stagnant biopellets
 

So I just returned from 10 days of holidays and discovered that while I was gone I managed to leave all the valves on my sump manifold in the closed position, leaving my biopellet, carbon and phosban reactors all full of stagnant water. That was 2 hours of cleaning, smelly yuck and black influent and effluent lines.

I turfed the carbon and phosban as they're easily replaceable but am wondering if there is anything to do to rescue the biopellets, they have a bit of a green hue to them. I've rinsed them really well and have them soaking in RO water but I'm wondering if its worth it to continue using them.

Any ideas?

Don't really know for sure but I think they'll probably be OK. Rinse them off as best you can, it will stink (been there done that a few times now myself), maybe run them off a bucket for a day before restoring them onto your tank.

Welcome home eh. I just spent two days camping in an area where there was no cell coverage. Was never more than 45 minutes away from home, but as soon as I discovered no cell service I thought "Uhoh, what's going to happen." Sure enough on the drive home and got into coverage area again both cell phones starting picking up on the frantic voicemails my dad left me on Saturday, my FW tank had a mini disaster / overflow. As far as I can tell his jury-rigging did manage to limp the tank along onto today and now I have a nice little tank restoration project that I need to get going on today but I seem to be putting off. On a plus side, I just installed a door handle on my tank room. Maybe the FW tank project will be the answer to my empty dosing jugs.

Yup. I read up on this as I had the same issue. A good rinsing and they're good to go.

Sorry for the off topic question... Are you running both phosban and pellets? Everything I have heard suggests not using pellets and phosphate reducers together. I was never sure why though.

Thanks Tony and Lance, sure be a shame to have to toss them with how much they're worth. I'll just soak them for awhile.

Mandosh: I did run the pellets without phosban as the rule however I wasn't seeing the results that others were and my phosphate levels were starting to creep up and I had algae growth so I put the phosban back online. To be honest I can't say I've been all that thrilled with the pellets and the phosban has probably being doing the bulk of the work.

Give them time. I've found the pellets to work very well. It's probably in your thread somewhere but what kind of reactor and pump and how much pellets are you running?

I run the Phosban POS, ahem, I mean 550 and I have no idea how much pellets are left, I think I initially bought the 1L package.

I'm sure the pellets kicked in at some point but I was unwilling to relinquish the phosphate reducing power of phosban. And my cyano/algaes never did fully go away which is why I'm not so thrilled with the pellets.

I started them in a 550 as well. Wasn't happy with it so I bought the Vertex UF-15 and filled it right up with pellets. I've got a Sedra 5000 powering the Vertex, a BRS reactor with carbon and the 550 with carbon. The pellets tumble great. Are your pellets tumbling well?

Yeah they seem to be tumbling okay, I can hear them racheting around in there but they're not flying around like in some of the videos.

They still friggen reek of sulphur, I dunno about reusing them.

Maybe try running the reactor overnight in a bucket of water and add some carbon.

welcome home :) arent holiday tank issues fun? :(

Hey Christy its never fun to come home to find issues with the tank, but for the BPs you can continue to use them no problem. the BPs dont absorb anything and doesnt go bad either. The water they were sitting in would be the biggest issue but if thats replaced id just continue to run them after giving them a good rinse like you have already done.

I had my BPs running in a filter bag + hob filter before i got it up and going in a phosban reactor on my frag tank. Needless to say the hob props impeller just had to get stuck after i put the BPs on and i didnt catch it until a good week+ later and i kept using the BPs that was in the filter sock with no issue.

But think Christy, now you can just use rice! :lol:

Thanks Eugene thats good to know, I'll set them back up today then :biggrin:

LOL, I dunno about that, its amazing how easily I'm roped into buying a product (zeovit, ultralith, biopellets) but as soon as people start talking about adding vodka, sugar or rice I'm like "whoa there! I dunno about that" :razz:

Hehe. I hear ya. If there's a new product I've got to have it. It would be sooooo much cheaper to just change more water more often. But that wouldn't be any fun would it? :mrgreen:

That's because the hobby is not about keeping a fish tank: it's about shopping for things for a reef tank. Having the reef tank is just a pleasant but unintended side effect. Thus, using rice, if it could be proven to work the same, to save money goes completely against the grain. However, if we were to take a bag of rice, repackage it as "specially formulated for reef aquaria and ideal composition for optimal nitrate and phosphate reduction", jacked the price tenfold, you'd have the next big thing and let's face it you'd make a LOT of money doing it. Who gives a crap about the reef tank, WHAT CAN I BUY NEXT?!?

Hehe, I already do 20% weekly waterchanges (except when I fall off the wagon in the summertime) and I must say, it keeps things going nicely and the fish and corals very happy. However I always think things could be "tweaked" a little by the addition of various "got to have" products :razz:

I agree and nice use of punnage there!!

"hey this product kind of looks like rice, but it says its fabulous and that other LFS sells it for $5 more so I'm saving $5. I must have it!!!"

Sadly yes, I do go through the J&L/OA/OC websites looking for stuff I "need" and sadly don't come up with much often. Thats probably why my frag racks are full all the time. Suprisingly my wallet isn't though :razz:

As others stated, run it in a bucket of RO water, periodically replacing the water. This will rinse them off and get them back, you should be ok after that.

YUCK!!! is all I can say.

Confucius say: "Give a man a grain of rice and he'll grow a plant to feed himself".


Give an entrepreneur a grain of rice and he'll grow rice to package and label it "Reef Rice" and make a killing.


This is why Confucius lived in a grass hut.

I was just thinking the samething...Give it a funky colour and attach an MSDS to it ...then charge 25/ lb:twised:

*GASP!* Tony has seen the light and discovered the true meaning of reefing :hail:

So, o wise one.....when are you gonna open your own LFS ? :bolt: