Looking for opinions on using BioPellets

[TimT]

Originally Posted by Ryan7

I am not disagreeing that bacteria can be waterborne, however, I do not believe our corals consume it, save for sponges, dusters ect..

Here is a link discussing bacterial consumption by corals.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/eb/index.htm

Originally Posted by Ryan7

Furthermore, I believe vinegar/vodka dosing also feeds Cyanobacteria, however, some research suggests that Vinegar does not. My experience has been both do.

I have experienced the opposite while dosing vodka/vinegar so I suspect there are other causative factors at work. I suspect that there must be several key ingredients to have a cyano bloom. Some of them being phosphate and high dissolved organics. I have noticed that certain times of year there are several complaints about cyano outbreaks so perhaps it's seasonal too? Just rambling here.

[Etaloche]

I actually think I did this recently when I decided to start dosing a bit of vodka in preparation to have pellets running. Must've dosed a little too much and woke up to hazy water and a copepod population explosion in my tank. The other thing I noticed is that the small bits of cyano and algae that started to grow completely disappeared. Seems as though the bacteria bloom over competed them for nutrients and starved them out or maybe the pods ate them? In any case in my experience the opposite happened where an overdose completely starved out the cyano. Didn't notice any browning and if anything my corals looked happier than ever once the water cleared up and light could penetrate the water properly again.