Bio-Pellets and Carbon?

[Reefie]

I've got a TLF 150 Reactor running Vertex Bio-Pellets currently, but I'm considering adding a 2nd TLF 150 to run Carbon or GFO.

I've read that running GFO isn't recommended when already running Bio-Pellets, a lot of people already do, but I'm thinking I'll just run Carbon. I already run RowaPhos passively in a Media Basket, so I don't think I'll need the extra GFO in a reactor.

I'm just looking for a bit more polishing of the water.

What are everyone's thoughts on this?

I was planning on daisy-chaining the 2nd TLF 150 running Carbon to the 1st TLF 150 running Bio-Pellets. Good plan or not?

[kien]

I've got a TLF 150 Reactor running Vertex Bio-Pellets currently, but I'm considering adding a 2nd TLF 150 to run Carbon or GFO.

I already run RowaPhos passively in a Media Basket

I wouldn't say that you need to run GFO in a TLF reactor if you're fine with the GFO (RowaPhos) that you're running now passively. If you do decide to run GFO in a reactor then you can stop the passive GFO (Rowaphos).

As you said, a lot of people would recommend against running GFO and Biopellets at the same time but I've been doing just that for two and a half years now :biggrin:

As for daisy chaining, I used to do that but found that it wasn't all that effective as the various media (biopellets, GFO and carbon) all need to tumble at different rates. Daisy chaining them makes the adjustment of these tumble/flow rates a challenge.

[Lampshade]

The big reason NOT to run GFO with pellets is because pellets feed bacteria carbon that takes about 1 part phosphate and 16 parts nitrate and get's it out your skimmer somehow. So if you run GFO you may be reducing the overall effectiveness of your pellets by reducing the amount of phosphates available. At the same time, lots of people do run GFO without problems because not everyone is going to have exactly 1 part phosphate for 16 parts nitrates. Mine where nice and balanced for a long time, and unreadable, but now i have cyno while running pellets, so i'm assuming my phosphates have crept up a bit, so i'm debating adding GFO to the mix.

If you're not running carbon i'd add that in there before GFO, carbon helps out in lots of ways, especially bio-warfare reduction.

You don't want to daisy your pellets and carbon since you want carbon with a low flow and pellets with lots. I had mine set up that way since i figured extra flow wouldn't hurt, but then my carbon got old and clumpy, and my pellets turned into a solid pile of toxic mulm. If you can split them off the same pump that's one way, but a cheap mj400 or something will probably be enough for your carbon.

[Wayne]

Thanks for the explanation for why not to run GFO with pellets, I always did but I had some other problems that required it (GHA). After my algea cleared up I ran carbon also without any ill effects.

So reefie I would recommend just running carbon with its own pump, it does a few more things then just polishing water ;)