Lets talk bio pellets

BRS bio pellets, about 50g total volume, and a newer CPR bakpak skimmer that I think is rated for 60g.

 

two systems.

Used NP pellets
My old tank:
40 long, sps system, tlf 150 filled about 100 ml of pellets. dropped nitrates from 20's to sub 1 ppm, phosphate was undetectable using salifert. happened gradually within a 3 weeks. the pellets will probably last two years in this system(It had been over a year and there were still half left). System was taken down for a nano. Honestly I thought it was too easy after a while.

fathers tank below:
90 FO with some surviving corals, tlf 150 about 200 ml of pellets, dropped nitrates from above 200 to 40's over 4-5 months, system very overstock and under maintained. pellets quickly degraded over time, they are probably gone now.


On the larger tanks you really need to invest in an proper reactor or have multiple tlf's to get good results. a tlf can't really hold more then 1/3 pellets and get good flow.

 

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

you will want to run your pellets at a very slow tumble....it's suggested that you run the reactor at only 100 gph.

I have had great results with them and I'm running them in a canister filter.

 

so how many ML should i start with???

my reactor will hold 705ml of bio pellets and still have room to tumble, and i have a maxi jet 1200 to pump the reactor with a ball valve to control gph and get the tumble i need

 

I found in the tlf reactor you needed about 300 gph(maxijet 1200) for 1/3 full. at first the mj 400 works, then you keep needing to up the flow as more bacteria builds up on the pellets. after may 5 months even 300 gph wouldn't tumble with out periodic mixing.

Keep in mind my pellets were a different shape then ecobak, and the tlf isn't a official bioplellet reactor.

 

Do you have any updates since you have been running the biopellets? I'm thinking of buying the same setup you did from purelyh2o.com.

 

I am running Vertex bio pellets in an SMR1 XL reactor. My tank volume is about 275 gallons total. Nitrates are around 5-10 and phosphates run about .06. I am cool with my nitrates like that because the LPS corals thrive better than with 0 nitrates, at least for me.

 

Are you happy with that reactor? I am seriously considering one. And what test kit do you use for Nitrates?

 

I would love for some of you that still have BP running give an update

Happy Holidays

 

I have been running Ecobak since 6 months prior to it being released. Still running the same 1.5 liter batch from then. Phosphates and nitrates still 0. I have run it tumbling and non tumbling and it has not mattered a bit. It still worked great. Best part is I can feed heavily without worry of nutrients rising.