Bio pellets are peeling and clumpy

[The Grizz]

Sounds like you have them turning just right now. I have never washed mine just topped them off when needed.

[kien]

I think the principle behind the pellets and zeolites(rocks) are similar in that they grow bacteria. Both have to be shaken frequently to rid the media of all that bacteria byproduct. It is up to the hobbyist to decide how to go about doing that. You can either manually shack them once a day, rig them up to some sort of pump but still agitating them periodically. Luckily for biopellets you can automate this process of shaking them by allowing them to tumble constantly. Some people have MacGyvered reactors to try and do this with ZeoLite rocks as well with varying degrees os success. Any of the above should work.

[reef93]

Originally Posted by kien

I think the principle behind the pellets and zeolites(rocks) are similar in that they grow bacteria. Both have to be shaken frequently to rid the media of all that bacteria byproduct. It is up to the hobbyist to decide how to go about doing that. You can either manually shack them once a day, rig them up to some sort of pump but still agitating them periodically. Luckily for biopellets you can automate this process of shaking them by allowing them to tumble constantly. Some people have MacGyvered reactors to try and do this with ZeoLite rocks as well with varying degrees os success. Any of the above should work.

Have you ever seen pellets that are peeling off and they were floating everywhere like flakes. It didn't look normal to me when I saw them like that. They are all gone now since I let all the air from the reactor out. Thank goodness.

[kien]

If by "peeling off" you mean the mulm that is sloughing off the pellets then that's normal. However, the fact that they are clumping due to this suggests to me that you are not keeping up with the production of mulm. I'd recommend getting a bigger reactor so that you can send more flow through the reactor. I've used the TLF150 as a biopellet reactor before and found it very difficult to use for this purpose. there are lots of good reactors out there designed for this type of media. Also, if you upgrade your reactor you can upgrade your pellet reactor pump and have much better control over how much flow gets into the reactor. If getting a bigger reactor is not in the cards then you will have to manually agitate the pellets frequently to keep up with all that bacteria byproduct.

[reef93]

I guess I have no choice but to manually stir them once in a while then. I can't afford to change my reactor for another ... NO MONEY for now, I have to save for the Boxing day sale coming in 4 months to get the nice tunze wavemaker. Thanks for your input, Kien.

[kien]

Can you show a picture of how full the reactor is? Maybe it's as simple as reducing the volume o pellets that you have in the reactor. This will allow you to push more flow through it. I found that with the TLF 150s it was very easy to overload it with pellets.

[reef93]

I have no camera but I can tell you what I did. With that reactor I put 1000ml bio pellets from Vertex for my 75 gallon tank. They were doing fine untill the last few days I had noticed they had all become clumpy like cake and the mulm started peeling off a lot. I didn't know what was it and scared that it would kill my tank.

[kien]

Personally I think 1000mL is way too much for that reactor to handle. I struggled with running 500mL when I tried using the TLF150. Somewhere from 250 to 400mL I think is more reasonable for that reactor.

[reef93]

Really ... let's see in a few days, if it happens again I will take half of them out. Hummm, I thought I was putting the right amount.

[kien]

You may be putting the right amount for your tank but that doesn't mean that little reactor can handle that capacity :-(