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

Delphinus · #1 02-05-2010, 12:34 AM

I wouldn't really expect the hair algae to disappear overnight though. FWIW, I have hair algae growing on the top 1/2" of my overflow slats where the tangs and urchins can't seem to get at it. The problem is that even if you got your tank down to zero nitrates, the nitrates are still being produced, thus the hair algae is a consumer of nitrates alongside the pellets. So at best it might slow down a little bit but it's really going to have to be a long time before it's starved out. (I think, anyhow.)

I would be testing for nitrate to see if it's having an effect. I would be really surprised if it isn't.

The mulm production is to me more of a bit of an unfortunate side effect rather than a benefit. Perhaps if the pellets are tumbling and the mulm is sloughed off in small but continuous quantities it's more beneficial but one thing I've noticed is that if the pellets are allowed to settle for any amount of time (even just for a few hours), shaking the reactor to re-fluidize the pellets releases a .. . for lack of a better way to put it .. a crapstorm of mulm in biblical plague proportions. I've had my tank in a total blizzard situation at some points after manual agitations. I'm still trying to find the ideal balance of flow and pellet volumes for my phosban reactor to stay fluidized, it's having trouble staying fluidized, what happens is say half of it gets pushed upwards and clumps together while the bottom half stays fluidized. I might have my reactor a little bit overfull so if it continues I might be looking at upgrading the reactor or worst case maybe reducing the volume inside the reactor.

OceanicCorals-Ian- · #2 02-05-2010, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I wouldn't really expect the hair algae to disappear overnight though. FWIW, I have hair algae growing on the top 1/2" of my overflow slats where the tangs and urchins can't seem to get at it. The problem is that even if you got your tank down to zero nitrates, the nitrates are still being produced, thus the hair algae is a consumer of nitrates alongside the pellets. So at best it might slow down a little bit but it's really going to have to be a long time before it's starved out. (I think, anyhow.)

I would be testing for nitrate to see if it's having an effect. I would be really surprised if it isn't.

The mulm production is to me more of a bit of an unfortunate side effect rather than a benefit. Perhaps if the pellets are tumbling and the mulm is sloughed off in small but continuous quantities it's more beneficial but one thing I've noticed is that if the pellets are allowed to settle for any amount of time (even just for a few hours), shaking the reactor to re-fluidize the pellets releases a .. . for lack of a better way to put it .. a crapstorm of mulm in biblical plague proportions. I've had my tank in a total blizzard situation at some points after manual agitations. I'm still trying to find the ideal balance of flow and pellet volumes for my phosban reactor to stay fluidized, it's having trouble staying fluidized, what happens is say half of it gets pushed upwards and clumps together while the bottom half stays fluidized. I might have my reactor a little bit overfull so if it continues I might be looking at upgrading the reactor or worst case maybe reducing the volume inside the reactor.

You likely have too much volume of pellets in the reactor, my pellets are running using an MJ1200 at full blast. They are churning inside the reactor very aggressively.