I think maxijet 1200 will make the pellets tumble nicely in TLF150. That was what i used, I upgraded to a bigger reactor and still use maxijet 1200 and still get the same result. Make sure you soak the pellets well.

Thanks man!!

When you say soak the pellets well.......are you talking about new additions?

pulling rancid smelling gooooo out

Anyone has experienced with the decrease in ph level when using pellets.

Since the day i start to use the pellets i notice my ph keep dropping slowly which i never experience before.

Here are my parameters

Mg: 1400
Calc: 400
AlkL:9-10

Nitrate: < 5

I using two part dosing. What can i do to help with my ph?

Thanks

mine sometimes down to 8.0 ph , then i put some kalkwasser bring it up..

I started using the NPx pellets 2 days ago in a Vertex Uf-20 reactor, did anyone notice how long it took for their skimmer to return to being able to produce skimmate?

Right now its just rapid bubble popping at the top no foam head at all.

I had this happen to me http://glassbox-design.com/2010/np-b...lling-skimmer/ I know it says that it only happened across the pond but for some reason I got a bad batch. It tookme along time to figure it out and in that time my N sky rocketed because of lack of skimming. The product still isnt working for me. I dont think that they should affect skimming so keep an eye out.

does your skimmer produce form head without vertex reactor running? The only thing i notice what pellets did to my skimage is color from green to dark brown

I personally didn't have that problem, and my skimmer worked fine. As Coleus stated, my skimmate to went from green to dark brown, probably due to the fact there was no more algae, and now it was just removing the excess nutrients.

My skimmate also went darker & thicker at the same settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXpR5HFV5tU

Sorry for the crappy video quality i shot this with my phone.. Is my media tumbling fine or to aggressive when i dial it back more i get a dead spot on the right side

i think that is way too aggressive

I agree, that is way to aggressive.

You don't have many pellets in there, but it is recommended that only the top layer moves somewhat aggresively, while the rest tumbles quite slowly/gently, so slowly that they don't move much, but pressure will build within it and you will see area turn over with time, releasing the mulm/bacteria.

This is the problem with the pellets, many failures, due to the fact of the pellets not being used properly. I myself am one of them that used incorrectly in the past.

I can tell you this, if used properly, they do work... I am seeing great results with them overall.

Rick, when you get a chance, could you maybe post a video or some pictures about how you have yours setup now? (please and thank you)

ok thanks
thats what i was thinking i just was worried about it being stale and sitting creating a bad zone. let me go tune it down some more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ORW67oyxk
tuned it down some more, i dunno its hard to really fine tune it.

That looks really good, and is how I have mine. Now I am running 1-1.5L in each reactor, and I have 2 reactors.... But you have yours close to how mine are running now. You will find that you won't have dead spots, the areas that churn a bit will move around the reactor.

With how you have yours now, the bacteria has a chance to grow and can actually attach to the pellets. For everyone who is running pellets, think of it this way... If you were in a hurricane, could you hold on to something, well the same goes for the bacteria. You create a hurricane, they go bye bye.

How big is your system, as you can probably have more running?

Life has special ways of surviving in adverse conditions, think of the algae that grows on the edge of a water fall. Sure as heck alot of flow there yet it still thrives, besides I was under the impression that the pellets worked by releasing a dissolved carbon source into the water. If that's true you are capitilising on the bacteria growth all over your tank and not just in the reactor.

On that note I just upgraded my pump so the pellets are really flying around, Rick you might be right in giving them some time to produce bacteria but I figure the more flow the more dissolved carbon = more bacteria in the tank = More colonization of all surface area.

Just my 2 cents.

I was under the impression that these pellets provided a localized area inside the reactor for bacteria to grow, ad opposed to all over your tank :). That is, I think the bacteria remains in the your reactor and on the pellets as they consume Nitrates, Phosphates and the pellets themselves.

I would see no way of containing the bacteria to one localized area of your system considering that it actually came from the system to begin with. On top of that I thought that this bacterial mulm was an excellent source of coral food, if it's contained in the reactor I must be wrong.

Then again it's quite easy to see when someone has a bacterial bloom in the tank from slow flowing pellets. Perhaps we should get an OC expert on here to clear everything up for us?

Well, I can tell you this, my newest bags of NP BioPellets explain the same thing as I just outlined prior... Also much more research out there on this now. So I outline this because NP is now telling me this, research from others also supports it.

Again, my 2 cents also... I base it on what the manufacturer and research dictates, and from what I see in results.

If you have any newer bags of NP Pellets, look for a sheet of paper in the bag, believe it or not they do now have instructions outlining use.

Let me also outline a test I did a couple of times. This test was done to see if it had any good or bad results with the use of the NP BioPellets.

As instructed, I have the export from the reactors at the intake of the skimmer. This is to remove any excessive bacterial mulm and to re-oxygenate the water as the bacterial growth does use up oxygen in the water. My interpretation may not be 100% correct, but it is something like that.

Anyways, I added a filter sock to the export from the reactors, and found that the sock itself would filter more when the flow of the reactor was slower than faster (meaning I had to change the sock more often when slower tumbling). So does this indicate better bacterial growth? I would think so, and the filter is taking more out, as there is more.

