Zeovit + Bio Pellets

[Kevotron]

Can they both operate together or does it have to be one or the other ?
please chime in

[doch]

I'm pretty sure that there are people on here running both. If I was able to get proper tumbling out of my pellets I'd likely run both... but I've given up on pellets.

[Delphinus]

They can be run together no problem. I did for a little while on my old tank. My new tank is just zeo at the moment but I was toying with the idea of throwing a pellet reactor on there down the road.

[Kevotron]

Would i still need GFO & carbon if i was to go with both ?
seems like my sump will be full of reactors lol

[Delphinus]

I'd say yes to both unfortunately. Carbon does its own thing and isn't replaceable by pellets or zeo, although is space was a concern you don't really HAVE to run carbon in a reactor, a filter bag passive in the sump in a high flow area can work well apparently.

I found the pellets were awesome on their own for reducing nitrates, but did not do much for phosphates, and if I ever did pellets on their own again I'd still run GFO alongside. I think they do reduce phosphate to an extent but at a much slower rate than they reduce nitrate.

[Bblinks]

I run pellets with a nexreef reactor inconjunction with zeovit products. I dose zeobac, zeofood, b,k,spongepower, aminoacid, coral vitalizer, coralsnow. Man that's a lot of stuff... :neutral: I do like the results that I have gotten from both systems, not that I can say it's got amazing growth like dez's tank but still pretty respectiable. I did played around with the system for a good 6 month before coming to this point. I was dosing 3 parts before I switched over to calcium reactor. I have finally stabilized my alk between 7 and 8, calcium around 420, and mag at 1350. IMO alk is very important when using probiotic system, it doesn't matter if you are running full zeo or biopellets or incunjunction. Keep it around 7 is very important. Anything higher will cause burnt tips or worth stn and rtn. When you get your system on cruise control for the big 3, I would test and dose potassium and iodine, potassium seems to get striped out of real quick by the pellets. Remember the key word is test. I rarely dose something I can't test unless it's a food source. Zeovit is a fairly tricky system, you can overdose quite easily. Watching your corals reaction to the additive is almost as important as feeding your fishes everyday.
If you would ask me the answer is YES. but make sure all your parameters are good, dose a source of bacteria like zeobak so you won't end up with a monostrain of bacteria, most importantly when dosing is to monitor the corals a day or two after the initial dosage and see how they react and go from there. The corals will tell you what you need to dose evert time. Lastly zeovit forum is a really good place to check out but don't mention that you are running pellets cause for some dame reason they do not like to mix the two together. :wink:

[Bblinks]

I'd say yes to both unfortunately. Carbon does its own thing and isn't replaceable by pellets or zeo, although is space was a concern you don't really HAVE to run carbon in a reactor, a filter bag passive in the sump in a high flow area can work well apparently.

I found the pellets were awesome on their own for reducing nitrates, but did not do much for phosphates, and if I ever did pellets on their own again I'd still run GFO alongside. I think they do reduce phosphate to an extent but at a much slower rate than they reduce nitrate.

Good point. I do run carbon and rowaphos with pellets and zeovit. Pellets take away both nitrate and phosphate at the same rate, but once one is depleted the other element tend to stick around which in 99percent of the case it's phosphate. A bit of rowaphos will take care of the rest. I also found that Lps and clams don't like it when every thing is at zero so if you have a mixed reef it's better to keep a bit of phosphate just so they are happy.

[doch]

One thing to consider is that the pellets will make sticky particles (I think they call it mulm) that does a very good job of gumming up the foam on your reactors. The mulm will feed your corals, and you may be able to position your pellet reactor in a way that it hits the display right off the bat, and does minimal damage to your filters, but it's something to consider. I found the pellets to be more of a pain than a benefit... for me at least.

One of the LFS tells me that all of their maintenance tanks get GFO no matter what they are running for nutrient reduction.