GFO, Bio-pellets and Carbon

[Mike Yaniz]

Hi Everyone. I am curious to know would my tank benefit from running all 3 in different reactors.

 

[Jmas4]

I don't think there will be a negative side effect. However add the gfo, bio pellet and carbon slowly. Doing it too much at first might take away the nutrients in the water to fast and shock you corals.

 

[jsker]

Bio pellets are a type of carbon dosing, and you will not need to run another carbon. My only problem was that is ran the bio pellet to slow and this caused a release of hydrogen sulfide. Thus caused my system to crash. Bio Pellets run correctly at a tumble, works well. Bio Pellet do not lower phosphates

GFO is good for lowering phosphates

Carbon is good for cleaning the water and pulling out some of the nitrates.

I run GFO stacked in a reactor with carbon. I also dose a small amount of synthetic carbon and this keeps my nitrates in check. I feed heavy.

If you are looking to control you nitrates look at bio media like sprox, Life Bio fil, or a seeded bio media.

 

[Mike Yaniz]

Thanks for your response. Very helpful.

 

[lion king]

Check out the brs website they show different methods of using their reactors with gfo and carbon. I use to mix rox carbon and hi cap gfo in a single reactor. I find running bags of chemipure elite on a rack inbetween the baffle of my sump going into the pump section just as effective and so much easier.

Bio pellets is a whole other animal, didn't work for me. Do alot of research before you pull the trigger on that one. I dose nopox which is an easier more controlled method of carbon dosing

 

[mcarroll]

You should not run any of them on a new tank. Use them to control excess nutrients as needed. (This won't happen until fish are in the tank.)

Consider looking around at more tanks that use NO carbon-source or GFO and emulating their methods.