Just wanted to give you all this example, I think it does tell a story on how better the pellets may work with slower tumbling/flow.

Also, can anybody also state they got the instructions in the bag on the newer bags. Reason I ask is that many people are failing with these pellets, but in my opinion, failing because of not using them properly. So lets try to settle on proper usage and move forward with it.

I don't have a scanner anymore, as I just upgraded to windows 7, so my scanner went to the recycle bin, but if someone can scan the paper that is in the bags, and then post it up, it would be very beneficial to everyone.

I found a link that has the instructions that are coming in the NPX bags, this is the same as what I got in mine.

http://glassbox-design.com/2010/npx-bio-beads/

In the above link go half way down the page, in the blue box is the actual instructions. Please note it says "are best used within a fluidized reactor with enough flow to keep the top layer of Beads tumbling aggressively". I am trying to find some of the research articles I found, if I can find them again, I will paste for your reading enjoyment.

Edit: here is a Link to a great article by Grumpy Old Reefer
http://grumpyreefer.net/2010/02/08/n...-story-so-far/

Thanks for the info Rick, I might turn down the flow if I see anything funky going on in the tank. It's hard to tell the magnitude of them working on my system because I run a few different nitrate sinks.

Do you know if any of the other brands come with instructions like this? I know everyone has taken a swing at producing these pellets now, if running them correctly is the key to success I would hope company's are detailing this comprehensibly.

First time hearing about an instruction insert for the NP-Biopellets.

That is the problem, until recently I was flying by the seat of my pants on these also. Fast flow, slow flow, up and down and I didn't know what to do. The instruction pamphlet was a shock to me when I opened the bag, as I wasn't expecting it. Then the lack of people reviews when these first came out, didn't help either.

From what I see, most brands don't detail how to use. The NPX instructions are in the NPX bags, but not in my original NP bags... I have enough pellets of both old and new to last me 5 years or more.

I am also tempted to do what Grumpy Old Reefer did. He had his pellets in a 10 Gallon pail. He found more pellets and greater surface area worked better. I run 2 reactors, but technically 2 seperate sources. So if I take the same amount of pellets (dump both reactors into one pail) and work it the same way, will the results be even BETTER! It makes me wonder.

I hope what I found helps you and others. I look forward to hearing about your results also.

My biggest problem the first few days of running it is tweaking the reactor and messing with it. Didn't help that it was my off week at work so every hour i was running down and messing with something on it turning it up then turning it down thinking it would work some magic :razz:

Even this morning woke up 4am to get ready for work i had to run down and take a look to make sure they are still tumbling to my liking haha.. Oh well I'm working 12s the next 3 days, i should be able to stay hands off for now.

But i agree with lack of in-depth product review there is no real set standard on how to run the system some people say aggressive some say more passive slow some say tumbling slow.

So i am convinced that either i am doing something really wrong or i have a bad batch of pellets.

I put the reactor back online Tuesday during the day and instantly my skimmer stops skimming can't create a foam head just rapid bubble popping.
Figured that maybe the pellets just needed to work in a few days this morning still the same thing going on.

If i take the reactor offline in about 1-4 hours the skimmer will kick in again and start to skim like a beast. They are the only thing that have changed in the tank nothing else, so its either me or the pellets i am thinking the pellets since as soon as i introduce them it kills the skimmer.

Here is an article:

http://glassbox-design.com/2010/np-b...lling-skimmer/

You might have a bad batch of pellets, but it states the skimmer should resume.

Well I've joined the club :mrgreen: , I just setup up my new Vertex reactor. Hoping for some good results.

I've deceided to give them another shot....

This time using much less pellets,, have a fast tumble going, skimmer is pulling well..

Hair algae growth is back...WTF?

Thank goodneed I have the sea hare.

I have a couple questions.

I've been running vertex pellets for the last 7 days. I started with 500ml (150gallon net water volume) The pellets are tumbling nicely, never had any clouding of my water.

Right from the start my skimmer went crazy, I had too adjust my skimmer and it is now it's max setting. The skimmate is wet and black and the bubbles just don't have the surface tension they used too.

I read that my skimmer was suppose to return to normal with in several hours to usually two days later, however I also read that "nitrate and phosphate locking" could cause a more lengthy break in period, due to old live rock (which i have plenty of)

I haven't lost any livestock, I haven't had an algae outbreak, the tank looks good overall.

Anything I should really be concerned of at this point? Should I remove some of my pellets?

I have received many questions in regards to skimmer function and the use of pellets, the simple answer in regards to the skimmer is to just give it time and the skimmer will return to normal function; albeit, more stinky function within a few days after starting pellets.

People also need to realize that there is absolutely not a one molecule difference between the NpX Bio Beads and the others like Vertex and the original NP brand. They are all sourced from the identical supplier. The only difference is how much volume you get for the price and how fancy the bag looks.

The NpX brand is the best value for the price with a higher volume per bag. the only pellets I would worry about are the ones made of a completely different compound like the Warner Marine brand and possibly some of the other new types surfacing on the market.

I just got my pellets and reactor,vertex uf-15 with 500ml of pellets.Will the mag 3 pump be enough to tumble these and should i start with all the pellets at once or start with half and add the rest later?My set-up is a 46 bow tank.