BioPellets, Aquaforest, and PH

[re76]

What sort of modifications should one make to the AF system if I want to run Biopellets instead of NP pro?

I have been dosing Coral ABVE and Pro Bio S, along with Components A, B, and C for about two weeks now.

I haven't measured Nitrates yet but last time I measured Phosphate I was at 0.02. I feed really light already so my nutrients were not a problem to begin with. I haven't measured Nitrates recently but last time I did I was at about 0.5 ppm.

Everything seems to be going well so far, but for some reason since starting the bacterial dosing my PH has been lower than it was before. I assumed that eventually it would stabilize to a higher value again. Previously it sat around 8 to 8.1 but since I started the AF system along with Pro Bio S I have been between 7.8 to 7.9.

Any idea why this might be? This is my third week since starting the AF system. I have been using half of the recommended doses for everything.

 

[Anirban]

As far my knowledge and user experience goes I will say you can use biopellet with AF but there are different views on that topic. Some people like me will say you can do it without issues but other school of people will say don't as it can lead towards cyano. So it's your call to add biopellet in a reactor or just few drops of NP Pro.
pH can fluctuate a bit depeding on a lot of things. But if I assume everything is same except the introduction of AF then generally it takes a bit time for the system to adjust to a new process. Wait for a couple of week and then we can start playing with few things to bring it back up if in case it's not back up by its own.

 

[djd3mon]

following

 

[re76]

As far my knowledge and user experience goes I will say you can use biopellet with AF but there are different views on that topic. Some people like me will say you can do it without issues but other school of people will say don't as it can lead towards cyano. So it's your call to add biopellet in a reactor or just few drops of NP Pro.
pH can fluctuate a bit depeding on a lot of things. But if I assume everything is same except the introduction of AF then generally it takes a bit time for the system to adjust to a new process. Wait for a couple of week and then we can start playing with few things to bring it back up if in case it's not back up by its own.

No issues with Cyano so far. I have been manually dosing sodium carbonate daily to keep my Alkalinity at 8 dKH. I measure and supplement calcium about once a week to keep it in the 400-430 range. I have a Neptune DOS on it's way to automate the 2 part additions.

 

[Anirban]

No issues with Cyano so far. I have been manually dosing sodium carbonate daily to keep my Alkalinity at 8 dKH. I measure and supplement calcium about once a week to keep it in the 400-430 range. I have a Neptune DOS on it's way to automate the 2 part additions.

If you can do it simply with NP Pro then use it but if you really want a reactor and biopellet then you can try that too.

 

[jsker]

I ran bio pellets with AF and had no issue, until I slowed down the bio pellets on a recommendation and my system crashed. Now that being said, I have been running without bio pellets since November 21st 2016 and my tank has never looked better. After the bio pellets were taken off line I ran zevoit until I replaced the zevoit with Life Bio fil 2 weeks ago.

 

[re76]

I ran bio pellets with AF and had no issue, until I slowed down the bio pellets on a recommendation and my system crashed. Now that being said, I have been running without bio pellets since November 21st 2016 and my tank has never looked better. After the bio pellets were taken off line I ran zevoit until I replaced the zevoit with Life Bio fil 2 weeks ago.

Do you have any guess as to why slowing them down caused the crash? What were you trying to achieve by slowing them down?

 

[jsker]

Do you have any guess as to why slowing them down caused the crash? What were you trying to achieve by slowing them down?

Basically the pellets were run so slow the started releasing hydrogen sulfide into the system causing a dye off of about 20 frags. From what I was told, is if I slow the pellets down I would have better results.

Would I run pellets again, sure. As I stated earlier right now the system I looking great without the pellets[emoji4]

 

[re76]

Basically the pellets were run so slow the started releasing hydrogen sulfide into the system causing a dye off of about 20 frags. From what I was told, is if I slow the pellets down I would have better results.

Would I run pellets again, sure. As I stated earlier right now the system I looking great without the pellets[emoji4]

I am definitely considering ditching the pellets. I'm going to give them a few more weeks and see what happens.

I measured nitrates tonight and got a 0 reading using a Red Sea test. I knew they were low but wouldn't have guessed that low. I'm going to start feeding heavier and see if I can get them back up a bit.

 

[jsker]

I am definitely considering ditching the pellets. I'm going to give them a few more weeks and see what happens.

I measured nitrates tonight and got a 0 reading using a Red Sea test. I knew they were low but wouldn't have guessed that low. I'm going to start feeding heavier and see if I can get them back up a bit.

I have always feed heavy, and that was one of the reason that I went with the bio pellets to bring down my nitrates and to get rid of a green hair algae out break. I still feed heavy. I try to keep my nitrates between 8 and 12 on the Red Sea high side and my phosphates between .02 and .04 Red Sea. I am playing around with the AF Life Bio Fil, as of now it seem to be keeping my NO3's in line and I am also running 4 table spoons of GFO and a Cup a Carbon in my system.

 

[re76]

I have always feed heavy, and that was one of the reason that I went with the bio pellets to bring down my nitrates and to get rid of a green hair algae out break. I still feed heavy. I try to keep my nitrates between 8 and 12 on the Red Sea high side and my phosphates between .02 and .04 Red Sea. I am playing around with the AF Life Bio Fil, as of now it seem to be keeping my NO3's in line and I am also running 4 table spoons of GFO and a Cup a Carbon in my system.

