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Old 11-01-2011, 03:14 PM
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Myka Myka is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hustler View Post
They are bio pellets of some kind in the reactor.... look like very tiny bio balls but way more in them lol
Sorry to put a damper on things, but those are not the bio pellets you hear people talking about on these forums. The ones you have appear to be a biological filter which is something that you don't want on a reef. They are ok on a FOWLR tank, but you would need a way to export nitrate. In a reef tank you want to remove organics before they have a chance to break down into nitrate as nitrate is not good for a reef tank. Biological filters (like bioballs, ceramic rings, etc) are very efficient at breaking down organics very quickly so can become "nitrate factories". Fish aren't as sensitive to nitrate as corals are, so that's ok in a FOWLR tank. In saltwater, the live rock is your biological filter and has the unique ability to DEnitrate via anaerobic bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria are aerobic and denitrifying bacteria are anaerobic. Maybe you could return this item?

The bio pellets that you hear people talking about on the forums are tiny cream colored smooth disks that slowly break down in the water. They reduce nitrate and phosphate. I'm not a fan of these, but that's just my opinion, lots of people are using them with success.
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Last edited by Myka; 11-01-2011 at 03:16 PM.
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