Biopellets or GFO?

Biopellets will in a sense "kill" your fuge. It will out-compete your Macro for the nutrients, causing your fuge to starve. Research pellets before just jumping in. Make sure this is the way you want to go. Many have crashed a tank shortly after the addition of pellets (coincidence, maybe). Add slowly, and make sure you have proper equipment to run them efficiently (i.e. BRS RO Canister is not a good pellet option).

 

I always thought one of the big benefits of a fuge with macro, is ability to run lights on reverse cycle to help with PH swings.

I assume if you run GAC, EcoBak and GFO without a fuge, you'll have PH swings at night?

How important is it not to have PH swings for coral/fish health?

 

+1 A fuge is pretty self-regulating, but the downfall is not as effective. Carbon dosing is very powerful though, and as such can cause issues, but is very powerful...

pH Swings don't seem to be an issue as long as pH stays within a reasonable range (i.e over 7.7ish or so). I've seen awesome tanks with regular .4-.7 daily swings. No big deal, but you don't want the pH to go too low, as then your corals will start to dissolve. A bigger benefit, I think, is that a fuge, on a reverse cycle adds O2 at night.

 

A few points that have been asked:

You do not need to seed the bio pellets. The naturally occurring bacteria will start to colonize on the pellets on their own.

If you plan on adding BP to an existing system it is imperative that you add them slowly. 1/4 of the recommended amount to start, and another 1/4 after 2-3 weeks and so on.

Bio pellets are a "solid" form of carbon dosing. The pellets themselves are made from an extraction method from brewing beer. So it is loaded with sugar.

I have run EcoBak on my tank for 2 years now. I have had amazing success with them, and cant imagine running a tank without it. I did however add a fuge section when I upgraded my sump about 5 months ago, and the the chaeto is growing quite well to my surprise. So the theory that the pellets will outcompete a fuge is not always the case. I think as long as you are feeding heavy as you are supposed to, there is enough nutrients in the tank to keep the macros and the bacteria fed.

 

Dosing vinegar I originally had trouble with a fuge and ditched it. I actually added one recently and things are growing, but I also cut back on vinegar. Pellets don't seem to be as effective as vodka/vinegar though, so, may be less competitive with a fuge. Also I should mention I feed like 8 times a day If you go from the mentality of feeding every other day to keeping a super "clean" tank, to running pellets and don't feed more, likely your tank will crash... The big benefit to carbon dosing if you can feed more aggressively, but the downfall, is you often need to feed more aggressively, or else the bacteria gets all the nutrients and everything else starves...

 

What are you feeding our tank? 8 time is a lot, is most of this flake on an auto feeder?