Bio-pellets I quit you!

[Matman]

Maybe the biopellets consume too much potassium like in a zeo system. What salt are you using? Potassium level seems to vary a lot from one brand to the other. It might be one of the reason why some people experience degradation after a while.

I use the royal nature salt which have a 400 ppm potassium concentration which is a bit higher than NSW. Some brand have concentrations closer to 200! Other brands that have high potassium cocentration are aquavitro, brightwell and KV reef best I think.

I recentrly started to put SPS in my LPS dominated nano tank. I was planning to start the biopellets while keeping the heavy feeding of the tank in hope of keeping nice colors and growth. My nitrates are now at about 10 and phosphates at 0.15 with the use of a small refugium and GFO.

I was also thinking about trying mb7 and biofuel as an alternative. Is it really important to dose everyday for those? I'm not always at home!

[whatcaneyedo]

Same here. I keep quite a diversity of coral in a heavily fed, aggressively skimmed system. I was just hoping that I could use them instead of GFO to keep the phosphate in my system undetectable. So I tried the minimum recommended amount and then even less a second time and each time many of my soft coral began to bleach within a few weeks and my sandbed started to get covered with cyano. I can think of two things that I may have done wrong that might at least in part explain why they didn't work for me. The first was that the reactor output probably wasn't aimed well enough towards my skimmer's intake. The second was that I have not had detectable nitrate in several years. From what I've read they consume 4:1 nitrate to phosphate. But to me this still doesn't explain why 100ml of Vertex pellets would begin to kill off some of the coral in my +200gal system.

[Matman]

In fact they consume 16:1 nitrates to phosphates I think. I guess you got very limited on nitrates. In my case I would hit 0 on phosphates before. Maybe I shouldn't clean the frozen mysis shrimp before dropping them to keep some phosphates.

[Dyspnea]

I took my reactors off online last night and cleaned my sump. Today I'll be adding chateo and trying out a couple mangroves. And maybe later I'll run some GFO after my tank settles a bit. hopefully thing will turn around

The output of my bio pellet reactor was aimed towards my skimmer. I have a dark brown skimmate which needs to be empty and cleaned at least every three days.

I've alway used instant ocean, cause I can always find it. Potassium depletion may have been an issue, but I considered the possibly a supplement of some nature was lacking, and that's why I changed to 40% water changes monthly with no effect.

And I don't think tumbling was ever an issue. The first few days I ran the reactor faster than I should have, so the clumping would resolve. When clumping wasn't an issue, I decreased the flow and the pellets would rise and fall gently.

[asylumdown]

I started using biopellets after 1.5 years of running my tank and within a month my sand, rocks and glass were covered in cyano. Output was aimed directly at the skimmer, but maybe I had them tumbling too fast in the reactor. It's kind of hard to tell what 'too fast' is without physically watching the reactor of someone who is using them successfully.

I probably would have stuck it out and tried tweaking things if I hadn't needed to break down my tank, but it's food for thought for the next build.

[bryceschutte]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I started using biopellets after 1.5 years of running my tank and within a month my sand, rocks and glass were covered in cyano. Output was aimed directly at the skimmer, but maybe I had them tumbling too fast in the reactor. It's kind of hard to tell what 'too fast' is without physically watching the reactor of someone who is using them successfully.

I probably would have stuck it out and tried tweaking things if I hadn't needed to break down my tank, but it's food for thought for the next build.

I have had a large cyano outbreak also. GOOD BYE bio pellets!

[imcosmokramer]

wow....I was ready to start using them....now I'm having second thoughts...argh!

[GMGQ]

A bacterial bloom is normal during the initial stages of running biopellets. You should have just been patient, sucked out the cyano and ride it through.

And yes, if the tumble was too fast, the bacterial mulm wont be able to hang onto the pellets.

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I started using biopellets after 1.5 years of running my tank and within a month my sand, rocks and glass were covered in cyano. Output was aimed directly at the skimmer, but maybe I had them tumbling too fast in the reactor. It's kind of hard to tell what 'too fast' is without physically watching the reactor of someone who is using them successfully.

I probably would have stuck it out and tried tweaking things if I hadn't needed to break down my tank, but it's food for thought for the next build.

[blacknife]

getting really ****ed off at the constant clumping in TLF 150 with a 550 gph powerhead pushing it.

regular cyano outbreaks. but hey i had cyano before i had pellets.

I am sure if the dammed things would just keep tumbling they would work great but every day i have to take the thing apart and stir all the white grossness up to get them tumbling again only to have them all mostly stuck again in an hour.

any ideas how to make a tlf reactor work better?
bah probably just scrap the thing and run the tank without for a bit. considering zeo but buying anything for the tank lately falls into spousal fury territory.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by GMGQ

A bacterial bloom is normal during the initial stages of running biopellets. You should have just been patient, sucked out the cyano and ride it through.

And yes, if the tumble was too fast, the bacterial mulm wont be able to hang onto the pellets.

Thanks, they're not totally off the list for the next build. I've got space in my future sump for the TLF 550 and an almost full bag of vertex biopellets, so there's a really solid chance they're on the menu. I would for sure have kept them running in my 90 if I hadn't needed to have broken it down.

I will hopefully have years of tweaking in the next tank