N/P Reducing Pellets ("Solid Vodka") - "Wow" ... 3 month update

[Delphinus]

So the pellets arrived December 23, here's a gratuitous picture of them in the bag:


I think they look like white lentils.

For a 115g tank, I am running 1/2 litre zeolites, and 1/2 litre of pellets. Both of these are half the recommended dosage for this approximate volume.

Now, the results:
I put the pellets and zeolites reactor online on December 24, after a 25% water change and replacement of carbon.

I am measuring nitrate with a Pinpoint NO3 monitor and I recalibrate the probe prior to each use, currently on the high range setting (10 to 100ppm).

Day 0 (following the water change): NO3 = 17ppm


Today is day 4, and I took another nitrate test.

Day 4: NO3 = 14ppm

So, 4 days in and already appears to be a slight reduction of nitrate.

I will continue to post back results every few days.

[Delphinus]

For what it's worth, one potential "con" to running the pellets in the manner I have chosen is this.

The pellets are porous (as they intended to be). This means when dry they will float. The zeovit reactor I am using has a check valve but it failed after 2 days (possibly due to a pellet lodged in it, I haven't yet had a chance to investigate the reason).

I was initially running the reactor on a 3 hours on / 3 hours off cycle (as per zeovit prescriptions). However with the failed check valve, the water level would drop back down to sump level which is approximately 1/4" lower than the top of the pellets, so 1/4" of the pellets would dry out during the "off" cycles. These would float up to the top of the reactor at the start of the next "on" cycle and ended up in the sump, some of which ended up getting sucked up into the sump return pump and spat into the display tank.

I'm not worried about the pellets in the main tank, they will eventually dissolve, but it's disappointing that there is a non-zero percentage of pellets are not in the reactor as was intended.

The pellets are also small enough to fit through the holes of the reactor and fall through to the outside chamber when the inside chamber is "pumped."

So there is a case to be made to suggest running these pellets in a separate reactor with a strainer on the output, such as a Phosban reactor.

[StirCrazy]

Hey Tony, how are you explaining the reduction happening so fast when the manufacture says it will take two weeks for the bacteria to build up on the pellents and start giving you a noticable reduction?

Steve

[don.ald]

i understand you want the NP to tumble, but just a thought: could you put the NP loosly in a media sack and agitate them with the daily cleaning of the zeolites? since you are using both zeo and NP would this maybe be enough?

[Tom R]

With Zeovit you have to change out the rocks every 8 to 12 weeks. Are you going to also change out the N/P Pellets at that time?

Tom R

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Hey Tony, how are you explaining the reduction happening so fast when the manufacture says it will take two weeks for the bacteria to build up on the pellents and start giving you a noticable reduction?

Steve

It's just a guess on my part but I was sort of hoping that with the combination of zeo and these, that the addition of the bacteria to the reactor would explain this.

It does mean that I don't know if it's the zeo or the pellets responsible or if it's both. I don't have a way to quantify how much reduction is attributable to either.

Originally Posted by don.ald

i understand you want the NP to tumble, but just a thought: could you put the NP loosly in a media sack and agitate them with the daily cleaning of the zeolites? since you are using both zeo and NP would this maybe be enough?

Maybe. One thing the pellets are good for is sloughing off a bacterial film which the manufacturer claims is good coral food. A sponge on the output or a filter sock would impede this, or possibly get clogged.

Zeovit also makes this claim.

I have noticed that when I agitated the reactor that more of this film is released than when I was running zeovit before on its own. So there seems to be some truth to this aspect. Whether it's as good as they say it is for corals though, ... too early for me to speculate on.

Having mixed the two together though ... I do have a problem down the road when it comes time to replace zeolites. The pellets don't stay put as a layer on top, the agitation fully homogenizes the mix so I'll be picking out zeolites one pebble at a time when the time comes. We'll see how much I hate that. Putting a sponge in the chamber to separate the two substrates seems defeating. So I still wonder if in the long run these are better off in their own reactor, or passive in a high flow area in the sump in a loose filter bag. But we'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Tom R

With Zeovit you have to change out the rocks every 8 to 12 weeks. Are you going to also change out the N/P Pellets at that time?

Tom R

The manufacturer claims no need to replace the pellets but just let them slowly dissolve, theoretically dissolve into nothingness over 6 months. So the plan is to keep the pellets but just pick out the zeolites.

[wayner]

So are these pellets suppose to replace the need for zeo rocks in a zeo reactor?, or are we taking different types of bacteria here., if this is the case, then I suppose one would have the option to just dose a color enhancing product or anything else for that matter without the need to pump the reactor daily and change out rocks periodically as these pellets disolve over time..

Sounds easier, but maybe I don't have this down right just yet?