Bio pellet journal

Blob-79 · Mar 21, 2011

Hey everyone. Just thought I would start a sort of journal on my experiences with bio pellets. I had decided to build a sulfur denitrating reactor, kinda got put on hold for awhile, main reason is I recieved an email saying a new ORP controller is coming out, but not untill late summer to fall. So I decided to wait it out and experiment a bit with biopellets. With biopellets its suposed to be a much easier way of acheiving a ultra low nutrient system. Basically its another method of carbon dosing, without having to dose daily .So time will tell.

Starting out..as far as my crap test kits say..im at around 15 for nitrates, I think phosphates are undetecable (been running phoszorb in my DIY reactor) alk-9..blah blah blah, its all good lol. speaking of which...ive been eyeing up those hanna test kits..mmmm may be putting in a BRS order soon lol.

So for the setup I bought a phosban reactor, didnt mind spending money on this, as even if I dont like the bio pellets, it can easily be changed over to part of the sulfur reactor. I brought the pellets online lastnight, everywhere ive read, I hear about clumping issues. havent had that issue yet, they are still tumbling nicely.

The Box of Water · Mar 22, 2011

Hey

No Need for the BRS order to get the hanna checkers.... we now carry them

Darren
The Box Of Water

teebone110 · Mar 22, 2011

The Box of Water link said:
Hey

No Need for the BRS order to get the hanna checkers.... we now carry them

Darren
The Box Of Water

What's a hanna checker?

teebone110 · Mar 22, 2011

Hey Blob,

I'm interested to try bio-pellets too. Keep us posted as I have read some people have had mixed results.

shayneh · Mar 22, 2011

Hanna Instruments are nifty little electronic devices that let you check all your parameters. They have TDS, phosphate, ph, orp and redox....basically every instrument you could want for aquaculture or laboratory testing..... Ironically enough it's also my last name.

teebone110 · Mar 22, 2011

shayneh link said:
Hanna Instruments are nifty little electronic devices that let you check all your parameters. They have TDS, phosphate, ph, orp and redox....basically every instrument you could want for aquaculture or laboratory testing..... Ironically enough it's also my last name.

LOL! Sounds like a need one!

crazybizzle · Mar 22, 2011

Are the hanna checkers expensive?

Blob-79 · Mar 22, 2011

not really. around $40-$50 per tester

Noodle · Mar 22, 2011

I have been using pellets for a while. So far good results. I recommend everyone look into using some sort of carbon dosing. The pellets are an easy deployment.

pulpfiction1 · Mar 23, 2011

i got the kit from box of water will set it up on new system once it cycles

Blob-79 · Apr 1, 2011

so as of now my thoughts of bio-pellets are as follows

GAH....CYANO!!!

thats all for now. have a good day

teebone110 · Apr 2, 2011

Hey Blob,

Did you use the exact amount of bio-pellets recommended for your system or did you go with less?

Just curious, as I have read people doing different things.

pulpfiction1 · Apr 2, 2011

Blob-79 link said:
so as of now my thoughts of bio-pellets are as follows

GAH....CYANO!!!

thats all for now. have a good day

i have read this can create a nutient source for cyno,do you think the bio-pellets have done this?and as teebone asked,how much did you start with?

Blob-79 · Apr 2, 2011

Honestly Im not blaming the bio pellets yet. I did just move my whole system...this could be related to that. Hell could just be that time of the year..come to think of it, I had cyano this time last year too.....hm. lol. I was seeing cyano develope in my sump before I activated the pellets. Im nowhere near shutting down my pellets yet. still way too soon.

I started with 100ml of pellets. A full dose for my system would be 400ml.

pulpfiction1 · Apr 2, 2011

thanks,i ask because i too will be using the bio pellets in place of vodka once my system cycles

Blob-79 · Apr 30, 2011

ok so far I have pretty good results. I will be testing tomorrow for accurate numbers, but according to last tests, phosphates are at .04 (still running a small amount of gfo, about 100ml) nitrates are as low as I can test. (my nitrate test sucks) So all in all im pretty happy. Im running only 250ml of pellets. I still plan on increasing the amount so I can start feeding more.

SPS growth has increased quite a bit. zoas still seem to be doing well. xenia hasnt spread at all (thank you ULNS

) LPS is off and on, my huge bubble coral is sometimes not so huge...frogspawn is keeping well, while hammer is meh..bout the same, which is not so good seeing how it normally grows like a weed for me. RBTA..strange enouph Ive never seen them so large..so large I think I need to get rid of one. Rainbow monti got stung a little by one the other day, and ive had to move many corals to make way for increasing size. they now take up about 1/3 of my tank...wish they would split already.

Blob-79 · May 20, 2011

OK so after a little more then 2 months of playing with the bio pellets I think I have come to a decision. In the beginning this was just going to be an experiment to see if bio pellets were just a hype or if they actually worked. My end goal was going to be to build a sulfur reactor similar to cal_stirs.

However, over the past 2 months, im at the full dose, and the reactor seems to have settled in, and equalized. My nitrate is undetectable by my tests. and my phosphates are at .03 ppm. I am feeding more..corals and fish, Corals especially are loving it. I have also discontinued the use of any sort of phosphate absorbing media=huge cost savings

I did go thru a bit of a cyano outbreak..however Im fairly confident it didnt have anything to do with the pellets. nonetheless the cyano is now completely gone.

pulpfiction1 · May 21, 2011

good stuff blob

Blob-79 · May 21, 2011

should follow up with my husbandry I suppose

my setup consists of-

- phosban reactor 150..they only cost around $50 and seem to be the perfect size.
- npx bio pellets (made by two little fishies) carefull, I hear not all bio plastics are created equal

- maxi jet 1200 for feed. majority of flow is diverted to my RDSB.
- 10 gallon bi weekly water changes

Hayes · Jun 23, 2011

Cyano seems to be a common theme when using pellets. Several people I know have had small outbreaks that they keep under control.
I have a 90 and a 150 using a mix of different brands running in JLR reactors and have no Cyano in the 90 but had it try to take over my 150. Broke down and used Chemiclean (not because I wanted to but because I HAD to) and now there is just a little but hanging in there. I also dose Zeo Bak and Microbacter in both tank once a week. I have coral snow but havent used it in months as I am trying to get back to the basics other than pellets

Dwayne

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