Vertex Bio pellets question - slime/gel?

[aquatechy]

Hi there,

hope someone can help me with this,

i just started bio pellets a week ago, and now im getting a clear jelly-like slime forming inside the reactor. is this normal? What do i do? Note that i soaked my pellets and have been seeding with microbacter7... help...

[Reef Pilot]

What type of reactor do you have? Are the pellets tumbling well? How big is your tank (is it the 100g?), and how many pellets did you start off with? Are you directing the output of the reactor to your skimmer input? Is your UV shut off?

[aquatechy]

What type of reactor do you have? Are the pellets tumbling well? How big is your tank (is it the 100g?), and how many pellets did you start off with? Are you directing the output of the reactor to your skimmer input? Is your UV shut off?

The reactor is a Vertex UF15 with the pro-bio peller upgrade. The tank is 90g with a ~10g sump. i started off with about 200ml of pellets (approx a little less than a cup) The flow is being directed at the skimmer, but my reactor is setup like a closed loop. The UV is not off...

[Reef Pilot]

The reactor is a Vertex UF15 with the pro-bio peller upgrade. The tank is 90g with a ~10g sump. i started off with about 200ml of pellets (approx a little less than a cup) The flow is being directed at the skimmer, but my reactor is setup like a closed loop. The UV is not off...
You didn't say how well the bio-pellets are tumbling? Not sure what you mean by closed loop? Where is the input to the reactor? It should be taking the water from your tank (where it flows into your sump). 200ml might be a little much to start off with, but if it is tumbling well, and you were dosing MB7 for a couple weeks before starting the pellets, you should still be OK. But flow through the reactor is very important, or the pellets will clump and not tumble freely.

[aquatechy]

the pellets are tumbling quite nicely actually. The film is forming on hardware mostly (reactor well, tubing, etc). i dont want it to be a constant battle, having to clean out this sludge all the time.

by closed loop, i mean like this: http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/09/recirculating-biopellet-reactor/

kinda like a calcium reactor.... i can control throughput through the reactor and the tumbling separately...

[aquatechy]

You didn't say how well the bio-pellets are tumbling? Not sure what you mean by closed loop? Where is the input to the reactor? It should be taking the water from your tank (where it flows into your sump). 200ml might be a little much to start off with, but if it is tumbling well, and you were dosing MB7 for a couple weeks before starting the pellets, you should still be OK. But flow through the reactor is very important, or the pellets will clump and not tumble freely.

Oh, and input is where you say it should be, where water is coming down into the sump.

[Reef Pilot]

the pellets are tumbling quite nicely actually. The film is forming on hardware mostly (reactor well, tubing, etc). i dont want it to be a constant battle, having to clean out this sludge all the time.

by closed loop, i mean like this: http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/09/recirculating-biopellet-reactor/

kinda like a calcium reactor.... i can control throughput through the reactor and the tumbling separately...
I don't think you should be recirculating water in the reactor. You want to send all the reactor output to the skimmer. This might be why the sludge is building up in your reactor, instead of being constantly flushed out, and fed only with fresh tank water.

Also, you should turn off the UV, as recommended by Vertex. It might be killing some of that beneficial bacteria that your MB7 creates.

I have had my UF20 running now for about 9 months, and never had any sludge build-up. I recently added the Vertex bio peller option, too, but only use the top part now. I found the that the bottom piece screen was a little too fine for my flow volume and would push up the column which caused uneven tumbling. So I just use the Michaels mesh insert at the bottom, as before, and it works better with that.