I have seen the life bio fil but I am still unsure what exactly it is. Is it just a ceramic media? I have some marine pure blocks in my sump. Would they serve the same purpose?

Now that I mention that, maybe I should remove those to help get nitrates up.

 

[jsker]

Here is a link to the Life Bio Fil, and to answer you question yes and no. I pull my Marine Pure out after starting Bife Bio Fil and I am still in the wait and see process. So far I am having a better result the the pellets and Marine Pure.

 

[re76]

Here is a link to the Life Bio Fil, and to answer you question yes and no. I pull my Marine Pure out after starting Bife Bio Fil and I am still in the wait and see process. So far I am having a better result the the pellets and Marine Pure.

Ok so that reads like it is a "seeded" ceramic media. Meaning it already has good strains of bacteria in it when you buy it. Unlike marine pure which is just dead and needs to cycle just like anything else.

 

[Anirban]

Ok so that reads like it is a "seeded" ceramic media. Meaning it already has good strains of bacteria in it when you buy it. Unlike marine pure which is just dead and needs to cycle just like anything else.

Yes you are right, its a pre seeded media so you dont need to wait. But you can run it with marin pure too.

 

[Adamc13o3]

I ran Aqua Forest with a BP reactor. I didn't have any cyano. To stay on the safe side why not leave the BP reactor on until the pellets are totally finished or almost finished. I switched over to Vinegar dosing and still have the reactor going just not to make any changes that can hurt. Regarding PH I too have a majorly low PH since I began carbon dosing. I have done so many thing to try to get it up. I used a CO2 scrubber which didn't help at all, I now have my skimmer air intake outdoors and I changed the light cycle on my frag tank to be reversed. I even went back to dosing talk and cut back on my 2 part to supplement. Nothing seems to work. If you find any other solutions please update this thread so I can try my hand at them.

 

[re76]

I ran Aqua Forest with a BP reactor. I didn't have any cyano. To stay on the safe side why not leave the BP reactor on until the pellets are totally finished or almost finished. I switched over to Vinegar dosing and still have the reactor going just not to make any changes that can hurt. Regarding PH I too have a majorly low PH since I began carbon dosing. I have done so many thing to try to get it up. I used a CO2 scrubber which didn't help at all, I now have my skimmer air intake outdoors and I changed the light cycle on my frag tank to be reversed. I even went back to dosing talk and cut back on my 2 part to supplement. Nothing seems to work. If you find any other solutions please update this thread so I can try my hand at them.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that had no luck with the CO2 scrubbing. I have actually started running kalk to combat the low ph. I'm really hoping that it will eventually stabilize.

 

[Adamc13o3]

This is where I am at right now! My ALK and Calcium uptake has decreased tremendously. I usually have a low of 7.65 and high of 7.8 but I did a prazzi treatment yesterday. Before the carbon dosing my low was a 7.95 and high of 8.2 without doing anything at all! The corals do not look affected though. They just aren't growing at all.

 

[re76]

This is where I am at right now! My ALK and Calcium uptake has decreased tremendously. I usually have a low of 7.65 and high of 7.8 but I did a prazzi treatment yesterday. Before the carbon dosing my low was a 7.95 and high of 8.2 without doing anything at all! The corals do not look affected though. They just aren't growing at all.

With the kalk I am able to keep the ph up near 8. I'm not sure how low it would drop if I stopped the kalk. I have noticed an increase in alk consumption since I started the kalk with the aqua forest.

So much that I just ordered a Neptune DOS to start running 2 part along with the kalk. For the past week I have just been making manual sodium carbonate additions to keep it stable. I'm also still using the CO2 scrubber despite that it seems to be doing very little.

Right now I am up to 1.5 tsp of sodium carbonate throughout the day AND using fully saturated kalk in my ATO. My tank isn't even heavily stocked. The few sps frags I have (the ones that I didn't kill from accidentally stripping nutrients too quickly when starting biopellet a) are encrusting like crazy.

So I think I am on the right track. I just want to keep things stable for a few weeks and then make adjustments.

 

[BlueCursor]

When I was running carbon pellets I had four issues:

1. System used a lot of Alk but I could never get dKh above 7.5 even when adding a lot.
2. I had to dose potassium chloride because the bacteria sucked up a lot of potassium, which went out the skimmer.
3. Diatoms were a constant problem.
4. pH was always 7.8 - 7.9 no matter what I tried.

Now I dose ethanol and don't experience any of the previous issue.

 

[re76]

When I was running carbon pellets I had four issues:

1. System used a lot of Alk but I could never get dKh above 7.5 even when adding a lot.
2. I had to dose potassium chloride because the bacteria sucked up a lot of potassium, which went out the skimmer.
3. Diatoms were a constant problem.
4. pH was always 7.8 - 7.9 no matter what I tried.

Now I dose ethanol and don't experience any of the previous issue.

I am experiencing 1 and 4 in your list exactly. Haven't measured potassium so that MIGHT be happening. Haven't seen diatoms yet.

Any idea what brand of biopellets you're using? I can't imagine that everyone who uses biopellets has these issues, I feel like there has to be a common thread here.