I used vertex pellets, I never heard about keeping alk low, but I usually keep it around 7-8.

Like I said before a fuge is so simple and low maintaince. I never had any problems and have had good results.

Oh bad part was the investment in the reactors and pellets, but I'll still make use of them, with carbon or gfo.

Vodka, sugar, vinegar. Helps prevent bacterial monocultures that arise out of carbon dosing. The theory goes that certain bacterial strains utilize different carbon sources. If You dose only one carbon source (like biopellets) then the bacterial strain that specializes or is more dominant in utilizing that source dominates and a monoculture arises. By adding fresh bacteria regularly and dosing multiple carbon sources you avoid this issue. By preventing monocultures you, in theory, won't need to dose bacteria (such as zeobak or MB7) as regularly to keep bacterial biodiversity.

Interesting, I have alays had good luck with just vodka.
What ratio do you mix the VSV? Or do you dose them individually?
I think I may try this in my new system once it is going for awhile.

Sorry, I don't want to detract from the original thread. I'll gladly have a discussion if you start another thread on this topic. I've been learning quite a bit about this method recently as I'll be switching to VSV shortly. Start with the ratios published here. The easiest answer is: it depends. It seems that everyone who is using this system gets slightly different results and needs to adjust the ratios accordingly. Read Sonny's site on MB& and vodka dosing. This will give you an idea where to start. There is no research saying what source does what. It will have to be through personal experimentation.

Previously I was using vodka and Vitamin C and was getting very good and interesting results but stopped that due to time commitments.

Me neither. Although I have heard of a great many of positive results, running biopellets in my system caused more problems than it cured. I tried several different brands. Seems like they only work on certain systems. I wonder what the common thread is?

Ive been running vertex biopellets in a TLF reactor for about 5-6 months. I cant say ive seen a positive or negative change.

awesome, thanks guys. just switched to vertex-w-TLF over vodka 2 weeks ago.

In the short term it is looking promising, never have had the PE I'm getting now, color is intensifying, and glass cleaning has been cut in half. I'll stay on the positive side of the fence, but time will tell.

I have the same feelings too

Took my bio-pellets of line few eeks ago as well, did not work at all.
Had it in huge 6" wide reactor powered by main pump, so lots of tumbling lol.
But at any rate this was a total waste just like ZEO method.
So after a year and a half pellets are out of my system for good.

The biggest problem with using them is that they are NOT used properly. Most reefers are tumbling them too aggressively.

Here is an old link to Grumpy Old Reefer, who explains things well:

http://grumpyreefer.net/2010/02/08/n...-story-so-far/

I myself now use a water tank water bottle modified with a 700GPH pump that slightly tumbles them in the middle, while the surrounding pellets are slightly suspended with good water flow through them without tumbling. Every few days I do tumble all the pellets with my hand, and in doing this I can tell you that the mulm production is there and wow is it ever, even better than before when I ran a reactor (Vertex & Deltec). So this DIY reactor is the best.

With the research I have done, most that are very successful, DO NOT use the common reactors like all of us are doing. They do what I now have.... A DIY Project, A Bucket with a pump and so forth.

The KEY to all pellets is having substantial surface area for them and not going crazy on the tumbling. I myself now run about 5L of pellets in my DIY.