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lvpd.cop

Bio-pellets and phosphates

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lvpd.cop
, 09-24-2010 at 03:33 PM (2089 Views)
I started a blog on my local club site about using bio-pellets but I thought I see if more people are using them here. I haven't used them long, I only started 9-5-10, but I think I have already seen some positive results. When I started my phosphate levels (on a hanna meter) were 0.29ppm. I have the pellets in a bulk-reef supply reactor that seems to be working fairly well. At first I thought I was going to have some issues with clogging since the pellets stopped tumbling for several days. Channels would form and I would have to shake the reactor to get things moving around better. Now everything seems to be tumbling fine (I did remove one of the upper sponges for better flow). I kind of have a working theory that during that first week there was a lot of colonizing bacteria causing the pellets to stick together and now that things have balanced out a little bit they aren't (maybe someone can chime in on this). I am happy to say though that on 9-19-10 I tested my water again and the phosphates dropped to 0.14ppm! I'm looking forward to see if the phosphate level continued to drop over this week..

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‎ Water Chemistry

Comments

  1. GoinAcropoora's Avatar
    I've not used biopellets yet, but PO of .29 is way high for a reef tank and getting it down to below 0.04 might be expecting too much from any media. You may need to help things along by thawing and rinsing out frozen foods, bigger water changes, etc. However, if these biopellets can do it alone please make sure to keep us posted either way. Which BP's are you using?
  2. sedor's Avatar
    I've been using Warner Marine Ecobak pellets for some time now and they have done an excellent job at nutrient removal for me. As far as your clumping issues go, I think too many people worry about the flow through the media. They don't have to be bouncing around in the reactor like most people think, as long as water is moving through them. Its like a calcium reactor and slowly the media will dissolve and need to be replaced. You just don't want them clogging up and restricting the flow through them. What I do is every couple weeks I stick a piece of tubing on the reactor and remove the pump and then just blow some bursts of air through their to get it all stirred up. Does it help, or is it necessary? Honestly, I don't know but it makes me feel like i'm doing something.
  3. lvpd.cop's Avatar
    @GoinAcropoora - Yea when I took that initial test my phosphates were way too high. The bio-pellets I'm using are the vertex brand. I think with normal water changes the bio-pellets will help get that number down. I plan on testing the water again here in a couple of days, I'll make sure to post the results here.

    @sedor - your probably right about worrying too much about flow through the media. On the package there was very limited instructions, but they did make a point to say make sure there is adequate flow through the media to prevent anaerobic bacteria (although I find it funny that they say make sure there is good flow but they don't tell you what good flow is ).
  4. OneReef's Avatar
    I just started using the Warner Marine EcoBak pellets about 2 weeks ago. Too early to tell anything yet as I have a couple of weeks till the bacteria builds up, but I will report back my findings.