N/P Reducing Pellets ("Solid Vodka") - "Wow" ... 3 month update

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

Tony, I have already done this, its been about a week... running 2 Deltec 509 Fluidizers now, they are inline with a MJ 1200 running 2.5L of NP BioPellets.

Hi Rick, did you just quit the zeolites cold turkey or did you phase them out? Did you notice any reaction of the tank? Or did you time it to coincide with the time you increased the pellets?

thanks

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hi Rick, did you just quit the zeolites cold turkey or did you phase them out? Did you notice any reaction of the tank? Or did you time it to coincide with the time you increased the pellets?

thanks

Hey Tony, I quite cold turkey. It was time to do my 80% change out, but got tired of it, so just removed it and bought the second Deltec fluidizer and put another 1L of pellets in at the same time.

So I haven't seen any ill effects, all is good. My Pink Birdnest keeps getting whiter and whiter as each day goes by and the pink is starting to really come out in it. It was brownish before, as you know I am not really testing nitrates and so on. Basing my results on coral responsiveness and happiness.

I can also say zoa's are popping color much more along with all my happy SPS

For those with LPS or Softies, I have some colt, brains, frogspawn, etc... I can say that all of them are also quiet happy with the BioPellets. Others have asked this, so I thought I should post. Good extension and fullness on everything.

[freezetyle]

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in copepods? also a build-up of mulm in their skimmer?

[Chin_Lee]

Has anybody experienced cloudy water after starting the NP pellets? I started a friend's tank and his water is very cloudy. The reactor got clogged and it didn't tumble inside the reactor for about a week so i'm not sure if this contributed to it.

[Delphinus]

Hmmm, no cloudiness for me per se, but when the pellets would clog up and then get unclogged they would release so much mulm that the tank would go white. That's why they need to be fluidized so mulm can be shed as it is produced.

Freezestyle, yes and yes.

[ILIKECOUGARS]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Has anybody experienced cloudy water after starting the NP pellets? I started a friend's tank and his water is very cloudy. The reactor got clogged and it didn't tumble inside the reactor for about a week so i'm not sure if this contributed to it.

I notice that my water is on hazy side, but only one week in using the pellets. Not useing any foam in the reactor and the pellets are tumbling nicely .

[Lance]

I'm using the Vertex UF-15 reactor with no foam. Works very well with an MJ-1200. Pellets tumble nicely and no bubbles or mulm clogs.

[Delphinus]

The bubbles aren't causing a problem for me in any way because it just stays in the sump but to me it's still noteworthy that they are there. I wonder what it means or what the cause is.

[Delphinus]

It looked like somehow I was getting an air bubble trapped under the bottom sponge. I finally managed to get some quilting mesh a couple days ago, so I took the opportunity last night to replace the bottom sponge. Also I was running spongeless on the top already, but every so often the reactor would burp and I'd get a few pellets into the sump (and sometimes all the way up to the display tank) so I decided to put a top layer of the mesh in as well.

The MR-1 isn't as nice of a tumbler as the Vertex because of the bottom plate design (have now seen both reactors in action so have a fair basis of comparison). The MR-1 has a circular/slotted style openings and it seems that this causes an uneven upward flow whereas the phosban reactors and vertex have drilled bottom plates. I think this does make a difference so I think I will be at some point switching to a Vertex instead.

Rick - actually at some point I'd kinda like to see what the Deltecs look like in action as well. Maybe someday I could show up with a coffee or something? What's your favourite Timmie's concoction?

So.. anyhow, another update. I finally finished pulling the trigger on the zeolites last night, after removing them about 250ml at a time every couple of days for the last week. In the spirit of wanting to increase the pellets at the same time to compensate for any potential loss posed by the zeolites removal, I put my phosban reactor back on, so I can have two reactors running pellets now. I bought an Odyssea pump from Red Coral on Friday, put that on the MR-1, and switched over the MJ12 to the phosban. Only I took the sponges out of the phosban and put the mesh in there too. WOW, does that ever work awesome. Between the bottom plate difference and the sponge removal, the pellets are dancing like berserk in the little reactor.

So now running close to 2l total.