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Biopellet Reactor - Who Would Have Known

redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

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I am constantly amazed at the new things I learn about my tank.....equipment, maintenance, live stock, etc.

I started running biopellets in June of 2013....a JNS Alpha 2 Biopellet Reactor. Here it is right after I set it up:

3bc2d301-ae46-4f2a-8068-8b837dac198e_zps95dbe99b.jpg


Being a man, I never read the manual....just set it up, filled it with about a cup of pellets, and off it ran. The only thing I ever did to it over the years was add pellets, clean the pump a couple times, and clean the top screen......until about a month ago. I had a number of fish die from a cucumber that went nuclear. Since then, I've been struggling with hair algae.

A couple times over the past month I've noticed the biopellets not moving much. Figured it was the pump clogged up with hair algae, so I'd pull the pump and clean it. After doing this maybe four times over the past month, cleaning the pump wasn't doing it, with the biopellet reactor, more or less, just bubbling on one side, but no real agitation.....and that's now with the pump set wide open. My first thought was that the pump was shot. As I hemmed and hawed about buying a new pump, I figured I do one more thing....empty the reactor and do a thorough cleaning.

Bingo!

Who knew that the center tower inside the reactor had small slits coming out it's sides to agitate the pellets......and they were totally clogged. They even had two plastic screw-bolts holding this tower, made of a pile of these disc pieces...that made cleaning a breeze. So I cleaned all these parts, put it back together, and now I have a cyclone of pellets spinning around....and that is now with the pump set at the lowest setting.

So now I have to put the biopellet reactor cleaning on the maintenance schedule.
 
Trio91

Trio91

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Never had luck with bio pellets. Took them offline a while back. I had them in a mod'd 2 Lil fishes reactor and was having the issues with them getting clogged in the bubble plate.
 
Lostinthedark

Lostinthedark

NJRC Member
Art
I ran Bio pellets on my tank for several years and they did a great job of reducing both nitrates and to a lesser degree phosphates. It was very much a set and forget except for occasional maintenance. It was actually too efficient. I ran it in conjunction with a fuge and between the two I ended up with 0 nitrates and almost non detectable phosphates using a Hanna checker. I slowly took it off line by reducing the pellets over a few months. I'm not sure why but the tank still eats nitrates even though I have a somewhat heavy bio-load.
 
art13

art13

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I can't keep nitrates in my tank, i'm trying to up the fish load. Phosphates are a different story, i run gfo for them. I have my issues with bryopsis right now and red slime is liking something in my tank as well.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

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art13 said:
I've been debating on switching to the biopellets from vodka dosing, whats your opinion on the pellets or both if you have experience with vodka dosing as well.
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Both are forms of carbon dosing (feeding bacteria), but the difference I liked over biopellets is that it only fed the bacteria in the reactor....which when sloughed, ideally got picked up by your skimmer. With liquid carbon dosing (vinegar/vodka), you are feeding any and all bacteria in your tank....some of which are undesirable (cyano comes to mind).

The one thing I don't like is the cost. I'm now on my second container of BRS pellets...I buy the one gallon size....and it hurts when I spend $160 just to feed a bunch of bacteria.
 
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Lostinthedark

Lostinthedark

NJRC Member
art13 said:
I can't keep nitrates in my tank
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Then I would think bio pellets are not your answer. My experience is they are very efficient on reducing nitrates but not as much on phosphates. It seems my fuge is handling both right now but from what I've read an algae scrubber seems to concentrate more on phosphates. Maybe someone local runs one that can answer that better.
 
Lostinthedark

Lostinthedark

NJRC Member
I don't carbon dose but from what I understand it is more for Nitrates then Phosphates. From what I understand from the giant reef "echo chamber" if you deplete your nitrates it upsets the redfield ratio and the tank can no longer absorb phosphates. It might be best to stop the Vodka and just run a little gfo until they balance.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

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As I mentioned above, I cleaned my biopellet reactor for the first time, and boy, was it clogged up. I thought I had a bad pump, but it was just schmutz stuck in the small ports within the reactor. This thing is swirling better than when I first set it up. I have the pump totally closed, and it still swirling nicely. This is a static picture (because videos, I don't know how to upload), but you can see the pellets 2/3's of the way up. When I shut it down, pellets drop to half that height.




