Bio-Pellets; How many use them successfully?

[Lostinthedark]

I've gone on a quest to stabilize my tank over the last few months. I bought a doser from Fishstreet and a combination GFO/GAC reactor from Spectrapure. Prior to this I have always manually dosed and used mesh bags in the sump. I am happy with the results so far but I am looking for better colors and growth from my SPS. They are very hit or miss and grow intermittently with occasional die off for unexplained reasons.
I know Downbeach(Jim) uses Bio-pellets and his tank is beautiful with great growth and color. Is anyone else still using them? Are they worth a try? I do have a growing fish population and I know the heavy bio load is a factor working against pristine water quality.
As a background:
250 gal tank, 75 gal fuge/sump, OceanRevive S026 lighting, Diable 225 skimmer.
Nitrates/Phosphates always measure zero but I grow tons of Cheato.
Alk 9
Calcium 420
Mag 1350
Ph 8 (after running an airline to the outside)

Everything is quite stable after a PH crash caused by closed windows and a constantly running fireplace in the same room.

 

[asonitez]

If Nutrients are not an issue for you NOW with your bio-load as IS I wouldn't rush to go out and buy and put online a bio-pellet reactor which (initially) is a source of nutrients ITSELF. I'm running Bio-Pellets,Refugium w/ Chaeto & Sand, Big Skimmer and I dose manually.

Before Putting anything online or looking at new tech I go through the following Checklist.

Water Quality and Baseline Nutrient Levels
Test all your paramters bi-weekly from 1 water change to the next waterchange. Log them and look for a pattern. Also look to see if your TOO CLEAN. This can happen from time to time. It's happened to me. I literally stripped every parameter down to ZERO and couldn't keep Kenya Tree's alive. I started a "program" Red Sea Color-Up which are a medley of additives that are fairly cheap and readily available. I basically dose them once a week or Right after a water change. Also make sure you don't have ALGAE using up nutrients that ppl rarely measure for.

Magnesium
Potassium etc.

Lighting Evaluation
How old are your Lights, Brand Type, Known Issues Spectrum, Coverage...
Might be time to replace bulbs. I find I have a LOT of issues getting frags from people that were running them under Halides/T5's and placing them under LED's. Almost every Frag I used to get used to have issues.. or issues down the line coming from a Halide/T5 tank and moving to LED's. One of the MAIN reasons I GOT a Frag tank was that I could control the amount of light I was giving a new frag to acclimate them to LED's before placing them into the big tank.

How much Lighting are you giving them? One guy I know only runs his 400 watt halides for 4 to 5 hours a day and the rest of the day is T5's Actinics/Blue+. I belive Jason Fox also does the same thing. A few hours of Halide and the other 60% of the time T5's.. Might want to reduce your lighting and run them a little shorter. My corals used to know when the whites go out and the blues come on food was coming at which point the opened all their coralites and polyps to feed.


Look For Pests

Grab a flashlight and a red piece of construction paper or a red sharpie over saran wrap for a quick and dirty way of viewing if anythings munching on my corals at night. I have also been known to grab a powerhead and point it directly at an SPS and let it blow like crazy to see if there might be a hidden flat worm or something causing me grief.


To answer your queston I love biopellets. I have the ReefOctopus Biopellet reactor and its great for that purpose. I don't have a wild tumble like most people. More of a spritely boil.... and it def keeps my params in check. Add them slow expect for up to a week your tank might be a little cloudy while they break in and your set.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm a biopellet user as well.....JNS Alpha 2 with BRS pellets....started June 2013.....and I'm happy.

If you haven't purchased a reactor, and are interested in a JNS, check out MatteZ's sale, if he still has it.....it's a deal!




If you get this reactor, I still have more of the cover to keep your pellets in the dark....and it's free. That is the white cover you see in the picture.

 

[MatteZ]

It's pending and I am sending the cover with it.

I had no luck. My tank was covered in cyano and hair algae close to when I turned them on and almost as soon as I took them off it went away. I will say I'm sure it was me and not the pellets that was the problem. User error!

 

[Lostinthedark]

Thanks Guys

I sometimes think it might be my water is "Too clean" but I have softies that grow like crazy. I have a torch that before I accidentally fragged it was a foot across and a hammer that is easily ten inches around when expanded. There's also Neon Green Nepthia that is trying to take over the tank. One coral that I can not grow is mushrooms. I have the same mushrooms for 2 years that neither die or grow. It was always my assumption that softies liked dirty water.
As far as lighting, I run 4 OceanRevive S026s about 8 inches over a 31" tank. I agree its harder to acclimate to them but I've had SPS grow for 6 months then just stop and slowly decline. I have some Monti caps that I have to keep up with so they don't shade everything.
We do feed heavy as I have a growing fish load and theres no way I'm telling my wife she has to slow down feeding HER fish. After reading for days I came to the conclusion that Bio-Pellets are most useful in that situation.
Is it possible the Cheato is using something the corals need? I measure Mag and its good. Is potassium something that needs to be watched?

