the official ECOBAK thread...

Thank you very much! That sounds like a great project, 600 gallons of home aquarium will be awesome! I'd run 3 liters of ecoBAK and right now the best reactor is probably the SRO larger model.

Just take your time with the project (you sound patient) and I'm sure all will be well.

Many people have used ecoBAK from day 1 with great results and you're right we advise users to be cautious if they have appreciable NO3 and PO4.
Make sure you share details of the project once you begin...

 

Thanks I'm not patient by nature but after over 30 years having aquariums and 19 in saltwater I've learned that I need to force myself!

I'm very excited this is finally the dream set-up so I'm going to take my time and get it right. (Easy said now when the tank isn't in-front of me).

So on the reactors it looks like the BR3000SS Bio Pellet Reactor can hold 2.5L and the BR-200 Biopellet Reactor can hold about 2L are they being conservative on the biopellets those can hold or am I not seeing the model you are talking about? I don't need the space saver model but I like that the pump is right under neath but I was originally looking for an external model but I guess that doesn't matter much. Thoughts.

 

milonedp, I'm running the BR-2000ss and I do have to say that they are conservative with their ratings on capacity. Below is a short video clip of my BR-2000ss with 1500ml of Ecobak. As you can see in the video I still have quite a good amount of space. I also have the pump dialed back a good amount. Otherwise, the pellets will be tumbling pretty aggressively.

So far I'm happy with the SRO space saving biopellet reactor. I was initially trying a different external reactor and couldn't get the tumble right.

I'm not sure if the BR-2000ss would be able to handle 3L. Based on the space I still have left with 1.5L of Ecobak I think it might but don't want to give you wrong information. Since the BR-3000ss is about 2 inches bigger diameter wise I'm sure that will handle 3L of Ecobak just fine.

Hope that helps.

 

Jon, I haven't tested nitrates or phosphates lately. Kinda hard to do on crutches ;D Will have my brother do it for me when he visits to check up on me.

One thing I did notice though was a good amount of my media was consumed. My skimmate output decreased and didn't smell as bad as it was a couple weeks ago. I turned off the reactor and noticed a significant drop in the amount of media in the reactor. I have more on order and will add more as soon as it gets delivered. I know I said my phosphates were high since I max out the hanna checker and my nitrates are 100 on a salifert test kit. Since I maxed out both test kits, my nitrates and phosphates may be much much higher.

I will definitely keep you posted.

 

thanks for the update. If the media is being consumed that means the NO3 and PO4 are on the way DOWN! And the reactor looks good.

 

Reef_Enthusiast thanks so much that is very helpful, I was already talking to CoralVue about their skimmers so I'm going to confirm with them about this too but your video pretty much convinced me I should be fine.

 

No problem at all milonedp. Did you go with the space saving version or the external version? At one point I was running 2L of ecobak with no issues in the BR-2000ss.

 

Hi Jon,

Just wanted to give you an update.

Well the reactor is still chugging away. As you probably read from my recent post, I was actually running 2L of ecobak at one point. I'm definitely chewing through a good amount of media. From the 2L I put in a couple weeks ago, I'm probably down to 1 - 1.5L of media in the reactor. It's definitely working as my nitrates are 25 on a salifert test kit. My phosphates are still maxing out the hanna test kit at 2.50.

I'm not surprised at all at how much media I'm going through. The salifert test kit maxes out at 100 and I'm certain my nitrates were well above 100. One thing I do have to do often is clean out the skimmer. I'm running a Royal-Exclusiv Alpha 250 Cone Skimmer. The holes of the bottom plate of the skimmer gets a bit clogged after a few weeks with brown stringy junk. The skimmer is pretty easy to clean. At least I know it's working ;D

I'll give you an update in a few weeks. Hopefully my nitrates are near 0 by then and my phosphates come down a bit. If not, I still have a bunch of GFO that I can run to bring down the phosphates. But, I don't plan to run GFO till my nitrates are 0 and if phosphates are still up at that time.

 

That's GREAT news. You really started with MASSIVE NO3 and PO4. Your system will be fine, you have a great skimmer, a great reactor... the number will get down.

 

This weekend I attended Reef-a-Palooza 2012 with 4300 attendees and spoke to dozens of people about their ecoBAK usage. Heard many success stories and the majority had the right info about how to use them.
Just shows that forums like this really do educate people, even people who don't participate in the forum.