More bio pellets questions.

[DerekL]

I started bio pellets Nov 30 I started with 100ml of pellets a 1/4 of the recommended amount by TLF NPX bioplastics. I added another 100ml Dec 19th. I am going slow don't want a bacteria bloom or cyano. I did notice some cyano starting in my sump. I went a few days lights out and it solved that problem. Now I do have to output from my TLF 150 reactor that I run my bio pellets in zip tied so that it is right next to my skimmer intake. The is no way that the majority if not all is being taken into my skimmer.  My question is will I not notice a drop in my nitrates until I am at the full recommended amount of pellets as I have seen a slight increase in nitrates? I am afraid it may be too soon to add another 100 ml of pellets as last time my sump started getting cyano. Or is it safe now to add the rest of the pellet to the reactor or should I keep with adding a 100 ml at a time till I get to the 400ml the TLF NPX bioplastics recommends for 100 gallons? 
Thank you guys

 

[jroovers]

If you just saw some cyano, I wouldn't add more than another 100 ml.  Strange though that your nitrates have gone up instead of down since your last bump up.  Have you made any other changes since that time (i.e. heavier feeding, less water changes, less skimming)?  If you are trying to lower your nitrates, bumping up another 100 ml of pellets may be a good idea, but I'd also look to other potential areas of nutrient export as well in addition to bumping up (i.e. reduce feedings somewhat, skim heavier, change your water more frequently).  I find that when I get a bit of a bump in nutrients it is often simply because I've been feeding a bit too heavy or I have a lot of detritus collecting in my sump or sandbed that needs to be cleaned/vacuumed out.  In my experience its definitely a fine line to find (between too many and too little nutrients).

 

[DerekL]

Feeding has been a bit less I do a 15 to 20 gallon water change weekly. As for skimming I believe I am skimming heavier now that I have the new JNS cone S C01 skimmer. I am getting half a collection cup of real dark nasties every day. I still have chaeto and caularpa in my sump. When I do my water change I have a dedicated shop vac that I use to vacuum out all water an detrius I can see in my sump and like I said do this weekly. Again they cyano was only in the sump but I don't want that in my dt. Maybe I will try and add another 100 ml of pellets to put me at 3/4 the recommended amount. I will wait for a few other opinions from others who run bio pellets.

 

[jroovers]

Feeding has been a bit less I do a 15 to 20 gallon water change weekly. As for skimming I believe I am skimming heavier now that I have the new JNS cone S C01 skimmer. I am getting half a collection cup of real dark nasties every day. I still have chaeto and caularpa in my sump. When I do my water change I have a dedicated shop vac that I use to vacuum out all water an detrius I can see in my sump and like I said do this weekly. Again they cyano was only in the sump but I don't want that in my dt. Maybe I will try and add another 100 ml of pellets to put me at 3/4 the recommended amount. I will wait for a few other opinions from others who run bio pellets.

I think that is more than ok then to bump up, I forgot you just got that new skimmer, welcome to the JNS club.  Half a cup per day, that is pretty solid skimming.  Still odd though that your nitrates would go up instead of down with the heavier skimming and the husbandry practices you are describing.  Maybe your system will need the recommended amount of pellets then for nitrate reduction (I find my system needs significantly less).  If you are still growing chaeto you must still have some phosphates.  With the heavier skimming and the biopellets, you may find that you no longer need the chaeto.  I got rid of mine ages ago. 

 

[DerekL]

I figured once the chaeto starts dwindling I will do away with it. My phosphates are reading .02ppm with the Hanna phosphate checker. I am running hcgfo and carbon in a dual media reactor as well. I do usually feed once a day. But I am very strict when it come to water changes I may be off a day or two but do it weekly. I will add another 100ml of bio pellets. Hope I will start seeing the benifits of bio pellets soon. How long does it usually take to start seeing benifits of bio pellets.

 

[Pistol]

Some claim results in a week or two but most say 4 to 6 weeks.

 

[Pistol]

I started bio pellets Nov 30 I started with 100ml of pellets a 1/4 of the recommended amount by TLF NPX bioplastics. I added another 100ml Dec 19th. I am going slow don't want a bacteria bloom or cyano. I did notice some cyano starting in my sump. I went a few days lights out and it solved that problem. Now I do have to output from my TLF 150 reactor that I run my bio pellets in zip tied so that it is right next to my skimmer intake. The is no way that the majority if not all is being taken into my skimmer.  My question is will I not notice a drop in my nitrates until I am at the full recommended amount of pellets as I have seen a slight increase in nitrates? I am afraid it may be too soon to add another 100 ml of pellets as last time my sump started getting cyano. Or is it safe now to add the rest of the pellet to the reactor or should I keep with adding a 100 ml at a time till I get to the 400ml the TLF NPX bioplastics recommends for 100 gallons? 
Thank you guys

Pellets are good at maintaining low no3 but can take awhile to lower them especially if they are high to start with.

