How to switch from NOPOX to pellets?

I have been running Nopox for a couple of months and have a achieved my goals of eliminating hair algae and achieving a ULNS. Now what? I hate dosing every day. I would like to switch to a reactor. How should I wean off of NOPOX and onto pellets. Stop one and start the other?

I have also been reading about Biodenitrators. Seems interesting. Any thoughts vs Pellets?

What is the best pellet reactor combo?

 

Hi Ryan

typically pellets can take a bit longer to kick in, than the liquid additives/ carbon sources
as such, you may experience a slight lag, if you just hook up pellets and cease using the NOPOX

my suggestion would be to reduce the dosing your doing over a period of a couple of weeks or even longer ( depending on your current dosing amount) in order to give bacteria an opportunity to colonise the pellets, whilst still taking advantage of the presence of the NOPOX

think about it in terms of ( if you wanted to switch from bio balls to live rock, but started with base rock, you would reduce the bioballs gradually, allowing bacteria to colonize the base rock to compensate for what was removed when you took out the plastic)

combinations, I cannot comment on, as I have only experienced 1 type of reactor thus far
but based on research, try for a reactor that has been designed for pellets, with cone shaped plate at base rather than flat plate and/ or sponges

Steve

 

Make sure to check out this thread, very helpful information in there.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/warner-marine/official-ecobak-thread-103809.html

 

Wow biocube...just did the marathon thread on the ecobak biopellets, phew! How are yours working out? Have you started running them?

 

Mine got put on hold for the moment, I need to still build the sump and breaks in my skimmer.

 

What makes the Warner Pellets different? Or why not other pellets?

 

Read the thread. They are the best IMO. They get the best reviews and seem to have the least negative side effects. They are also the only pellet that is FDA approved and even can be FDA approved as far as I know.

 

Grimm is right, they are the only FDA approved and pretty sure they have a patent pending in the works.

Update:
Yupp, patent pending.

 

Quote from Jon Warner:

the bio-polymer contained in EcoBAK ULNS Pellets is produced with a low temperature water extraction method. Competing products are produced using a Solvent based extraction method. For this reason, the bio-polymer in EcoBAK is pending FDA approval while the competing brands main ingredient can't be certified by the FDA.

 

FWIW, in reading the thread, I did realize that I've been tumbling my pellets too fast so I slowed down the tumble and my skimmer is pulling out much darker stuff...not sure if that's a good sign or not but I'm encouraged. Perhaps that's been why my pellets haven't been making a dent in my nitrates. Just goes to show, one can never do too much reading and research in this hobby.