BioPellets with Vodka Dosing - Your Thoughts

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by kien

Interesting . The beauty of the pellets as you pointed out is that you don't have to touch them for a while. Certainly no daily chore. They certainly do reduce nitrates and phosphates but not with the same gusto as Zeo. It sounds like you are willing to put in a little more effort in the form of daily dosing chores in order to get better results. If that's the case then why not just ditch the pellets and Vodka/sugar/vinegar and go the zeo route? Seems to me that anyone willing and able to put up with the zeo chores should go that route.

Hey, I am still using zeolites and zeo dosing. I just think my bioload is too large maybe.

I won't ditch the pellets, as they are doing a better job, than just zeo alone... Personally I didn't have much success with the Zeolites only. I put them back in just recently, as I have several bags and running with the pellets, again just seeing what happens.

I did get another 1L of pellets in the reactors tonight, and also a few days ago, I removed the running of the reactors independantly to now running them inline. Research is showing that running inline will be better.

I guess, I will just wait and see. Zeolites are about 1.5 months old, and are the first batch since starting them back up, so almost time to exchange them with new and more.

I will hold back on the vodka/sugar/vinegar dosing and see what happens now with the extra pellets and the running of them inline and tumbling slowly. REMEMBER THE TUMBLING IS KEY FOR PELLETS, THEY NEED TO TUMBLE VERY GENTLY.

If you see my tank, I think you all would be impressed, don't get me wrong it looks great!!! But many of you that know me, know that I am very anal and a perfectionist, and some corals can be better, so I want it that way. HEHE

[kien]

Wow you are on Zeo and pellets?? Don't know too many people doing that. You must have an insane Bioload

That's interesting that you didn't get better results out of zeo. I always thought that Zeo alone was pretty efficient at nutrient reduction.

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by kien

Wow you are on Zeo and pellets?? Don't know too many people doing that. You must have an insane Bioload

That's interesting that you didn't get better results out of zeo. I always thought that Zeo alone was pretty efficient at nutrient reduction.

I know, I spared no expense on the Zeo, and it kinda failed for me. Since the pellets, I love the results, but they are not perfect. What's your thoughts on my previous post?

[kien]

I've never heard of anyone running both so I don't really know.. Lots of people use those additives with success so I don't see why you couldn't. That is unless your tank currently has high nutrient levels, then maybe stop dosing those additives and work on reducing those nutrients first.

What are you testing with? Pin point nitrate? Hana phosphate or other? I have found that after having used a pin point nitrate meter and the Hana digital phosphate meter that all previous test kits were difficult for me to determine actual values.

[Willito]

How many fish do you have and what corals are you keeping?

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Willito

How many fish do you have and what corals are you keeping?

Most of the corals are SPS, some acans, some zoas and softies.

Water=1.025
Water Temp=80'C, this doesn't fluctuate that much
PH=8.3
ALK=7-8, based on Zeo... When I had removed the zeolites I raised it to 10-11, but now back down to 8ish
Ca=400
Mg=1350
K=400
Nitrite=0.02
Ammonia=0.15-0.2
Nitrate - I don't know, need to get another kit.

Please note all test results above were done yesterday. I use only ELOS test kits.

Fish:
- Sohal Tang (medium size)
- Blonde Naso (small)
- Hippo Tang (medium)
- Yellow Tang (full)
- Blue Throat Trigger (small)
- Foxface (full)
- 2 Barred Rabbit (medium)
- Maroon Clown
- Flame Angel
- Potters Angel
- half a dozen small fish (chromis, cardinals and 1 mandarin)

As you can see I don't have many fish, but do have larger species. Now they are not big by any means yet, but when my sohal tang POOPS, well he really lets go.

Cleaning Crew:
- hundreds/thousands of snails. What can I say, they are really breeding, lots of little guys every night that come out. Also about 150-200 larger snails that I had purchased in the beginning.
- 4 sand sifting stars (3 I just got today)
- 1 sand sifting shrimp (just got today)
- No cleaner shrimp, they keep disappearing, I think I have a mantis/pistal shrimp based on the clicks I here sometimes. Stopped buying as it was a waste of money
- 2 long spine urchins
- 1 blue star
- 1 Coral Banded Shrimp
- 1 Purple Clawed Lobster - what a waste of money, I never see him, but if I search I can find him, but he never comes out.

I never really stopped the Zeo, but again I don't dose the recommended, as even before the pellets, I found the recommended too much. Also the Zeo gurus say that it is also true (I frequent zeovit.com). So I currently dose about 60% of the recommended for everything.

[globaldesigns]

After researching on the zeovit site, they recommend not dosing Food7, Bac and Start when using the Pellets. So I think I should not use anymore Food7 or Bac, and see what happens. Also they say to remove the Zeolites, but should I? Can I just leave them but not add the ZeoBac?

Your thoughts?

[globaldesigns]

On another note:

As I just stated, I am running a full regime of Zeo... Maybe I shouldn't be?

I run:
- Coral Snow
- Zeo Zyme
- Zeo Bak
- Coral Vitalizers
- K Balance
- LPS Amino Acid
- Amino Acid drops
- Food 7
- Pohls Extra (haven't used for a couple months now)

The by-product of the pellets is food for corals, maybe the Zeo dosing is just adding more nutrients, causing the browning of some corols. Any ideas here, maybe I should cut out some of the Zeo dosing? Never thought of that.

[lobsterboy]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

On another note:

As I just stated, I am running a full regime of Zeo... Maybe I shouldn't be?

I run:
- Coral Snow
- Zeo Zyme
- Zeo Bak
- Coral Vitalizers
- K Balance
- LPS Amino Acid
- Amino Acid drops
- Food 7
- Pohls Extra (haven't used for a couple months now)

The by-product of the pellets is food for corals, maybe the Zeo dosing is just adding more nutrients, causing the browning of some corols. Any ideas here, maybe I should cut out some of the Zeo dosing? Never thought of that.

your not dosing Zeostart ?

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by lobsterboy

your not dosing Zeostart ?

Nope not anymore.

I have slept on it and decided to keep going with how it is setup already, that is with the Zeolites still running and the dosing.

My reasoning is that before I put the Zeolites back in things were very good, but can say that I had a couple patches of very fine green algae on couple areas of glass that I don't clean. Since adding the zeolites back in, about 2 weeks after, these are now 100% gone, and the urchins and snails have cleaned the glass bare. I am very happy about that. So I decided this morning to leave as is, but with the extra 1L of Pellets I just added, and I even slowed down the flow more on the pellets. Results are great, now lets see if I can get perfect. HEHE.