GFO *and* Bio-Pellets ?

[DiverDude]

Just one or both ?

Starting to throw around ideas for new tank and sump and I'm considering the BRS 'reactors' and was planning on running GFO and Bio-Pellets but I'm hearing some opinions that running both is either not necessary or perhaps even a bad idea.

Obviously, running both (and carbon) requires a 3rd reactor and a second pump but I'll do it if it's going to make for a more stable system.

Thoughts ?

[whatcaneyedo]

From what I've read, pellets do a better job of reducing nitrate rather than phosphate and so some people choose to run GFO as well if the level of phosphate in their system is greater than the level of nitrate. If you're only in the planning phase of a new tank it might be a little bit early to be making that decision.

[bowkry]

I ran pellets right at start up of one of my newer tanks and I still swear thats why my tank crashed 2 months later. Cant prove it but its the thing I can think. What I am getting at you should wait 3-6 months before adding pellets so that your tank establish's good water quility and bateria. Thats just what I think!!!

[abcha0s]

I ran pellets right at start up of one of my newer tanks and I still swear thats why my tank crashed 2 months later. Cant prove it but its the thing I can think. What I am getting at you should wait 3-6 months before adding pellets so that your tank establish's good water quility and bateria. Thats just what I think!!!

I totally agree with this statement. I started biopellets from day one and it did not go well. I've just turned them off and will wait 3-4 months before trying again.

I think GFO is fine with biopellets.

I run two biopellet reactors, a carbon reactor and a GFO reactor off one pump. You need to be a little creative in balancing the runs and making sure there are no surges when you take a reactor offline, but generally speaking I am happy with this approach.

- Brad

[DiverDude]

I hear you on the pellets. I rigged a TLF reactor on to my present tank and ran pellets in it and I got HA -bad- and I still have it. Like most things reef, pellets are not something you 'just throw in' -you need to understand how they work (and I think there's a lack of understanding of these for the most part).

I'm thinking more long term here in the sense that I can buy a multi-reactor setup now and just run a chamber empty for a while if need be. However, I'd like to plumb everything I expect to need from the get-go rather than have to cobble-in a 3rd reactor after a few months.

[Dive_dry]

you can run both but first you half to start with bio pellets for 4-6 weeks then start the gfo. you need the nitrate part of the cycle to be going then the phosphate part so i was told and my tank is doing fine started with 50 ppm nitrate now at 5-10 ppm in two weeks.was running gfo first just swiched out gfo for bio pellets now am getting ready to start gfo

[Bblinks]

If you run pellets you need to also run a phosphate removing agent like rowa, when np pellets first came out it was said that it is not necessary to run phosphate remover as the bacteria will take care of both elements, but obviously that wasn't the case as most reefer found out when nitrate is depleted, the left over phosphate will slowly creep back up again.
As of now, I am running 2 nextreef reactor for pellets and rowa. I test phos quite frequently and as soon as I get a reading of 0.02(hanna checket) I change out the rowa.Pellets are top up every 3-4 month. Carbon is ran passively as I found this method fairly effective. If you need more info, Jeff @ JL aquatics has more info on this subject. I believe he has contacted a few bio pellet companies to find out the details about them.

[DiverDude]

You bring up another good point -the flow through each media is often different so doing dual (in series) reactors off the same pump, while saving the cost and enrgy of a second pump, may cause problems when one media needs more flow than the other.

3 seaparate reactors and 3 pumps seems excessive to me though. Does anyone do this or do they use separate reactors and plumb them in parallel ?

[abcha0s]

I run two biopellet reactors, a carbon reactor and a GFO reactor off one pump. You need to be a little creative in balancing the runs and making sure there are no surges when you take a reactor offline, but generally speaking I am happy with this approach.


I run these 4 reactors in parallel. I have a 5th tee that runs back to the tank without going through a reactor. When I want to take a reactor offline, I open this 5th line to release the pressure. When all of the reactors are oppetational, the 5th tee is closed.

- Brad