Offical Eco-Bak Thread

.AcroKiller. · Feb 13, 2013

Dowtish Im on the 4th week with the dr tim np active pearls and im happy with them I started the tank with npx pellets and went trough two 16 ounce dose of special blend. I stop dosing special blend since I started the pearls should I keep dosing it.

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Dowtish · Feb 13, 2013

There is no reason to continue dosing it, if you dont want to. The only reason I dosed it initially was because I was trying to get rid of some cyano in the tank. But it really never hurts to dose it and MB7 on a regular basis just to keep a good diverse amount of good bacteria in the tank.

.AcroKiller. · Feb 13, 2013

Dowtish said:
There is no reason to continue dosing it, if you dont want to. The only reason I dosed it initially was because I was trying to get rid of some cyano in the tank. But it really never hurts to dose it and MB7 on a regular basis just to keep a good diverse amount of good bacteria in the tank.

Cool

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shellynjason · Feb 14, 2013

Thanks Chris - I got the idea of using the Eheim from one of your build posts. I will get a proper reactor when I get the stand/sump done but this is a quick temp solution. I do have ball values so I will play with that. Should recieve the Ecobak and bacteria any day now. My phospates read .39 on a hanna checker so really need a quick solution. I currently have two eheims with cloth bags in each with the phosguard stuff and got the phospates down from .89 three weeks ago so ecobak should do the trick to get it even lower.

gmoney243 · Feb 14, 2013

Ecobak or any biopellets will take time.to sstart working. I would use gfo to get your phos down in the meantime. It will take several months from now for ecobak to kick in and reduce those phosphates but it does a great job of keeping them low. GFO will reduce them overnight. Ecobak is mostly for nitrates but also gets rid of phosphate as a side benefit.

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Dowtish · Feb 14, 2013

gmoney243 said:
Ecobak or any biopellets will take time.to sstart working. I would use gfo to get your phos down in the meantime. It will take several months from now for ecobak to kick in and reduce those phosphates but it does a great job of keeping them low. GFO will reduce them overnight. Ecobak is mostly for nitrates but also gets rid of phosphate as a side benefit.

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This is all true. Except I wouldnt say several months. 6 weeks at the most before you see great results.

shellynjason · Feb 14, 2013

Interesting ... I assumed Ecobak was mostly for Phospates. My nitrates are zero right now, mainly from a small diatom outbreak after the new T5 lights were put on the tank. Every day the algae is less and less (and just on the glass) and nitrates are still at zero.

My Pink Birdsnest looks great , sharp white tips and lots of new tips sprouting (over the last three weeks in this tank) - which signals low nitrates too.

It's the phosphates that are fighting me. I didn't want to buy GFO if I could just use Ecobak long term. hmmmm

Dowtish · Feb 14, 2013

What test kits are you using for Nitrates and Phosphates?

shellynjason · Feb 15, 2013

I use the ATI kit for Nitrates, and always had nits. in th 20pm range until this algae outbreak from the new lights.

For phospates I use the hanna checker and it read .40 last night from my DT. The ATI phospate checker reads zero, obviously wrong. I used the Hanna to check my water change buckets (ro/di w/salt mixed) and it read zero, so it appaers accurate.

.AcroKiller. · Feb 15, 2013

Are mangroove good at removing phosphates??

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Dowtish · Feb 15, 2013

I have read that you need one mangrove per gallon to see any real nutrient reduction. So unless you have room, and a lot of money to spend on mangroves I would look for an alternative method.

.AcroKiller. · Feb 15, 2013

So for the guys using bio pellets do you guys just run bio pellets and skimmer with no refugium or gfo.

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sluicebox · Feb 15, 2013

iiluisii said:
So for the guys using bio pellets do you guys just run bio pellets and skimmer with no refugium or gfo.

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I run biopellets with just a skimmer. In my 75 gallon, NO3 is zero and PO4 is stays around 0.025 ppm. On the 150 gallon tank, the NO3 is at 2 ppm and the PO4 is about 0.030. The nitrates have never been very high in either tank and the phosphates are down from around 0.15 ppm at the max. I started biopellets soon after the tanks were set up in each case.

.AcroKiller. · Feb 15, 2013

sluicebox said:
I run biopellets with just a skimmer. In my 75 gallon, NO3 is zero and PO4 is stays around 0.025 ppm. On the 150 gallon tank, the NO3 is at 2 ppm and the PO4 is about 0.030. The nitrates have never been very high in either tank and the phosphates are down from around 0.15 ppm at the max. I started biopellets soon after the tanks were set up in each case.

Do you have a lot of fish

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