Questions about Bio-pellets

[sewerman45]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

How long did you soak them for? Should be at least a day or two in water before using in the reactor. Be sure to get them tumbling immediately after pouring into the reactor, or they may start clumping. Once they are tumbling, they should be good for a long time.

And yes, should check your kH.

I definitely didn't soak them long enough. I only soaked them for an hour or so. What controls KH and what do I need to do to maintain it? I feel silly... another parameter that I wasn't checking.

[albert_dao]

KH is probably the single most important ion to monitor in SW aquariums. Let's put it this way, Ca, Mg, K+ too low/high? Animals become unhappy. kH out of whack? Everything dies.

Pick up a test kit for kH; I'm partial to the Salifert one. Easy to use, relatively inexpensive. You'll want a firm grip on what kH is and how it interacts with other major ions. Here is an article to get your started:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

[Ram3500]

Originally Posted by sewerman45

I definitely didn't soak them long enough. I only soaked them for an hour or so. What controls KH and what do I need to do to maintain it? I feel silly... another parameter that I wasn't checking.

Depending on your system you might not have to dose kh/alk as long as you change you water once a month or every few weeks. If you are considering on have a sps tank you will have to add a dosser to keep you alk stable or all you sps will not be happy. When carbon dossing / bio pellets you need to keep you parameters close to NSW If your alk gets over 9 you risk burnt tips of your sps.

[Myka]

Just curious, if you don't test anything in the tank, how do you know you need to use biopellets? You do know that biopellets are used to reduce nitrate and phosphate, and you don't want either one to be zero, so you could cause more trouble than good by adding biopellets if they aren't needed.

If you want SPS, you'll definitely need to buy test kits for calcium and alkalinity, and should also get magnesium. Nitrate and phosphate are also important to monitor for SPS. As already mentioned, keeping a very close eye on alkalinity is the most important parameter for SPS (aside from the tank getting too hot or something haha). I also like Salifert test kits. They are easy to use, accurate, and reasonably priced. Don't bother with kits like Nutrafin or API.

SPS are high-demand corals, some less so than others (like birdnest, poccilopora, stylopora, montipora). In order to be successful you either need horseshoes up your butt or you need to watch the water parameters.

[sewerman45]

Sorry for not providing all the information. This is all making me more confused.

I am dosing Calcium, Alk and Magnesium with a 2 part dosing system and an automated doser. I am testing for the above as well as phosphates (which are not measurable in my system anymore) and occasionally nitrates. My controller also measures PH. I do have pretty low nitrates but am getting some algae growth so I added bio-pellets. All other parameters are right in the range of the above mentioned article which I often consult.

What is KH and how does it interact with Alk and PH? I am having a hard time finding any info on KH specifically.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by sewerman45

Sorry for not providing all the information. This is all making me more confused.

I am dosing Calcium, Alk and Magnesium with a 2 part dosing system and an automated doser. I am testing for the above as well as phosphates (which are not measurable in my system anymore) and occasionally nitrates. My controller also measures PH. I do have pretty low nitrates but am getting some algae growth so I added bio-pellets. All other parameters are right in the range of the above mentioned article which I often consult.

What is KH and how does it interact with Alk and PH? I am having a hard time finding any info on KH specifically.

Unit of alkalinity (alk) is dKH (degree of Carbon hardness), measured in dKH or ppm. Hope that clears up the confusion. If you are measuring alk (since you are dosing the big three), then you are measuing dKH.

[sewerman45]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Unit of alkalinity (alk) is dKH (degree of Carbon hardness), measured in dKH or ppm. Hope that clears up the confusion. If you are measuring alk (since you are dosing the big three), then you are measuing dKH.

Ok. This makes way more sense. KH is alk. Thank you. I was so confused for a bit there and now am more than a little embarrassed.

So I guess that my alk isn't causing any kind of problem with the bio-pellets and I should just soak them longer so they stop clumping at the top and maybe look into a better reactor. Does anyone having suggestions for a better reactor? Or should I just stick it out and use this one... or is it even worth using one when my phos is undetectable and have pretty low nitrates?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by sewerman45

Ok. This makes way more sense. KH is alk. Thank you. I was so confused for a bit there and now am more than a little embarrassed.

So I guess that my alk isn't causing any kind of problem with the bio-pellets and I should just soak them longer so they stop clumping at the top and maybe look into a better reactor. Does anyone having suggestions for a better reactor? Or should I just stick it out and use this one... or is it even worth using one when my phos is undetectable and have pretty low nitrates?

There are people who hates biopellets and then there are people who swears by them. Biopellets seems to be one of those things which, if you can make it work, works but otherwise screws up the whole tank. My experience with biopellets was bitter and hence I moved to zeovit.

Maybe post the values of your ca,alk and mg here and people will be able to help you more. Occasionally, wrong bacteria can start feeding on the biopellets and cause the system to crash so you have to make sure biopellet is being used by the right nitrifying bacteria but first and foremost important thing with any ULNS system is to make sure that the big three are in NSW range, alk being the most important one. It has to be between 7 to 8, you can probably push it to 8.5dkh. And tumbling is very important for biopellets.

There are quite a handful of biopellet reactors on the market so choose whichever is suitable for the amount of pellets you use and the size. I think vertex has some nice ones.