Biopellets in new tank

goody · Jan 16, 2012

Upgrading to a 150g and have all new sand and rock. I have been running ecobak pellets on my 90g for over a year. I never added any MB7 when I started using these on my last tank, but that was a 4 year mature system. I just added slowly over a period of time. Do I need to do anything special for running these pellets in this new system?

Dowtish · Jan 16, 2012

According to jon warner, they can be offline for no more than 8 hours, before the bacteria will die off. Just keep them in the reactor when you switch it over and you should be fine. And if you feel like they need to be rinsed off, always use fresh saltwater to do it.

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goody · Jan 16, 2012

Dowtish said:
According to jon warner, they can be offline for no more than 8 hours, before the bacteria will die off. Just keep them in the reactor when you switch it over and you should be fine. And if you feel like they need to be rinsed off, always use fresh saltwater to do it.

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Thanks, but what about lack of bacteria in the tank since all sand and live rock are new? Should I dose MB7? Or just put biopellets in reactor and run during cycle period?

Dowtish · Jan 17, 2012

Adding microbacter wont hurt at all, but that's not going to effect the bio pellets either way. Imagine the pellets as a seperate substrate for bacteria to feed specifically on nitrates and phosphates.

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Dowtish · Jan 17, 2012

Look up "official ecobak" on 3reef.com, Jon Warner will personally answer any questions you have.

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goody · Jan 30, 2012

Dowtish said:
Look up "official ecobak" on 3reef.com, Jon Warner will personally answer any questions you have.

sent from chris using my unsmart phone

Thanks for this information, but unfortunately, Jon is not answering my questions. So, do I just start with the pellets during cycling period? Should I run gfo in addition? If so, for how long?