 

[Lostinthedark]

It's pending and I am sending the cover with it.

I had no luck. My tank was covered in cyano and hair algae close to when I turned them on and almost as soon as I took them off it went away. I will say I'm sure it was me and not the pellets that was the problem. User error!

I've read the same elsewhere and that's my biggest fear. Do you have a similar tank to mine with a heavy load or are you mostly coral?

 

[MatteZ]

It was running on a 90g tank with 9 fish maybe and mixed reef

 

[Lostinthedark]

For you guys running them, is there a downside when you started or was it good right from the beginning?
Asonitez: I was stalking your setup and saw you are using the SMR1 reactor. Thats the one I was thinking of using. Happy with it?

 

[redfishbluefish]

It doesn't happen overnight.....I think I'm still seeing changes. I probably could have sped up the process by removing cheato and hair algae, but I didn't . The cheato melted away pretty fast, and then maybe three months later the hair algae was pretty much gone. Where I really noticed the difference was the frequency of cleaning my glass....from ever couple days to longer then a week or so.


The other thing that happened with me was maybe from month 2 to month 4 the skimmate stunk of thiols.....a rotten egg smell. My guess is that this is when the algaes were being "consumed," producing a bunch of sulfhydral groups (the stinky stuff). That thiol / sulfhydral smell has subsided, but the skimmate is still smellier than "normal" skimmate. I have to empty my skimmate container weekly.....and the skimmate is considerably darker as well. Note that the exit port of the reactor is next to the pick-up of my skimmer. The clear pipe at the top of the picture is the exit port of the reactor.

 

[asonitez]

The SMR1 was great. It worked fine and the kit to modify it with the mesh was cheap from nextreef. I would not use it again. Right now my

#1 - Reactor reccomendation hands down is

The RLSS FR3-4 (I have 2 of the 4's) After a few discounts they were almost 100 each but hands down one of THE best built reactors I've ever owned. The FR3's are great as well.

http://www.saltysupply.com/RLSS-FR4-4-Inch-Media-Reactor-p/h2o1127.htm

Built like a tank. Awesome bottom for keeping the media tumbling and cheap considering the alternatives. I reccomend them 100%. I'm not sure why they haven't taken off. Shop around as their price's can be SUPER Cheap like 65 bucks for the SR3's.

If I were to sell my ReefOctopus Biopellet reactor I would get another SR4 so all my reactors match. (I'm going for a Clear/White/Black Tubing look for my sump area.)

 

[asonitez]

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[Lostinthedark]

Thanks for the recommendation. I thought I was sold on the smr1. The FR4 is about the same price so that is not an issue. I can't find much info about it. Even their website is nothing but a few pictures. I'll take your word that its a superior product. What size hose does it use?

 

[asonitez]

I forced 1/2" over it but 5/8" will fit. Not only that but the seal the union and sponges/locking method is awesome. The shipping alone was incredible. Fully encased in foam


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[asonitez]

I like I don't have to disconnect the hose from my manifold to change media just unscrew the union and take it out. Plus the return hose can be used to flush new media and carbon


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[Lostinthedark]

I know every tank and situation is different but I'm still perplexed on why Cheato would flourish in Asonitez tank and just wither away in RF/BF's tank. I run GFO now but still get a tremendous amount of Cheato growth.
Salty supply is the only one with the reactor for sale but they are out of stock on the Ecobak plus pellets that I want to try.
I'm going to keep reading up on Bio-pellets but I would like to hear more success/failure stories.

 

[iTzJu]

Tristan's tank has a very hefty fish bio load from the last time I saw it. you can balance out the pellets where it is only stripping enough to keep your NO3/PO4 in check. Ideally you don't want them to be at absolute zero, this will have a negative effect on your tank. I believe Tristan also doses amino acids to keep his corals happy, this can also keep the macro happy as well. But like you said every tank is different.

I will also be incorporating biopellets on my current system but will be going with a recirculating reactor for better control.

 

[ecam]

Tristan. Whats that fuge led ur using?

 

[asonitez]

Something fuge ray led lighting its cheap from premium white LEDs great spectrum for growing chaeto they sell a pink red one for planted tanks I'll get the name when I get home


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[asonitez]

Your right Judeo I balance the amount and tumble of my pellets to maintain a level. I use about 500ml of pellets and they don't table crazy. I dose aminos and the Red Sea colorup to keep my corals happy


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[downbeach]

I didn't have enough N's and P's to go around to keep both a fuge, and the BP's going. In my case my DSB and LR was keeping the nutrients at a very low level, so much so that my Chaeto wasn't growing very fast. So, I went to BP's so I could eliminate the fuge, and give myself more room for equipment as a sump. If your nutrients are low to undetectable with your current set up, I don't know that I would change it, and maybe explore other possibilities, i.e. what are you doing to keep your Ca and Alk stable, feeding, etc.