biopellet flow
 

so ive been running biopellets for a few months now and im happy with them, however im wondering if my pump is too weak. I have the smaller TLF reactor with around 200ml of pellets. Im using the maxijet 1200 wide open. The pellets at the surface and slightly underneath are tumbling but a good inch and a half from the bottom up are frozen still. Is it recommended that ALL the pellets should be tumbling or should this be "good enough"? i plan on adding 100ml more in the near future as well. what do you guys think?

You need more flow.

The top should tumble aggressively, as you go towards the bottom, the tumbling should get slower, and at the bottom they should slightly move. Basically you should see the pressure build up in the bottom and see the pellets slowly flow from the bottom to the top. so it should be a slow cycle, with only the top being aggressive.

No pellets should just sit there NOT moving.

I hope this makes sense.

I concur, the pellets should be tumbling aggressively at the surface with a good amount of flow through the rest. I use rio 1400 pump(I have used many different rio pumps, they have been amazingly reliable and affordable.) the pump is rated for around 320 gallons per hour with 1 foot head pressure through a nextreef smr1 reactor. IMO that is a very good set up. I have used two little fish, nextreef mr1 with moded screens for top and bottom but I still believe a proper bio pellet reactor should be employed to get the best result. :biggrin:

makes perfect sense, Thanks guys :mrgreen:

Sorry to interrupt.
I set mine up about 3 weeks ago and I still don't see any change. I heard cyano should comes up for short term. I also use TLF reactor 150 and maxi jet 1200. I see pellets are tumbling but more likely bottom part and upper part is still tumbling but I don't think it's aggressive. Am I doing something wrong? Would be appreciate if anyone can fix my problems.
Thanks

When I was running the TLF150 I started with a MJ1200 with about 250 ml of pellets but found the flow was not enough so I jumped up to a MJ1800. Now I am using a NextReef MR1 and a Ocean Runner 2500. I did not have any cyano show up after running them.

OK so maxi-jet 1200 is not enough flow. I guess I searched wrong place then. Do you think flow rate should be more than 350g/hr?

I honestly don't think you need anymore than that. The problem I had with TLF is the inlet and outlet, TLF comes with 1/2 inch barb hose but for pellets you need 5/8 or even 3/4 barbs so you can get the flow that you need without grenade the reactor. If I were you I would really look into a smr1 or a vertex reactor. If thats not an option, try to find some thing used. All else fails, throw a bigger pump on it and make sure you remove the foam in the TLF, re-tap the barb fitting so you can put a larger diameter hose an try again. Be patient and let I run for awhile. I have had very good results with running the pellets. The smr1 with the pump costed me around less than 200 with tax.

Yes I already remve foam and install mod both bottom and upper plate, but I did not know I have a reactor problem. What you pay, what you get, right? I will serch the other reactor or try to put a larger hose.
Thanks

I use the large Vertex reactor and it works fine, no clumping.

The NextReef MR1 has 1/2" barbs and works great.

The MR1 has 1/2" barbs that is correct. I did mod my MR1 to run pellets as well. It does work great but it's not until I switched to a SMR1 I noticed a big flow difference. Of course I ran it with the same pump, it just seems to have less pressure built up inside the actual chamber rather than flowing through it. Don't get me wrong, when I was running the modded MR1 it worked just fine.

FYI, I use a maxijet 1200 with a Vertex15 Reactor. Works perfectly for me.

I don't use any foam in the reactor, as they will just get gummed up with tank gunk and pellet mulm.

i ended up taking out the foam inserts from the TLF reactor and that seemed to fix the problem, the bottom foam insert was starting to get quite plugged with fine sand (god damn goby). More aggressive tumbling from top to bottom.

I just found out, I put pellets more than enough, so I took some out. I don't know it seem to be OK to me. Do you think I can re-use soaked pellets again?

Use a strainer and rinse them, then put some paper towel on a cookie sheet and lay them out on that to dry. Once dry, rebag and you can reuse at a later date.

Thanks for your info. It's done.

I set about 3 weeks ago, I have not seen any change. I heard that over the short term should cyano. I also use copper and aluminium composite reactor and the maximum 150 jet 1200. I saw the ball was dropped, but more likely at the bottom of the upper is still rolling, but I do not think it is positive. What am I doing wrong? Would be grateful, if someone can solve my problem.

Is it true that most people see a cyano flare up when these things get turned on? I've had mine on for... I guess over a month now and my cyano problem has gotten a little worse. I'm seeing less algae growth for sure, but it's almost like the cyano is just picking up where the algae left off.

Every one that I talked to have had cyano problems around 2-4 weeks into the initial start, I myself had the same problem. Bacteria boom is probably the cause of it. Just be patient and let it run its course. If you still having the same problem in a few month than you need to go over the flow rate and or the where the water is being discharged. Make sure water is being dischaged in front of the skimmer and frequent phosphate test to ensure the level is slowing decreasing. I suggest the hanna low range test kits as they are the most accurate test out there. imo.

I personally never had any cyano or any other algae outbreak from the pellets.

Global, do you have a refugium in your setup? How much pellets did you start with?

I do have a refuge in my sump. It has changed over the past year, due to SPS issues.

Refuge use to have 9-10 inches DSB with about 8 inches of LR. A few months back I got rid of the DSB, and just had the existing LR that was in it put back in. Just this weekend, I have now filled the refuge with LR, where the rock is above the water line, creating a LR filter.

I run approx 2.5 litres, but also dosing Vodka. I am still in the ramp up stages of the vodka, so haven't reached the maintenance dose yet. Reason for the vodka is that I had high phosphates which probably was the main cause of my coral deaths. The vodka dosing has brought the high phosphates down to almost nothing. don't know where the phosphates are coming/came from, but this is helping.

Thanks for the detailed description as I am in the same boat tying to figure out what to do with my refugium. I had the same issue with phosphate being higher than nitrate, when I first started using the pellets both elements started to decrease but once nitrate reach undetectable levels the phosphate stopped decreasing. I was stuck with that bit of phosphate that I couldn't get rid off no matter what I tried, then finally I started running Rowaphos. Vorla, All of sudden phosphate dropped to zero, well I guess not exactly zero but good enough that my Hanna phosphate test kit reads zero. Now because I am running pellets, Rowaphos and carbon, I am planning to get rid of my refugium with semi dsb( only around 4 inches of sand) with LR and run a oversized vertex 300 cone skimmer. I just don't think the refug is needed anymore. The only down side to all this is pellets takes away oxygen, absorbs other metal elements and it address the ph swing during night time plus after I started running pellets I noticed my orp dropped from 450 to 375. Its hard to decide what to do, i guess refugium is good if you use a little bit of pellets and are able to grow chaetos and harvest it frequently. One question, I always thought it takes a bit of work to dose vodka maybe you should try rowaphos, it just seem to be a lot less work.

rowaphos is less work, but expensive for what it is. Vodka dosing isn't that bad, and eventually I will automate. The bacteria produced from the vodka also gives you the benefit of the bacteria, just like the Pellets, but I think in a grander scale.

I ditched my refugium when I went bioPellets and re built my sump with a larger reactor chamber to house more bioPellets instead :D

I had the same issue with BP and phosphates.. Could not get phos down low enough so had to install rowaphos. Now both nitrate and phos are zero and I like that I don't have to dose anything.

Different strokes for different folks. That's the great thing about this hobby. There are different methods to suit different people. Unfortunately this is also one of the most annoying aspects of this hobby! LOL

How often do you all replace the rowas? Monthly?

I replace rowaphos monthly and run about a cup and a halfs worth.