Looking for opinions on using BioPellets

[Ryan7]

Originally Posted by TimT

I have personally observed a waterborne bacterial overgrowth. I installed a UV sterilizer on the system and all the haze was gone in the morning. Redox was down around 80mv during the haze.

Forms of bacterial overgrowth were linked to the specific type of carbon source in a post on RC. There was waterborne, surface and then stringy mucous. I have seen all three in tanks.

I like the dosing methodology as it's easier to control and change dosage if necessary.

I am not disagreeing that bacteria can be waterborne, however, I do not believe our corals consume it, save for sponges, dusters ect..

The methodology for dosing vinegar/vodka is not to promote the bacteria to become waterborne, and if you are able to see it in your water column, the dosage is too high and has caused a bacteria bloom. This can actually brown out your corals, thus, my belief in that the corals are not consuming it.

Furthermore, I believe vinegar/vodka dosing also feeds Cyanobacteria, however, some research suggests that Vinegar does not. My experience has been both do.

Here is a good article on dosing and an excerpt from it:

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....arine-aquarium

"Scientific research has found that cyanobacterial growth does not increase when dosing vinegar (acetate), where it was found that ethanol dosing will increase cyanobacterial growth. Cyanobacteria produce PHA to store energy when needed. PHA is an ingredient in some biopellets. So cyanobacteria can utilize some if not all of the biopellets. Hobbyists who have dosed vinegar have reported less cyanobacterial problems compared to dosing biopellets & ethanol. This was my experience as well"

As someone who has tried and tested, vinegar/vodka dosing, bio-pellets and nitraguard bio-cubes. Bio-cubes are the only way to go.