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Still Using Bio Pellets?

I know a lot of the guys who were running biopellets and zeo in ULNS's have now gone back to running gfo and carbon.... Im running GFO and GAC now but i cant decide if i want to go back to running WM ecobak pellets or not. Whose still running biopellets and are there any reported issues long term? I want to here from the SPS pros.
 
Ive thought about running all 3 as well... What are u doing to replace all the elements being removed from the system.
 

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
I've been running dr Tim's pellets for about 2 years. Also run carbon. I was running gfo also for a while but I was over stripping my water. My lps hated the ulns. I cut the gfo about 8 months ago and both my lps and sps are way more healthy. Growth amd coloration are much better.

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Very interesting discussion. I run all three as well but have had some nasty LPS die off lately. Was thinking of halting the GFO for a while just to see how things behave. Not happy because originally I added Biopellets to reduce my nitrates, which has helped but if its hurting LPS like the high nitrates were not sure it is worth it.

Struggling to find a balance.
 
I turned my pellets off about 2 months ago. My Cyano went away within a week of them being off. ever since I started the pellets I had problems for the most part.
 

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
Very interesting discussion. I run all three as well but have had some nasty LPS die off lately. Was thinking of halting the GFO for a while just to see how things behave. Not happy because originally I added Biopellets to reduce my nitrates, which has helped but if its hurting LPS like the high nitrates were not sure it is worth it.

Struggling to find a balance.

I'm a big fan of them but you have to careful. Cutting the gfo was the key for me. Iv also been feeding more and started using elos amino.
 
I just got my 300 set up about a month ago. I am running 3 brs reactors with a total of about 700 ml ekobac pellets. I have cheto in my sump and am running a RO 3000 skimmer. And felt socks. Nothing else. My water was adjusting in the first few weeks. I had lots of alge on my glass. Now I can go two days wo cleaning. The system is balancing well. I run a huge homemade Ca reactor. My lights are still a foot above my tank but now the bottom is another foot down. The end result my acros are growing like mad. I had cap that was "dead" for months well it is exploding with growth as well. The 300 is doing really great.
 
I turned my pellets off about 2 months ago. My Cyano went away within a week of them being off. ever since I started the pellets I had problems for the most part.

I had the same experience with my old and new systems. Cyano was present when I was running them and quickly disappeared once I removed them. To be fair my current system was relatively new when I was running them and the cyano could have just been part of the normal growing pains. I haven't sold my reactor, but my nutrient levels are fine so I see no reason to use them at this point.
 
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