So now I'm thinking the increase in hair algae I've seen over the past couple months, that I blamed on a number of fish that died from a cucumber going nuclear, is in part actually from my reactor under performing.

I'm so excited that I've actually caught myself staring at the reactor watching the swirling biopellets, like it was a lava lamp from the 60's! :shocked:
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

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horseplay said:
I think part of the reason you're using up pellets fast is your tumbling is too fast which wears out the pellets.
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Joe, I've heard this happening with carbon, which is a relatively soft material, but never with biopellets. Biopellets are a hard plastic.

If I stated I was going through pellets quickly, I apologize, because I believe my use is reasonable. The only thing I don't like is the cost....I think $160 for a gallon from BRS. The first gallon lasted me around 2 1/2 years....is that reasonable?

Now as far as my tumble rate, the pump is closed down all the way. It looks like boiling water at the bottom of the reactor, but only a nice steady swirl at the top. I think, as Goldilocks would say, "It's just right!" I need enough of a swirl to knock those growing bacteria off, to be picked up by my skimmer.

I am further convinced that this reactor slowing down over the past multiple months/years has been one of my big problems with my tank. It had gotten to the point that I was cleaning the glass daily. Now with this thing running a week plus (and with water changes), I'm not cleaning it as frequent.

I really think it was doing almost nothing, as it slowly clogged up over the years, with it finally just being a bubble coming out of the pellets. I'm just concerned that it's now going nuts, and my N's and P's will drop too fast. I probably should have treated it like a new biopellet reactor, and started with 1/2 a cup. I haven't even tested, because all my kits / Hanna reagents are outdated.....need to pick up fresh kits/reagents. But the slowing of algae grow tells me the nasty N's and P's must be dropping.
 
H

horseplay

NJRC Member
Paul, let me explain my system.

I have a similar sized system as yours. I feed the tank liberally and used up two packs of blackworms while you have used one. Although the blackworms constituted the bulk of food fed to the tank. I started using Reef Octopus BP reactor since Sept 2015 and took it off line around Jun 2016. This is about 9 months. (I have put it back online just a few days ago.) I purchased one liter of Warner Marines EcoBak pellets and base on my estimation I used 100ml - 200ml of it. (I put the pellets back into the container when I took the reactor offline so I have a pretty good estimate.) So extrapolate this to 2 1/2 years I would have used about 600ml pellets. I do have a refugium at this time so let's assume it removed half of the nutrients so you can double the amount of pellets. My nitrate was undetectable.

I do not tumble the pellets too fast but on the bottom the water movement is still quite strong. The flow is strong enough for the pellets on the top to cycle to the bottom. At one point I have the whole 1 liter pellets in the reactor.

So why do you use pellets much faster than me?
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

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Joe, I don't know....maybe bioload, quality of the pellets, fat bacteria, my Redfield is better than yours, are you also running GFO or cheato, who knows.

When all was running well I had:
2 tangs (Yellow and Scopas)
2 pajama cardinals
1 Coral Beauty
1 Long Nose Butterfly
2 Clowns
1 Melanerous Wrasse
1 Diamond Goby

I think that's everybody.

Your comment about me using only one packet of black worms to your two, I vary the diet with five different frozen foods....... and flake. I also feed (or should I now say fed) a half sheet of nori per day for the tangs. SO between the tangs crapping and the nori, I'm dirty'ing up that water. I will tell you that if I didn't pull the remains of the nori out that day, pew, did it stink....rotten egg stink.

However, you've raised my curiosity as to my consumption of biopellets. Although I find your use very low......a cup is about 240 mls.

So everybody else, if you use biopellets, briefly explain your system and the amount of pellets you go through. I'm curious.
 
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