Biopellet Reactor?

[Kasey Grohowski]

Planning on getting a biopellet reactor for nitrate control. I read they best positioned before the protein skimmer to avoid cyano outbreaks. Anyone have success with them, or the other way around? Any tips on where to install them? Thank you.

 

[Pntbll687]

I ran mine with Dr Tim's bio pearls, and just had the return somewhere near the skimmer intake.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

I ran mine with Dr Tim's bio pearls, and just had the return somewhere near the skimmer intake.

Did it lower your nitrates?

 

[cojo8888]

Planning on getting a biopellet reactor for nitrate control. I read they best positioned before the protein skimmer to avoid cyano outbreaks. Anyone have success with them, or the other way around? Any tips on where to install them? Thank you.

I have biopellet reactor along with refugium. I have trouble raising nitrate and phosphate. I have to overfeed and no wc for 2weeks at least other wise I get 0 which is bad for everything.

 

[Montiman]

I use a lifeguard reactor with pellets in 3 tanks and it is awesome. Would recommend one to almost anyone.

Only problem is it is an aggressive form of filtration. In a tank like mine a 4ft tank with 6 tangs it is great in a lightly stocked tank you may run in to low nutrient issues. Fortunately the best way to fix this is more fish.[emoji3]

 

[Pntbll687]

Did it lower your nitrates?

It did. I was consistently over 40+ on nitrates while doing weekly water changes. The pearls took about six weeks or so to "culture" and see a reduction in nitrates. It got it down to around 10ppm on weekly testing. The only thing I messed up was adding too many pearls after a while. I had about a 1/3 of a conatainer left and it should have been used in two separate batches, but I put them all in at one shot. Nitrates bottomed out @ 0 and got some algae growing. I took out some pellets and after 4-5 weeks of above average feeding I got the nitrates back up to 10ppm.

I currently do not run bio pellets as I am getting ready to swap my tank over to a new one, and I removed all the equipment I could do without for the time being. I will run bio pellets again once the new tank is set up.

The main reason I like to run them instead of a fuge is because I don't need a light and I can run the reactor off a manifold. The less things I have to have plugged in the better.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

It did. I was consistently over 40+ on nitrates while doing weekly water changes. The pearls took about six weeks or so to "culture" and see a reduction in nitrates. It got it down to around 10ppm on weekly testing. The only thing I messed up was adding too many pearls after a while. I had about a 1/3 of a conatainer left and it should have been used in two separate batches, but I put them all in at one shot. Nitrates bottomed out @ 0 and got some algae growing. I took out some pellets and after 4-5 weeks of above average feeding I got the nitrates back up to 10ppm.

I currently do not run bio pellets as I am getting ready to swap my tank over to a new one, and I removed all the equipment I could do without for the time being. I will run bio pellets again once the new tank is set up.

The main reason I like to run them instead of a fuge is because I don't need a light and I can run the reactor off a manifold. The less things I have to have plugged in the better.

I read it is best to add the bio balls a quarter of the rated capacity of your tank at a time: i.e. 1 cup for a 200 gallon tank, and add a cup every week until you hit your mark.

 

[Pntbll687]

I read it is best to add the bio balls a quarter of the rated capacity of your tank at a time: i.e. 1 cup for a 200 gallon tank, and add a cup every week until you hit your mark.

that is correct, it's probably even less than that. And that is exactly how the instructions read, I just didnt follow them. I had just a tiny bit of pellets left and I thought "oh, these won't make a difference", yeah, they made a difference.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Mine worked great until my Purple Tang swam out and said what the heck! look like he was getting HLLE, so be careful how much you add, slow is better.

 

[ReeferBud]

I ran biopellets for several years and overall, I would not recommend it as a nutrient control method.

I felt the results were pretty random and difficult to understand how effectively it was really reducing nutrients. Like others commented, the pellets would get spent and then you’d need to add more and it would always alter my system and would either have NO3 spikes or drops.

I use a sulfur denitrator now and could not be happier.

Would recommend you research other methods such as carbon dosing and refugiums.

Oh, almost forgot, if you’re dead set on biopellets, I would be happy to sell you my reactor