 

[DerekL]

My nitrates where 5ppm or lower when I had started the bio pellets. The last 2 times I had checked them they where around 10ppm??? Now also the 4 to 6 weeks from the time starting or the time from when you have got to the full recommended amount of pellets? 

 

[DerekL]

I added another 100ml of bio pellets bringing me to 300 mls which is 3/4 the recommended amount. I am thinking about doing a daily water change of 5 gallons for a week to get my nitrates down or is this too aggressive? Should I maybe do 5 gallons every other day? I would obviously stop once nitrates are down. Would blowing my rock work off a bit before water change be bad? Just thinking of ways to ensure as much detrius as possible gets removed. 

 

[Pistol]

I blow my rockwork off weekly prior to my WC, the less detritus the better, I wouldn't get too aggressive with the WC's, make sure you are directing the effluent at your skimmer intake to ensure you are exporting the nutrients.

 

[DerekL]

My effluent is directed at the intake of my skimmer. I have it zip tied in place so it doesn't move either. So maybe I will do 5 gallon water change every other day to to try and get my nitrates back down to 5 ppm or under.

 

[jroovers]

It sounds like your maintenance practices will get you where you want to be, I wouldn't start going to too drastic measures to get your nitrates down, just let the pellets do their thing and stick to your schedule, unless your corals are starting to look off.  How do your corals look generally, is everything ok?  How well are your pellets tumbling? Still a bit strange that your nitrates are going up instead of going down if you haven't made any other changes.  Did you stir anything up when changing skimmers that got into the water column?  I would try and reduce your feedings a bit if you can until they come down. 

 

[spyd]

I would definitely stop at 300ml of pellets for a 100G tank. I run about 500ml on my 180G tank but I have about 300G total in my system. Just let them do their thing. It will take some time before they start working properly. Go too quick and you can have a disaster or some serious cyano, etc.

Water changes never hurt. I do 20% water changes every 2 weeks and have done so from Day 1 with my tank. Another consideration may be feeding less and rinsing all frozen foods, etc.

Blowing off your live rock before a water change is a great way to reduce your nitrates. I do that every time as food gets caught in the rocks and decays.

 

[DerekL]

My corals are looking off. I had a heat malfunction awhile ago and I lost some frags and things where rough for awhile but then things started turning around and looking like things where gonna start going good again. Then I noticed my voodoo blue stag and my green stag colonies not having as much polyp extention and starting to look pale so I ran the battery of tests and noticed my nitrates where high compared to usual. Anyways I tested my nitrates this morning and they are coming down so I will check everyday and make sure they continue to drop. Now that you mentioned it though Jordan it is quite possible when swapping out skimmers things got stirred up and a lot of the water that was in the ASM skimmer ended up in my sump. I had read a thread on RC that a couple people had started loosing there sps coral due to high nitrates so mine must of been a lot higher. As for how my pellets tumble I have a mj1200 running pellets in a TLF 150 but now that I added more they aren't tumbling really fast but they are all tumbling you can see that the ones on the bottom make there way to the top then back down again. I definately don't have any clumping of pellets and no dead spots in the reactor. As for feedings I am gonna feed every other day for a little while and hope things turn around.

 

[jroovers]

I would definitely stop at 300ml of pellets for a 100G tank. I run about 500ml on my 180G tank but I have about 300G total in my system.

That sounds bang on to me, I've got 250 ml of pellets I figure and about 145 gallons of system water.  Any higher with the pellets and I get cyano and I'm at 0 nitrate anyway with 250 mls of pellets.

My corals are looking off. I had a heat malfunction awhile ago and I lost some frags and things where rough for awhile but then things started turning around and looking like things where gonna start going good again. Then I noticed my voodoo blue stag and my green stag colonies not having as much polyp extention and starting to look pale so I ran the battery of tests and noticed my nitrates where high compared to usual. Anyways I tested my nitrates this morning and they are coming down so I will check everyday and make sure they continue to drop. Now that you mentioned it though Jordan it is quite possible when swapping out skimmers things got stirred up and a lot of the water that was in the ASM skimmer ended up in my sump. I had read a thread on RC that a couple people had started loosing there sps coral due to high nitrates so mine must of been a lot higher. As for how my pellets tumble I have a mj1200 running pellets in a TLF 150 but now that I added more they aren't tumbling really fast but they are all tumbling you can see that the ones on the bottom make there way to the top then back down again. I definately don't have any clumping of pellets and no dead spots in the reactor. As for feedings I am gonna feed every other day for a little while and hope things turn around.

