Biopellets, When do they kick in?????

[HerbieK]

I have been running BRS pellets for about 7 weeks now, and my nitrates have not moved at all. My LaMotte nitrate kit looks like grape juice (clear is 0 nitrates). This is off the charts at over 10. I have been adding Zeobak a few times a week. From what I heard from folks at the Sept. meeting, they felt the flow rate was OK thru the reactor. The output of the reactor is T'd into my skimmer intake, which is a Vertex Alpha Kone 250. Can anyone give me an idea when I should start seeing lower nitrate numbers? BTW, I just got new reagents for the kit, and my water change h2o reads zero.

Thanks.

Herb

 

[mnat]

How much and what kind of pellets are you running?

 

[HerbieK]

BRS about 750Ml.

 

[Fish Brain]

My NPX pellets kicked in at about the 3 week mark. My phosphates went from .12 at week 2, down to .03 by the end of week 3.

Edit: That was 200mL in the 40B.

 

[downbeach]

Are they in the dark? Mine kicked in after a couple of weeks too.

 

[Daniel]

I would say 4 weeks is about average for the pellets to seed with bacteria.

 

[HerbieK]

Well my pellets ain't doing squat in my tank. Going on 8 weeks, 750 mls of Bulk Reef Supply pellets. Maybe I should adjust the flow? Up or down? Nitrates are 10+ . BTW, Jim these are under my tank,which is not totally dark. Dan, you saw my tumble action, they looked OK to you right?

Pretty disappointed after laying out the $$$$ for the reactor and pellets.

Any other comments?

Herb

 

[Daniel]

Herbie your flow and a tumble was really good I would not mess with it. Your tank might just take longer for the pellets to break in. I have heard that some pellets can take up to 6 months before they will see a reduction . Also is your reactor in the same chamber as your protein skimmer. If so move it. Your protein skimmer might be pulling out with the pellets needs to seed. It is good to have the output of the reactor in the same chamber as the skimmer but not the input.

 

[downbeach]

What are you testing your NO3 with? Maybe try another test kit, or get a second opinion. What reactor are you using? Try wrapping some aluminum foil around it, if it's outside the sump.

 

[downbeach]

Had a couple of other thoughts. I did a lot of reading on this subject before I started using pellets, so its been a while, and I remembered a couple of things I can't find the articles on. But, as I recall it was recommended that it is best to keep your water parameters as close to those of NSW as possible. Also the use of UV and Ozone would retard the growth/colonization of bacteria in the reactor.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Yea, I was going to mention that about UV and/or Ozone use. I wasn't sure if Herbie had either of that going on but they would definitely slow the bacteria colonization and thus delay the pellets from working sooner.