SPS and Biopellets

[WesF]

Why does everyone stop using biopellets? Does the biopellets stop removing phosphate or something?

I stopped using ecobak because i was unable to keep phosphate down without using GFO. Since I never had a. Issue with nitrates and ecobak did not eliminate the need for GFO, I discontinued the pellets. I gave it about a tear before I finally gave up on waiting for it to start working.

 

[Jon Warner]

there is a reationship between phosphates and nitrates, biopellets consume more nitrates to phosphates at about a 16/1 ratio and once the nitrate level gets eliminated the bacteria start to die off, since they are not needed and thats when the phosphate level will rise. To combat this you can dose phosphates to keep the bacteria colony up.

Corals do need a certain amount of nitrates and phosphates to survive, IMO good levels are

Nitrate -5
Phospahates-<.02

when your levels get too low or the levels drop to fast that is when the corals crash,

IMO the best reactors are recirculation types, with them you can control the tumbling and the effluent seperatly. You can make one out of a calcium reactor there are videos on youtube for a DIY

If your nitrates drop too low you can decrease the effluent ( this is the gas pedal)

The bacteria don't "die off". The populations will self-regulate their size and density depending on nutrient level in the water. Again, it's all about the export. Phosphate reduction is about EXPORT. Nitrate levels are NEVER eliminated. NO3 is created every minute of every day in your system. It usually takes 4-6 weeks to see levels drop so I tend not to worry about levels dropping too quickly. And TIP #1... FEED YOUR TANK!

I stopped using ecobak because i was unable to keep phosphate down without using GFO. Since I never had a. Issue with nitrates and ecobak did not eliminate the need for GFO, I discontinued the pellets. I gave it about a tear before I finally gave up on waiting for it to start working.

One more time it's about EXPORT and incoming PO4. I'd take a look at RO/DI filters, Salt, additives, food as a source of PO4. And make sure you're exporting efficiently... with a great skimmer.

 

[Vmacisback]

Thanks Jon, I started this thread but never really got an answer to my question but dont need one for the fact that I am going to continue to run pellets. I do have a question though about the use of GFO and pellets at the same time. I have had a couple bad experiences so far when introducing small amount of GFO to my tank. I have an sps dom. system and it seems to strip color from the sps when i introduce even a cup of GFO to a 260G system. Any thoughts? What will help to get some of the original color back in my corals? Seems like when they do start to color back up they dont hold the same color as when i bought them and look very pastel and pale. Thanks

 

[Jon Warner]

Thanks Jon, I started this thread but never really got an answer to my question but dont need one for the fact that I am going to continue to run pellets. I do have a question though about the use of GFO and pellets at the same time. I have had a couple bad experiences so far when introducing small amount of GFO to my tank. I have an sps dom. system and it seems to strip color from the sps when i introduce even a cup of GFO to a 260G system. Any thoughts? What will help to get some of the original color back in my corals? Seems like when they do start to color back up they dont hold the same color as when i bought them and look very pastel and pale. Thanks

great question...

Back in the 1990's if we wanted to keep SPS we had to set up a special tank with no fish and never feed it. This is how we kept them colorful back then... If you fed the tank or added fish the corals would go brown. We had no easy solutions for NO3 and PO4 back then. So we starved the tank.

Now we can absolutely crush nutrients with products like ecoBAK and GFO and high quality protein skimmers. Today we can take a system too far reducing nutrients. So... FEED YOUR TANK. Add some Amino Acids... a PALE coral is a hungry coral. In the past these nutrients would make for healthy coral but they'd be brown because of the PO4/NO3 level in the water. Now we can keep "end product" nutrients super low while feeding a system. Use high quality foods like Reef Nutrition and high quality, high performance Amino Acids.

So the secret to a 2012 reef aquarium? Crush the PO4 and NO3, feed the system with quality foods, skim like crazy, maintain your water parameters, invest in a handful of ecotech or tunze's and employ powerful lighting. Done deal.

 

[azjohnny]

there is a reationship between phosphates and nitrates, biopellets consume more nitrates to phosphates at about a 16/1 ratio and once the nitrate level gets eliminated the bacteria start to die off, since they are not needed and thats when the phosphate level will rise. To combat this you can dose phosphates to keep the bacteria colony up.

Corals do need a certain amount of nitrates and phosphates to survive, IMO good levels are

Nitrate -5
Phospahates-<.02

when your levels get too low or the levels drop to fast that is when the corals crash,

IMO the best reactors are recirculation types, with them you can control the tumbling and the effluent seperatly. You can make one out of a calcium reactor there are videos on youtube for a DIY

If your nitrates drop too low you can decrease the effluent ( this is the gas pedal)

Oops ....I ment to say dose nitrates not phosphates

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Vmacisback]

great question...

Back in the 1990's if we wanted to keep SPS we had to set up a special tank with no fish and never feed it. This is how we kept them colorful back then... If you fed the tank or added fish the corals would go brown. We had no easy solutions for NO3 and PO4 back then. So we starved the tank.

Now we can absolutely crush nutrients with products like ecoBAK and GFO and high quality protein skimmers. Today we can take a system too far reducing nutrients. So... FEED YOUR TANK. Add some Amino Acids... a PALE coral is a hungry coral. In the past these nutrients would make for healthy coral but they'd be brown because of the PO4/NO3 level in the water. Now we can keep "end product" nutrients super low while feeding a system. Use high quality foods like Reef Nutrition and high quality, high performance Amino Acids.

So the secret to a 2012 reef aquarium? Crush the PO4 and NO3, feed the system with quality foods, skim like crazy, maintain your water parameters, invest in a handful of ecotech or tunze's and employ powerful lighting. Done deal.

so when the PO4 does rise should i add GFO and feed more? Its hard to measure GFO in an amount that wont completely strip the water column and for the 3rd time strip my coral of color. seemed like 1/3 of a cup in a 260G system was enough. At this point I am scared to add GFO at all due to the fact that I dont know how much is too much. Not to mention i usually run GFO with carbon in a dual reactor. Do you think the carbon is causing more of the pale and color stripping than the GFO? tough to tell when you wake up and your SPS looks like crap.

 

[Jon Warner]

so when the PO4 does rise should i add GFO and feed more? Its hard to measure GFO in an amount that wont completely strip the water column and for the 3rd time strip my coral of color. seemed like 1/3 of a cup in a 260G system was enough. At this point I am scared to add GFO at all due to the fact that I dont know how much is too much. Not to mention i usually run GFO with carbon in a dual reactor. Do you think the carbon is causing more of the pale and color stripping than the GFO? tough to tell when you wake up and your SPS looks like crap.

In your situation, I'd start with adding a bit more ecoBAK and increasing the tumble rate and feed normally. If you still have PO4, then proceed with very small PO4 usage. Most users get away without using GFO.

 

[rarelyseriousb]

I kept this in mind while formulating ecoBAK and while writing the Patent application. The solid polymer should have specific properties that facilitate the export.

I'm curious about your product. How does it differ from the other products out there? Does it need to special treatment. Also do you recommend adding a bacteria product? Any suggestions.