I found doing the TLF mod where you take out the red grate completely at the bottom, and glue the tube directly to the top red grate piece, really helps with controlling the flow rate inside the reactor.  I would leave things as they are now, maybe do a water change, but take it easy with getting too drastic.  If you did stir up a bunch of detritus in your sump and it got into the water column, could explain your temporary spike in nutrients.  Other explanation would be that something died (fish, nem, soft coral).  Anyhow, be patient and keep a close eye on it, I'm sure things will turn around. 

 

[Reef Hero]

I would not add anymore pellets either.....I don't use pellets but 300-400ml seems a little aggressive for a 100g system. Again, it is going to depend on the brand I think. By continuing to add pellets (and btw 100ml is a lot to add at once IMO to a 100g system) you are not really keeping stability and I can see why nitrates are rising. I seen a post in this thread claiming that ppl see changes within days from pellets but usually 4-6 weeks. These are by no means at all very long periods of time when it comes to reef stability....I wouldn't add anymore and start waiting months not days to observe what is actually going on chemistry wise with your tank. I wish I could try additive or chemical products and come to conclusions within days or weeks but in reality it can be months before you get a real grasp on what the product is actually doing for your tank. I have said it before that if you have one swinging parameter (in your case nitrates that you know of) then it is pretty much guaranteed that you will have other parameters swinging as well because they are all indirectly connected to each other. I think for a lot of hobbyists it is their lack of patience and understanding that stability means months and years, not days that leads to their frustrations and problems. Best of luck and keep us updated!

 

[reeffreak]

I would not add anymore pellets either.....I don't use pellets but 300-400ml seems a little aggressive for a 100g system. Again, it is going to depend on the brand I think. By continuing to add pellets (and btw 100ml is a lot to add at once IMO to a 100g system) you are not really keeping stability and I can see why nitrates are rising. I seen a post in this thread claiming that ppl see changes within days from pellets but usually 4-6 weeks. These are by no means at all very long periods of time when it comes to reef stability....I wouldn't add anymore and start waiting months not days to observe what is actually going on chemistry wise with your tank. I wish I could try additive or chemical products and come to conclusions within days or weeks but in reality it can be months before you get a real grasp on what the product is actually doing for your tank. I have said it before that if you have one swinging parameter (in your case nitrates that you know of) then it is pretty much guaranteed that you will have other parameters swinging as well because they are all indirectly connected to each other. I think for a lot of hobbyists it is their lack of patience and understanding that stability means months and years, not days that leads to their frustrations and problems. Best of luck and keep us updated!

I use ecobak pellets and they say 500ml for every 100 gallons. I'm running that on 100 gallons.

 

[DerekL]

I did do the mod to the TLF 150 where I took the bottom red grate off. I use TLF NPX bioplastics pellets and they recommend 200 ml for 50 gallons? It's not like I dropped in 300mls of pellets and hoped for the best. I that is there recommendation with there pellets 100mls at a time doesn't seem too excessive. I know nothing good comes fast in this hobby I learned that many years ago. Thank you for all the help and I will keep posted.

 

[Pistol]

I seen a post in this thread claiming that ppl see changes within days from pellets but usually 4-6 weeks.

No, this is what was said. "Some claim results in a week or two but most say 4 to 6 weeks." The results are their observations that their po4 and no3 are being lowered, not that the pellet use has resulted in a stable nutrient free system. I've read countless threads on pellets and am just stating what people claim, I tried them in a stable system and ended up with a nasty hair algae problem which has happened to others, some people like them and some don't.

 

[DerekL]

The only issue I had seen so far was a tiny bit of cyano in my sump which I really didn't find to big of a deal as it was literally a small patch on my chaeto that I manually removed and then left my sump light off for a couple of days. So far it hasn't returned. I don't have plans of adding more pellets and have left at least 2 weeks in between. I didn't expect over night results when I started the pellet either I just asked when I should start seeing results. As for adding 100mls at a time I am going on recommendations of the bio pellet manufacturer and another hobbiest who runs bio pellets successfully. Again I greatly appreciate all of help. Thank you