Biopellet Recommendation?

GoVols · Jan 13, 2017

"I painted all the ball valves and brackets to match the sumps black and white theme. I think it turned out pretty good."

Very, Very nice!

You've done a wonderful job

Thanks for sharing!

italquam · Jan 13, 2017

GoVols said:
+1 on full manifold picture.

To anyone out there:
I hope you have long term success with the biopellets. They just scare me personally over the long haul. Too many stories where things turn bad very quickly including watching my (lfs) main display. To me it's like buying a salt mix with a carbon source. If I feel the need to carbon dose, I'd rather used a more controlled source like NOPOX.

I'm a Rowaphas GFO junking and it controls my Phos.
I'm old school and still water change 18% (15 gallon) every week.
Bought the Aquamaxx Biomaxx XL reactor knowing from the beginning I would Mod it into a Purigen reactor.
Purigen complements my skimmer by absorbing organics in the water column before hitting the nitrogen cycle to lower nitrates. Purigen is not an nitrate absorber.

Between the GFO, Water changes and the Purigen reactor. My phos stays around .04ppm and nitrates a 3-4ppm. That's close enough for myself not to tinker with.

There's many ways to skin a rabbit. Once you lock into a way that works for you then stay with it

Any pictures of the modded Aquamaxx Purigen reactor??? How did you model it

GoVols · Jan 13, 2017

How do you like those Ecotech pumps?

GoVols · Jan 13, 2017

italquam said:
Any pictures of the modded Aquamaxx Purigen reactor??? How did you model it

That's a secret. (lol)

Give me a minute and I'll try to upload some pictures.

aquaman30k · Jan 13, 2017

GoVols said:
"I painted all the ball valves and brackets to match the sumps black and white theme. I think it turned out pretty good."

Very, Very nice!

You've done a wonderful job

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Many, many hours building out this build.

aquaman30k · Jan 13, 2017

GoVols said:
How do you like those Ecotech pumps?

Love them! Near silent. They are setup for redundancy so 1 runs the return and the other runs the manifold. The return pump is at 50% and the manifold is at 20%. Turn two valves and either can carry the whole system. At a slower speed they are below my hearing range. Lol

GoVols · Jan 14, 2017

Alright, I looked into the Spyglass for awhile and people were giving mixed reviews about Purigen clogging with the mess screen and the ball. So I started thinking of another (Simple) way to fluidize Purigen. Purigen is very light and has different micron sizes within the media.

So (#1) Find about the tallest media reactor that would fit outside my sump and still close the doors.
The taller the better to hold in the smallest particles at a high flow rate. If that makes sense.

So got to looking around at all brands and all their reactors. I found the Aquamaxx XL Biomaxx at Marine Depot and clicked on it.

When it popped up I started studying the bottom of the reactor. Noticed that at the bottom of the center tube it went into a round black manifold that shot water out side ways. Then noticed it had a solid bottom plate with spiraling groves cut in it to make bio pellets spin a lift like in a tornado.

Figure that would be better than a regular reactor that lifts water flow up after coming trough a sponge and a sponge will need to be rinsed.

So there is no filters or screens inside the reactor to clog

The last thing that is the (mod). Seachem's "The Bag" is made for Purigen and comes with a plastic adjustable ring that tightly closes "The Bag".

When you change the Purigen media "The Bag" will catch the most tiniest particles and they will stay in there polishing your water. The rest of the media stays down in the reactor. I put in 500ml and get 6 to eight weeks out of it easily. If you keep it in there too long it starts growing a nitrifying bacteria colony on the media. lol

My sump is no mater piece like yours but it gets the job done.

Top picture is the mod (lol) "The Bag" strapped locked to reactor out put hose in sump. Easy mod but very important.