Is that working OK? Should I be looking for a bigger pump than a MJ1200?

i am on zeo vit and getting great colours think it is worth switching to these pellets any one has done so already let me know ??

I have switched on my personal aquarium and could not be happier! I am still using KZ additives such as Pohls Extra, Vitalizer, Bak, amino acids, Zeozyme, and Coral snow. I will no longer be using the reactor and zeolites, my days of pumping the reactor are over.

Yep, I'm at 1L of pellets, I couldn't even make them move with 400gph. I temporarily used my mag 7 but it was tripping the breaker. 700gph is about right though.

This is the pump I am going to add to my reactor setup.

http://premiumaquatics.com/prodimage.../T1073.020.jpg

http://premiumaquatics.com/tunze/T1073.020-descr.jpg

price of that pump ??

$87.99 for the pump, these pumps are awesome, they are high quality and are set and forget.

Ian

i,llbe selling a pump just like that. as i,ll be running a mag 18 for the reactor and return pump for my tank.

As Ian has already stated, I too have removed the Zeolites... Still using all the other Zeo stuff, just no more reactor.

switched over from my daily dosing of vodka to the pellets and removed my way past due zeovit media out of the media chamber in the MCE600 and cant be any happier with the change, finally dont have to wake up and remember to dose the tank, still dosing the tank with Brightwell mb7 once in a while though.

What we need now is a dual reactor (pellets and carbon) powered by one quality pump such as the Tunze or Eheim.

I have 3 sumpless tanks (2x 33g, 55g) and would love to try these pellets out. All 3 tanks currently have cannister filters attached to them. Has anyone tried adding the pellets to the cannister?
As a cannister has multiple compartments, can I also run carbon in there at the same time?

Thanks;
Kelly

Kelly,

Not sure I would suggest this mode of running the pellets, you need to be able to monitor them and make sure they are fairly aggressively "fluidized", most canisters don't run enough water volume and velocity to keep media fluidized.

Hope that makes sense.

Ian
O.C.

This big guy will run both media together!

http://www.nextreef.com/images/Monster/Monster.jpg

Hey Kelly i would agree with Ian when it comes to running bio pellets inside canister filters, the reverse flow on can canister filters just dont tumble the pellets enough to warrant them useful. Infact i believe the pellets would eventually clog up overtime, as seen in the biostars/bioballs inside the canister.

Cheers,
Eugene

Yes, that makes sense. Thanks Ian.

I bought a dual reactor from bulk reef supply 2 years ago. Has anyone tried to mod for suiting the running of both bio-pellets and carbon or else to switch to another pump rather than using the maxijet1200 to increase the water flow. Any suggestions would be appreciated for I don't want to waste the reactor and to purchase a new one.

Do you know which make and model the reactor is that you purchased from BRS? I dont think it would be hard to modify it to use with the bio-pellets and carbon at the same time.

Exactly the dual reactor is just the same model that BRS is now selling on their website. What worrying me is that the pipes for the input is 3/8" while the output is around 1/4" (internal measurement) and most likely not enough water flow for the bio-pellets.

wondering if anyone has thought about converting the zeo reactors for pellets?

Is it this reactor that you got?
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...n-reactor.html

Hm.. if its only 1/4" its most likely not going to cut it for the bio-pellets in terms of keeping them tumbling. I wonder if you can switch the quick disconnectors out for bigger size as i see them in home depot all the time. If you could then modding it should be a breeze.

A customer of ours is actually using a zeo reactor modded with the mesh to run there bio pellets. The only difference is he switched out the pump for something more powerful to keep the pellets tumbling to his liking and stopped pumping it everyday :mrgreen:

Do you know what pump he/she is using? I was considering doing this as well, seeing as sooner or later it's gonna be impossible to unload the zeo reactors except at pennies on the dollars since nobody will want them now! :)

If i recall correctly he said he was going with a Mag pump, although im not sure which exact model he was going to use. But i think for those who have zeo reactors that they want to convert over to pellets, it will be better to get something thats over powered and fine tune it with a ball valve to where you want it.

The only thing i see with the zeo reactors being modified to use with bio-pellets is some of the reactors dont have a upper acrylic plate. That might need to be added in to prevent the pellets from flowing out of the reactor itself during initial setup or once the pellets gets used up. Other then that its the same modification you see for the vertex UF-15/20 that we carry. A mesh over the plates and your good to go.

will the use of pellets clog return lines (same if you were dosing vodka)?

