WOW... I don't know how long it will take me to get all those acknowledgements :redface: I am just an amateur compared to all of you, you guys really are serious engineers talking here. It will take me awhile to understand them though :biggrin:

I just started using reactors, one for biopellets, and one for carbon. Haven't noticed much of a difference in the algae growth, but within a matter of days my acroporas started burning at the tips, in some cases badly.

Now, I also switched to sodium bicarbonate (un-cooked baking soda) for my alkalinity dosing solution at the same time, so the pH dropped a little. Now that I'm using sodium carbonate again (cooked baking soda), I saw a slight improvement, but definitely not a full recovery.

Not saying it's one thing exactly causing the problem (never change three things at once!), but for now I'm sticking with both the carbon and the biopellets to see if things adjust/algae problem gets better. If they don't I'm going to start taking one offline at a time to see if anything suddenly improves.

I decided to go with the bio pellets to control my algae problem, so I got the reactor but I am still too chicken to set it up after reading many people have had a problem with these pellets. I have read that it is said you have to feed your pellets with Zeobak or Seachem Stability on the first day to get started, or your tank will get hazy cloudy. Do you need to feed your pellets or you don't have to ? How did your tank look like when you didn't feed them ?

I should probably be fair and update this. I figured out what the problem was, and it had nothing to do with the biopellets. Since I posted that comment the amount of algae in my tank has cut down significantly and I'm scraping the glass way less. I'm also seeing new colours pop out in corals, a solid aqua coloured acro frag is starting to get nearly translucent purple highlights, another frag that's always had a dark brown body and neon green polyps is starting to lighten from brown to a deep violet, etc. etc.

I would say that overall the biopellets have been a success.

I've been running bio-Pellets since november in my new tank. I used existing live rock, so "new" isn't 100% correct. I had very little to no cycle during the move, so the bio-pellets seemed to keep everything well under control. They've been working great. recently i added 50lbs of new rock to the tank, this i assumed would be causing a mini cycle, which it did, and ever since then i've had a BAD case of Hair Algee. It's been 2 months now, and algee's getting worse, biopellets seem to be doing their thing, my tests are the same as they have been since the start, near 0 nitate/phosphate.

So generally i'd suggest the bio-pellets, but i am defintily someone who is having a HA outbreak while running biopellets, so it is possible :P, and probably related to my overfeeding. SPS are happy though, still growing GREAT, with amazing color. I've noticed my LPS isn't doing as well in the new tank, that could be many factors though, i wouldn't say bio-pellets alone is the cause.

Nopers, you don't need to use Zeobak or the other... Zeobak is only for the zeo system if you are going to use a zeo reactor with zeolites. Again a different system for generating a bacteria within your tank.

You just need to put the required amount in your reactor and turn it on. It will take time for the bacteria to form within the reactor. Just follow others advice for setup.

Yipppeeeee... See everyone they do work. :lol:

After soaking the pellets last night, I started to set up the reactor this morning. For my 67 gallons plus 40 gallons sump, if minus the rocks leaves the sump 3/4 full of water, so I guess its about 75 gallons of water. I put 50ml of pellets in the Vertex UF-15 reactor to start, hope it is not too much. My husband bought me a very nice 802 Hagen pump (thanks to the person who sold it) it runs 400GPH and the flow can be adjusted. Will 50ml of pellets be too much for starting in my tank ? I hope its not going to burn my "precious" sps frags.
Thanks globaldesigns, I won't buy any extra additive to feed the pellets.

Go
 

argh...I keep going back on forth...good stories, bad stories

Reefpins10, I can't remember the recommanded amount per gallon, but I will start half of what recommanded and slowly add more. In addition, watch you ALK, some people said high ALK will burn the tip. I keep mine at 8-9 dkh.

Thank you Ottoman, I will keep in check with DKH. It has been a few hours after setting up now, I am still seeing the pellets attached around the body inside the tube and are attaching to each other, even I let the pump flow maximum to 400GPH. I took the whole thing out and stired them, but as long as I run the reactor , they attached to the tube again and some of them even were floating to the top. Good thing I put a mesh there. I am not sure what to do next if they are still clumping like that.
WHAT DID I DO WRONG :twised::twised:

My tank has too much algae, now they have attached to my cleaner shrimp's tentacles and his/her body :cry: I was surprised when my husband showed it to me.

Not to hijack, but why do the pellets have to tumble?
What negative will come from them clumping together.

Sorry Ross, I am not an expert about these pellets compared to lots of people here. Yah, I want to know it too :razz:

I guess it give more surface area for bacteria to grow.
I used Rowaphos for about 2 months and my brown algea did not come back.
:lol:

Apparently clumping pellets can create toxins bad for the tank (I forget the name, it's in the FAQ's i believe.) The clumping can be very bad, you want to keep all of them moving.

I am hoping nothing serious happens to my first born sps tank, don't want any burning tips on corals as asylumdown quoted.

To add to previous explanations, also for the pellets to be effective it is important to have good flow through and around all of the pellets. If they clump you end up restricting that flow. Clumping also hinders the shedding and releasing of pellet mulm which is important too.

Since running from the morning to now, the pellets are still clinging to the reactor like this. HELP ME PLEASE !

If they are clumping you have a combination of too many pellets with too much flow. You have to either cut back the number of pellets or cut back on the flow.

What I do whenever I start up my reactor with new pellets is to first completely shut off the feed valve so that very little flow (not enough to even move a pellet) is getting into the reactor chamber. Then, while the feed pump is on I slowly turn on the valve to slowly feed the reactor with pumped water. I do this slowly, very very slowly until I see the pellets just barely move. You'll see the water bubbling up through the chamber moving the pellets as it travels up and then out the top. I start with just the top of the pellets just barely moving, then adjust the flow up slowly from there to my desired tumblage (i just made up that word but I like it). I know I've put too much pellet into my chamber if while doing this the pellets clump at the top before I could get them to tumble at the top. I take pellets out and repeat the process.

it also helps to soak the pellets over night.

Thank you so much Master Kien. After I read your advice, I ran to disconnect the reactor and I turned the pump back very ... very slowly ... I let all the bubbles out as you told me to do, now it is working like a charm :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

I have been using bio pellets for about a week now, but there is a HUGE change in my tank. 1/3 of my frag corals when I first bought in the LPS store were all brown, but now they have all changed to their true color. I was testing my phosphate and nitrate, they are too high even I had just changed the water before I set up the reactor. I have bought a few new sps frags today, so I decided to test the water again, and to my surprise the phosphate was undetectable, nitrate was 0.5 :mrgreen: I used to have to clean my glass every morning before I go to work, but now only twice in this week and it was very little to be concerned about. The hair algae were half gone, same with brown algae. I only used 25% bio pellets, not even going to the full amount yet. All I can say is WOW !

ALWAYS WATER CHANGE!

Its the least you can do and also the most!
Their your babies, breast feed them and they will grow!

hee..hee..hee.. :razz: I have no kids, so yes you are right, the fish tank and my little dog are my babies.