Offical Eco-Bak Thread

[schooleyosis]

Thanks Chris. B ordered 2 nozzles today so that he and I both can do the mod. I should get my reactor next week. The pump came in the mail yesterday. Should be running Ecobak very soon!!!

 

[MattL22]

For those of you using bacteria additive how often are you using it??

 

[MattL22]

G money I have had good sucess with the green spots i had 2 eating mysis shrimp with in few weeks in my 75 gal
So I'm gonna get 2 tiny ones and hopefully they will pair up ! If the tank is healthy I feel they will eat mysis after few weeks until then maybe I can get live brine

 

[sluicebox]

I've been running 500 ml Eco-Bak in a Reef Dynamics reactor since 10/15 on my tank. It is a 150 gallon display with a 25 gallon sump. With volume taken up by rock and equipment, I've been estimating the volume at 150 gallon. I began with 250 ml and increased to 500 after three weeks. I know I need to increase the bio-pellets to 750 ml eventually to the prescribed dose.

My Nitrates have been running 1.5-2.0 ppm in the tank. However, this morning I had the bright idea to test the nitrates on the effluent from the reactor and compare that with the concentration in the tank. To my surprise, both returned the same results for nitrate at 2.0 ppm. Shouldn't the effluent from the reactor effluent be lower than the tank? Have I not given it sufficient time to begin working? Should I increase the bio-pellets to 750 ml now? The Reef Dynamics reactor allows me to adjust the flow through the reactor...should I increase the flow?

Or, should I have more patience and not worry about it just yet?

 

[gmoney243]

hey bob it sounds like you have enough flow through the reactor if the numbers both match. whats your phos reading? i would want to know that before i added more pellets. your nitrates are fine so if your phos are in the .03-.05 range then i wouldnt add any pellets and leave it as is.

 

[sluicebox]

hey bob it sounds like you have enough flow through the reactor if the numbers both match. whats your phos reading? i would want to know that before i added more pellets. your nitrates are fine so if your phos are in the .03-.05 range then i wouldnt add any pellets and leave it as is.

My Phosphates are at 0.025. Thanks for the advice. I'll leave as is for now.

 

[gmoney243]

yea if you were to add more pellets you would strip all the phos out and that wouldnt be good for corals. if you have a fuge or anywhere to add chaeto algae and a light you could try that to lower nitrates by a little. but as is id say ur params are good man well enough to keep sps thats for sure.

 

[MattL22]

Hi guys ! So I'm running a little over 1/4 bottle 250ml bottle ecobak been about 3 weeks about 4-5 days ago I started getting black/ red cyano not out of control or stringy but its enough !
Now I was supposed to add another 1/4 the ecobak bottle pellets according to directions!
So should I still add the other 1/4 of pellets or just leave it for now??
I'm adding fritz live bacteria once - twice a week with water change!
Right now I only have 3 sm baby fish in tank
Thanks for help
Matt

 

[Dowtish]

Bob, I would say that in just 3 weeks you havent even began to see the effects of the bacteria colonizing. What were your phos and nitrates before starting the pellets? You need to keep a log of how fast they drop, so like Mike said, you dont strip the tank too fast. If you think its dropping too fast, slow the tumble of the pellets.

 

[Dowtish]

Hi guys ! So I'm running a little over 1/4 bottle 250ml bottle ecobak been about 3 weeks about 4-5 days ago I started getting black/ red cyano not out of control or stringy but its enough !
Now I was supposed to add another 1/4 the ecobak bottle pellets according to directions!
So should I still add the other 1/4 of pellets or just leave it for now??
I'm adding fritz live bacteria once - twice a week with water change!
Right now I only have 3 sm baby fish in tank
Thanks for help
Matt

Matt how old is your tank? Is it a new setup?

 

[MattL22]

Hi Dow

Yes it is new setup I set up after storm so tank was set up 3 weeks ago with already live established rock and the ecobak was started with tank!

 

[MattL22]

Will water changes or adding more bacteria be a good idea?

I'm not sure but seemed like the cyano increased a bit with addition of the fritz LIve bacteria ? Can this happen should I back off of the bacteria for a bit??

I will do a 5 gal water change tomorrow hopefully that helps

 

[sluicebox]

Bob, I would say that in just 3 weeks you havent even began to see the effects of the bacteria colonizing. What were your phos and nitrates before starting the pellets? You need to keep a log of how fast they drop, so like Mike said, you dont strip the tank too fast. If you think its dropping too fast, slow the tumble of the pellets.

Chris,

Since setting up the tank in May, my phosphates and nitrates have never been very high. I do keep a log of all my testing and the PO4 has never been above 0.05 ppm and the NO3 has never been above 3 ppm. You might ask then why start biopellets???? I like to experiment with new toys and I wanted to be proactive. So, that's how I started biopelllets. I also had a real good experience with biopellets in my old tank that I just rebuilt. What I glean from your and Mike's input is...."don't worry, be happy" for now....continue to watch closely to make sure things don't get out of hand.

I need to work more on stablizing my Alk to tighter variations closer to 8 dKH so that I can keep the SPS corals with the eco-bak. Also, I may need a little more flow. Right now I have 35-40 turnovers/hour through the RSM S650 and need to get up to 50-60 or so...would you agree?

 

[gmoney243]

Flow is fine sps don't require a ton but can handle a ton. I get good PE with nice gentle flow I'm only running about 30x tops turnover

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dowtish]

Will water changes or adding more bacteria be a good idea?

I'm not sure but seemed like the cyano increased a bit with addition of the fritz LIve bacteria ? Can this happen should I back off of the bacteria for a bit??

I will do a 5 gal water change tomorrow hopefully that helps

Matt-

Your bio-pellets have nothing to do with the cyano and algae problems that you are seeing. This is just what happens in the first few months of a new setup, regardless of parameters. Give it some time, and it will clear up. WC's are always good, but early on, I wouldnt go too overboard with them. Adding bacteria to the system will help as well.

 

[sluicebox]

Flow is fine sps don't require a ton but can handle a ton. I get good PE with nice gentle flow I'm only running about 30x tops turnover

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

Thanks. Flow is definitely a secondary issue for me.