As quoted by the manufacturer;


"The main advantage of this method over using Vodka or sugar as a carbon source is that BioPellets stimulate local growth of bacteria in a filter compartment, instead of all over in the aquarium where they may clog up pipes and hoses"

Hey Ian,

Can you tell me how many litre bags I need to buy in order to get my free bag, remember I got one litre initially through Tony, than order 2 more Litres through you and again delivered to Tony.

Do I have to 1 or 2 more bags for the freebee, I can't seem to find the threads...

Thanks,

Rick

The first bag was purchased by Tony so naturally he would get the credit for that one, the other two you purchased would most definitely go towards our promotion. You need to purchase two more 1000ml bags and you will be entitled to another 1000ml free.

Ian
O.C.

:thumb:

K, I will contact you guys next week to order more and take advantage of the promotion, save 3L for me.

Have a great weekend.

Done!

So after reading all this, I'm still not clear on what people are running to get the TLF 150 unit to churn properly.

From what I can gather you:

-Use an MJ1200
-Remove the bottom plate
-Remove BOTH pieces of foam
-Run full flow

My plan (since I have just ~35 gal of water volume) is to run around half a litre of pellets with this setup in the hopes that it'll churn nicely.

To get the TLF 150 reactor to work with the biopellets this is what i would do,
-remove the foams
-keep the top and bottom plate in
-mesh mod both plates and add the pellets in
-Get a MJ1200
-TLF ballvalve 1/2" on the input of the reactor (this allows you to fine tune the tumble to your liking) i run mine on full blast.

for a 35g tank i would just use 125mls worth of biopellets but you can go up to 250mls if you want.

That is what i do with my biopellet setup using TLF150 and it tumbles nicely. heres a video of it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...h_IMGP6978.jpg

Ok, cool. Thanks for the video.

Ummmm talk to me about this "mesh mod" -do you have this material ? Maybe I can add enough to mod my reactor and ship it with my pellet order ?

Mesh can be found here!

http://www.oceaniccorals.com/store/i...&productId=361

It's not so much a "mod" per se as it is a sponge replacement using quilting mesh available at any craft store. You cut a 2 circles of it and replace the sponges with it. I think I paid 58 cents for a 18" square at Michael's (seriously, 58 cents .. less than a dollar anyhow. I felt like an idiot putting it on debit, but in my defense, who really carries cash anymore?... I vaguely remember having had cash once ... but I think it was before I had kids.)

Anyhow, Michael's for sure, but apparently you can get it just about anywhere (Walmart, craft stores, etc.) I think O.C. can also set you up. Edit: I see they beat me to the post. Yeah, you can get it from O.C. (... but then again, Michael's has girls working there and if you haul in your kids into the store with you, you can pretend they are flirting with you because you have kids, instead of just saying "tee hee! Look at the bald loser with 2 kids trying to buy 58-cent quilting mesh on debit". It's the best action I've had in years! I still got it bay-bee, I still got it!!)

Using the quilting mesh and a MJ1200 powerhead, you can run easily up to 600-750ml of pellets in a TLF Phosban/150 reactor without issue. I have about that in mine for a month now and it's still tumbling like crazy and I have not had to shake it or anything in all that time. I have my valve full open, I keep the valve because sometimes it easier to start the pellets tumbling properly by slowly opening it as opposed to an "instant on" type thing, which sometimes just slams the pellets in one single mass into the top of the reactor.

ok, mother in law is a quilter so that'll be easy.

Sooo.....from this I should infer that the stock foam clogs ? Running without the foam, the pellets abrade and then fit through the holes in the plates ?

So now all I need are the pellets I ordered (hint-hint...Ian ?)
:lol:

The sponges are kind of a combo of restricting flow just enough, and clogging up. I couldn't get good tumbling in the TLF150 with even just one sponge in it.

i took the sponges out. went to wal-mart to the craft section and picked up some plastic needle point stuff works great. no flow problems.

So can someone look at my little 30 sec vid and tell me if the pellets are tumbling enough.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_100_3259.jpg

Looks good to me :biggrin: