Long term success without carbon dosing

[Reef Pilot]

I think some people have problems with bio pellets, because they are not using MB7 or some other bacterial supplement. MB7 provides beneficial bacteria which out competes cyano and prevents mulm. It also makes my tank crystal clear.

Also, you need a good bio pellet reactor that tumbles your bio pellets properly.

I have used bio pellets (with MB7) for over a year now, and can say that it works very well for me. My SPS is growing very nicely.

I should mention that I inherited a very mature tank (10+ years) old that was totally infested with algae, cyano, detritus, etc, and phosphates and nitrates were very high. It took me a while to get it down, but now I have zero nitrates, and near zero phosphates. I also run GFO, as the bio pellets did not completely eliminate the phosphates.

Before that, I tried everything else, refugium, vacuuming sand, as well as brushing, turkey basting and rinsing my live rocks, not to mention lots of water changes. It was not until I started using bio pellets (and still took another 3 months) that I finally got my nitrates and phosphates totally under control. So no doubt in my mind that bio pellets work.

The other thing with bio pellets, is that it is very low maintenance. I last added pellets about 5 months ago, and noticed that my consumption is still decreasing. Plus I never have to clean my bio pellet reactor. And if there is a power outage (had one recently here), it starts right up, with no intervention or more maintenance.

But as per my initial post on this thread at the beginning, I still don't recommend bio pellets or carbon dosing on a new tank, unless you can't get your nitrates down with normal good tank husbandry practices.