O.C.'s Pellet questions and answers!

[GMGQ]

Hi, what are your thoughts about running a biopellet reactor without a skimmer? I want to reduce N & P, as well as provide some food for the frags.

I'm considering running biopellets on my 30gallon frag tank. There's only 1 fish in there, and he's adding to the bioload, so algae is growing in that tank.

From what I read, the main reason for needing a skimmer is to oxygenate the water, as the bacteria uses up the oxygen. I have a maxijet 400 w/ venturi running in my sump to oxygenate the water already, plus my drain sometimes sucks down a gulp of air, and flushes a bunch of micro bubbles into the sump. So i'm thinking that should be sufficient for oxygenation?

If I do run biopellets, I would use a TLF150 reactor and not use that many pellets anyways. Therefore there should not be an excessive amount of bacterial mulm floating around.

So other than the oxygenation issue, is there any other downside to running biopellets without a skimmer?

Thanks in advance.