When to add more biopellets

mallorieGgator · Feb 6, 2012

Hey all,
I stared my reactor a few weeks ago. I dosed microbacter into the reactor as well. I also started with half of the biopellets of a full amount. I was wondering when it was ok to add in the other half. Thanks!

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Dowtish · Feb 6, 2012

Typically the bacteria starts colonizing in about 4-8 weeks. Depending on how old your tank is and how heavy of a bio load you have, I would let them run at half for 3 months. all the while checking your trates and phates, and see at what rate they are falling. Then slowly add a little bit more, and let that run for a month and so on. The main thing that I have seen with folks and bio pellets is adding too many too fast and it strips the system too quickly and you have coral fatalities or bleached tips etc. Just like anything else, a swing in your parameters, whether for the good or bad, if it happens too quickly, it's still a swing ,and corals can react adversely to it.

mallorieGgator · Feb 6, 2012

Thanks! That is what I don't want is problems with the corals. They are great so far and I haven't had any issues with the pellets. Skimmer seems to be picking up quite a bit as it should be from output of the bio-film. I have noticed a slight decrease in cyano and glass algae.