the official ECOBAK thread...

Excellent news... as the pellets have some biomass accumulate on the surface, they may get slightly heavier and need a bit more water flow.

 

Changed the nozzle, seems to be tumbling a little better now.

Tested nitrates tonight, I'm showing 0.5ppm as compared to 1.5ppm two days ago, so they are definitely kicking in now!

 

excellent...

Just to reiterate, once we see numbers start to hit really low numbers... don't be afraid to feed your tank any more.

We've all been conditioned to believe that feeding=brown corals and in pre-ecoBAK times that was true. But now... go ahead and feed! Corals with good nutrition grow faster and are more colorful.

So feed the system and integrate a quality Amino Acid product like our WM Amino Acids...

 

Do the bacteria on the pellets consume something the amino acids replace?

Also, what are your thoughts on dosing potassium?

 

Amino acids

A great article about Amino's usefulness... this research is amplified by the environment that EcoBak creates. (very low nutrient)

 

ecoBAK and WM Amino Acids are a very popular and effective combination...

 

Hi Jon, just a quick question, do you know if it is possible for nitrifying bacteria (or any other strains) to stick to the pellets themselves while they are tumbling in the bacteria?

because doesn't tumbling make the pellets rub on to each other and potentially make it harder for them to stick to the surface of the pellet?

and also, if the bacteria are able to stick to the surface of the pellets, what is the bacterial strain that is most abundant?

 

ecoBAK ABSOLUTELY is both a substrate AND a food source. ecoBAK is fairly porous and you see bacteria both on the surface AND in the pores.

This is why we recommend a gentle tumble. Excessive tumble loosens too much bacterial biomass too fast. You want the excess biomass removed gently to be exported in a controlled manner. The problem is that some other brands clump together and get sticky with gentle water flow so you're forced to run higher flow.

 

so, if the bio pellets can host bacteria, would it be possible to run a fish tank with biopellets as the main biological filter?

 

Well now most people don't run any sort of a biological filter. The rocks and substrate make up most people's "bio filter". ecoBAK keeps PO4 and NO3 low...

Pretty simple.