Bio-pellets I quit you!

wingedfish · #1 05-05-2011, 02:53 AM

awesome, thanks guys. just switched to vertex-w-TLF over vodka 2 weeks ago.

In the short term it is looking promising, never have had the PE I'm getting now, color is intensifying, and glass cleaning has been cut in half. I'll stay on the positive side of the fence, but time will tell.

vaporize · #2 05-05-2011, 04:55 AM

I have the same feelings too

RuGlu6 · #3 05-05-2011, 06:19 AM

Took my bio-pellets of line few eeks ago as well, did not work at all.
Had it in huge 6" wide reactor powered by main pump, so lots of tumbling lol.
But at any rate this was a total waste just like ZEO method.
So after a year and a half pellets are out of my system for good.

globaldesigns · #4 05-05-2011, 04:22 PM

The biggest problem with using them is that they are NOT used properly. Most reefers are tumbling them too aggressively.

Here is an old link to Grumpy Old Reefer, who explains things well:

http://grumpyreefer.net/2010/02/08/n...-story-so-far/

I myself now use a water tank water bottle modified with a 700GPH pump that slightly tumbles them in the middle, while the surrounding pellets are slightly suspended with good water flow through them without tumbling. Every few days I do tumble all the pellets with my hand, and in doing this I can tell you that the mulm production is there and wow is it ever, even better than before when I ran a reactor (Vertex & Deltec). So this DIY reactor is the best.

With the research I have done, most that are very successful, DO NOT use the common reactors like all of us are doing. They do what I now have.... A DIY Project, A Bucket with a pump and so forth.

The KEY to all pellets is having substantial surface area for them and not going crazy on the tumbling. I myself now run about 5L of pellets in my DIY.

ALang · #5 05-05-2011, 05:46 PM

Could you maybe show us exactly what you have done??
Really would like to know.
Lenny.

Lampshade · #6 05-05-2011, 07:11 PM

Quote:

The KEY to all pellets is having substantial surface area for them and not going crazy on the tumbling. I myself now run about 5L of pellets in my DIY.

I'll agree with this, i had my pellets hooked up to a maxi 1200, and recently changed them over to a Tee off the main pump. I have less flow through there now, enough to keep them tumbling, but not flying around like the MJ was. This seems to work better, i also changed the outlet from my skimmer intake to my refugium at the same time, that may be the reason also, but my HA outbreak's stopped and is slowly getting under control now.

Matman · #7 05-05-2011, 11:52 PM

Maybe the biopellets consume too much potassium like in a zeo system. What salt are you using? Potassium level seems to vary a lot from one brand to the other. It might be one of the reason why some people experience degradation after a while.

I use the royal nature salt which have a 400 ppm potassium concentration which is a bit higher than NSW. Some brand have concentrations closer to 200! Other brands that have high potassium cocentration are aquavitro, brightwell and KV reef best I think.

I recentrly started to put SPS in my LPS dominated nano tank. I was planning to start the biopellets while keeping the heavy feeding of the tank in hope of keeping nice colors and growth. My nitrates are now at about 10 and phosphates at 0.15 with the use of a small refugium and GFO.

I was also thinking about trying mb7 and biofuel as an alternative. Is it really important to dose everyday for those? I'm not always at home!