using pellets. Very, very careful! The thing about pellets is that it's an adjustable and live animal population filter. Once you understand that, and I don't think most people do, it helps a great deal.

I run pellets and gfo to get a ulns. My levels are No3-.02, Po4-.01. If I didn't run gfo, my levels of Po4-.05. I only add bacteria (ecobak) twice a month(6 drops)for keeping my bacteria population up due to possible loss from filtration, etc. I also run a recirculation reactor, which is much easier and more effective, to adjust and really control your levels, making sure that you are only pulling the right amount of nutrients. I also test once a week for phosphate level for gfo life. I have been running this setup since February, and the only drop off I had was an experiment that went a little off in May. That was when I began using the ecobak. Since then, it's just been deciding where I want my Po4 to be.

I do not run carbon at all, but when I did, it was only spot polishing. Like 8 hours max, and it was a very mild carbon. Brs lignite was even too strong to be in there f four more than 24 hours. Right now, I am trying out Purigen as an experiment versus the carbon.

It's really easy to (at least on my system) overdo things as far as bacteria, so less is actually better as far as dosing for me. I found that a lot of times, in the beginning, I would dose something, then the bacteria would kick in, and pull much more than I thought it would. I always did doses in moderation, but it was much more effective than the dose stated, so I then had to adjust for that.

But for me, it's great not having to worry about nitrate, phosphate, and having great color and growth. I have never had this success before with any other filtration methodology or combination.

I also feed everyday, at least once or twice with approx 3 (6 if 2x a day) pinches of pellets or 5 grams of frozen (the frozen is more of a treat). I also feed a full sheet(i believe they are 6x6 sheets) of nori every other day on top of the pellets or frozen.

Sent from Note 2 on Tap 4

 

[Electrobes]

I think it needs to be specified a to what parts of Prodibio people are using. For instance, I think most people are talking about the combo of BioDigest and Bioptim.

As to using both Prodibio and BioPellets.. this kinda confuses me. Essentially, Bioptim and BioPellets are the same thing... food for the bacteria. I can understand BioDigest and BioPellets being used together, one's the bacteria and the other food for the bacteria.

I currently use Prodibio via the BioDigest and the Bioptim (I think it's called the BioClean package). My reason, as opposed to using BioPellets? I don't have the room for the equipment required to run BioPellets, so this regimen works out well for me. I'm dosing it for the third time since I started (Today) so it's been a month, and thus far I am happy. Honestly, results aren't expected until about four to six weeks after starting, but I feel like it's working as my skimmer started tossing out some nastier stuff than usual about a week ago (Three weeks since starting Prodibio).

I also have Reef Booster, and their version of Iodine and Strontium, all of which I do not use. (I won the combo in a raffle). I mention this because this is also a Prodibio product.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Laborator]

I'm using 700 ml of WM Ecobak on a Reef Octopus Biochurn 120-int I recently removed the GFO as a friend suggested and it dropped the phos from 0.10 to 0.4 ppm since nitrates need to consume phospate from what I'm told and sure enough 2 weeks later it dropped.

I also learned that using BP is not a substitute for good husbandry so I reduced feeding and increased water changes the last 2 weeks and will do water test this weekend, and did I mention I have a very heavy bioload : )

For clarification I'm using the the bio clean kit which is the bioptim and bio digest.