Biopellet journey begins

jopo43 · Nov 14, 2011

My tank - 120G 48X24X24 -

I have joined the bio pellet war. I have changed out my Zeovit reactor for the Octopus BR 110 have 2 cups of BRS bio pellets and it is moving well. I am going to still dose some zeovit stuff so we will see how it goes. I added it Sunday not much change yet it will take a while.
I did take some rock out of the main tank and put it in the sump been following SunnyX thread.
Jopo

tike · Nov 14, 2011

Interested to see the progress of this thread. I dose vodka and have been wanting to do bio pellets to get away from the daily dosing,but some threads i've read have scared me from doing it! YEAH go ahead......CALL ME CHICKEN!:bigsmile:

donfishy · Nov 14, 2011

sweet! following this tread, i too have the bag of biopellets, a a PM media reactor, but have yet to take the plunge, maybe tomorrow

Chris L · Nov 15, 2011

I have also just started Saturday. I'm using a TLF 150 and starting at 1/2 cup of pellets. Its a fairly new tank started with using what i had in my 15 gallon. Dosing 2 cap fulls of MB7 daily for the 1st 2 weeks.

donfishy · Nov 15, 2011

can you run the biopellets along with carbon? not in the same rector mind you, but in the same system at least?

jopo43 · Nov 15, 2011

Carbon

Yes you can run the carbon at the same time. I have carbon in another canister running.

jopo43 · Nov 15, 2011

Update
The tank seems to be clearing up after being a little cloudy which I hear is common. Last night the sps looked real happy. Will take some pics and try and post them tonight along with full tank setup details.

donfishy · Nov 15, 2011

glad to hear it

akaimal · Nov 15, 2011

Make sure that u keep up potassium and iodide levels.. Otherwise corals will start bleaching..

donfishy · Nov 16, 2011

Do you rinse the biopellets before adding them to the reactor?

jopo43 · Nov 17, 2011

Bio

I soaked the biopellets in ro/di water for 24 hours.
The pellets didn't really move as well in the canister for about 2 hours though. They are moving well now.

donfishy · Nov 17, 2011

curious, why did you soak them overnight like that?

xcorallusx · Nov 17, 2011

soaking them in tank water helps I've heard

donfishy · Nov 17, 2011

helps what though?

jopo43 · Nov 17, 2011

I read it helps making them stay at the bottom of the reactor better to start with.

jopo43 · Nov 21, 2011

Yesterday was one week and the tank continues to look better and better.

jopo43 · Dec 11, 2011

I am almost 4 weeks into the journey. Corals look pretty good but I have a huge outbreak of CYANO I am debating using redslime control by Blue Vet.
Any advice or thoughts??
Joe

sanchoy · Dec 11, 2011

Hey Joe,

I tested and tried the bio-pellet experiment for 8 months. I was plagued with cyano during the last 7 months which resulted in me ceasing my bio-pellet experiment. At first things same to turn for the best, then after 1 month into the experiment my water appeared to be thick, with sludge at the top of the surface. It was not my flow, because my system house 1 MP60 and 2 MP40 which is more then enough flow for my tank.

At first, i tried to do water changes in hope that things will get better. But to no avail i was very dissapointed in bio-pellets. I went back to my old manual vinegar/vodka routine and the tank looks better then ever.