Aquamaxx biomaxx plus pellets not working-help

Hello, just wanted to run this by everyone, what I am doing and if anyone else has this issue with this product or not.

Anyways I purchased the 16oz size bag of Aquamaxx biomaxx plus biopellets to help lower my nitrates. My No3 has been usually hovering around 25ppm. I initially placed 4oz of the pellets into a phosban reactor and ran it for 4 weeks as intructed by most people(run less at first and work up to full strength). After 1 month I saw no change, which was not surprising as I have read and been told it takes up to 8 weeks before you see any results. So at the 4th week I added another 4oz of pellets and ran this for 2 more weeks, no change. I then added the rest of the pellets left (about 8oz) and changed out my phosban for a new bashea pm1 biopellet reactor(i need to get a pm2 since it's tight with 160z inside). I have ran the pellets now for 8 weeks and still have no results. Not seeing No3 go down at all. Also I run the output of the reactor right in front of my skimmer, which is a bubble magus hero 180. I get a good inch or two of dark skimmate a day out of this skimmer for reference as I know a good skimmer is needed when using biopellets.

My tank was set up in June of this year. It is a 120g mixed with about 120lbs of live rock and about a 1in sand bed. I do a 25% water change every 2 to 3 weeks. I have a heavy bioload as I feed 2 to 3 times per day, flake, pellets and frozen. I have tried lowering my feeding with no results. I have been told some biopellets just dont work, and I'd like to know if that is the case with this brand. I know Ecobak is the best from what I've heard from multiple sources and am contemplating removing my current pellets and replacing them with ecobak. Any help or suggestions in this matter would be appreciated.

I've added a video of my reactor in action to show the speed I tumble the pellets and also the pic of the bag for reference.

Thanks for any help.
biopellets.mp4 video by tawney11 - Photobucket

 

I am new to running pellets myself. I would be happy to get my nitrates to 25 or less with a high bioload and lots of feeding. I'm wondering if perhaps the pellets are keeping things in check for you? If you stopped the pellets, would your nitrates spike higher even higher? I'm interested in replies to this thread. I've been running mine for about 4 weeks now without much of a noticeable reduction in nitrate and I just recently increased the amount I'm running. I would think it would be weird to have pellets that don't work at all...I've not heard that before.

 

to answer your question no I am having zero results. before i used the pellets I fed the same amount and nitrates were about the same. They go up slowly and I bring them down with water changes.

I was hoping I could get some help with my question. I know people are having results with other brands of pellets. Anyone have good results with this brand? Anyone able to help with my issue?

 

Bump anyone?

 

am I in the wrong forum for this question?

 

Hey Scott

no experience with that brand
do know from some experience and a lot of reading that bio pellets, irrespective of type/ brand, may not be as instant for some users as they are for others

the same applies with all forms of carbon dosing , in that you can get noticable improvements in a relative short space of time, or those improvements may take longer

there are varying factors and varying parameters and circumstances between different set ups, and it is these variables that are hard to account for

if you are overfilling your reactor, you will not get the full benefit of the pellet
the principle is bacteria colonise the pellet, they consume Nitrate and Phosphate, the slight tumbling causes some of the bacteria to be sloughed off the pellet, where it is either removed during skimming or consumed by various other life forms, including corals within the tank itself

naturally you want a balance between available pellets to colonize (more bacteria - greate potential for N and P reduction) and room for the pellets to move around, in order excess bacteria along with its belly full of N and P to be sloughed off

in some cases Bio pellets can take 2 or 3 months before any signs of progress are witnessed
similar situation with Vinegar and Vodka - they are not always instant

just checked your video and in my opinion your flow rate through the reactor is to much
I believe you are moving the water so rapidly, that the bacteria are not being given adequate opportunity to colonize and thus no chance to remove nutrients

I would reduce the flow by about 50% and then monitor for a couple of weeks
but do not get too disheartened even at that stage if your Nitrate are not falling

Steve

 

thanks for the help. I had been told by some that a higher flow could actually make the process work to a more extreme, ie removing even no3 then a slow flow. But this was when using ecobak pellets. I don't know if this is true or not and I am not using that brand so it probably would not be relevant to my case. I will try to lower the flow as you suggest. I plan to go with the next size reactor as soon as the lfs has them in stock, they told me they would do a swap since this size is too small imo.

Thanks and ill post if I see any changes in few weeks.