I can tell you my experience with bio pellets...
First off, they are really easy to use, then just don't worry about it too much after that unless you're seeing something off in your tank. Frankly, if something isn't right in my tank, I start a check of everything that could cause potential harm, and I always check the BP reactor. A lot of people use the TLF phosban reactor, but that is the worst way to start. I have a Sicce Syncra pump providing the feed to the reactor, which is a Reef Octo that allows for pretty precise flow, then gravity feed back to sump and straight into skimmer.
So that's just a scratch on the surface. All BP reactors will consume some amount of phosphates, but they do it proportion to the Redfield Ratio. So it appears that the phosphates aren't being used while nitrates are dropping quickly. Either way, think of this like you did with carbon dosing; it removes PO4, just at rate less than that of NO3... You can, however, use all-in-one bio pellets, which reduces phosphates as well, in a manner like that of GFO. I'm not sure what's in the all-in-one BP's. It could be a small amount of GFO in the biopellets, I have no idea. All I can tell you is what has worked and what hasn't..
These bio pellets are incredibly good at what they do, but take their own form of maintenance, and you have to be careful to make sure your tank isn't happy. I've definitely lost some acros, but I can't say that it was lack of nutrients for sure. I was dosing Seachem flourish nitrogen and to a lesser degree, phosphorus. Measuring NO3 and PO4 is pretty critical and it won't happen overnight, but you can strip your tank pretty clean pretty quickly, and it always seems to catch me at the worst possible time. That for sure will cause acro issues.
Here's the simple answer to your question
@Triggreef : If you have experience keeping acros for any length of time, and have a husbrandy schedule pretty much down to a science, bio pellets will work and you'll love 'em. If the only reason why you want to try them is that they are easier to use and won't take much time, then they ain't gonna work. I could go on about what they have done for me, but if you want, feel free to PM me and I'll answer any questions that you have.
Tips:
- If you use the all in one pellets, then get a more powerful pump than what is recommended.
- Test your water for NO3 and PO4 regularly, not every day, but once a week would be fine, and then just watch your tank. I think that this is one of the main reasons why a lot of people say that bio pellets are only for experienced reefers...
- Watch alkalinity closely, and not high (I'd say above 9). High alk and low nutrients is definitely a recipe for disaster.
- Know what you will do if you get an alk reading that's high or low, try to find a correlation between alk, NO3 and PO4 levels so you start looking at patterns within your system to keep from X, Y, or Z happening (be it STN, skeleton growing white at the base, RTN, etc). If I could do it all over again, I would have used one of the phone apps to track parameters.
- Biopellets are great as long as one doesn't chase numbers so much. If your tank is doing well but has a little bit more phosphate than you would like, it's probably OK, same with the reverse of that. That's not really at all what the issue is, but people seem to want to blame biopellets rather than a simple husbandry issue.
- Final tip: You should be, for all intents and purposes, simply taking eyeball parameters instead of water parameters. That said, that's one of the reasons why I like biopellets is that they don't require human interaction (I can pay attention to the tank), and then your own eyes and intuition that can see if there is something off or not, high or low nutrients, alk etc, salinity. Essentially, it comes down to your own knowledge of reef systems, intuition, care, and most important, knowing what to do when the bio pellets have stripped your water to zero and it looks like your corals are super upset, etc. I'm free to chat by PM if you want to know something more specific.
Hope this helped a bit..
Lloyd
