Bio-pellet Reactors: whats good whats bad
 

whos happy with their biopellet reactors, and whos not? lookin to buy one soon but i need you guys to steer me in the right direction.

im counting on you canreefers

Your size of tank I would suggest a TLF 150 or if you have the room a Vertex Media reactor. I have the NextReef MR1's but I think it would be to big for your system.

i have a tlf 150, but how are they for clumping? i might use it for phosban or whatever and pick up something else more suited for biopellets

I am using a Vertex UF-20. Very happy with it. Tall, so takes a small footprint. You need to use a screen mesh instead of the sponges inside, so you don't get clogging. I have it T'ed off a return pump right now. It has a ball valve on the input side so easy to control exactly the amount of flow you want, to get the best tumble. Totally maintenance free, no cleaning, only have to add bio pellets every 3 months or so.

I made my own from an old Precision Marine calcium reactor, made it recirculating with adjustable output that is plumbed direct into my skimmer, works great. I think a lot of the horror stories re: pellets are a result of too many pellets or too much flow, I am only using 2 cups on the 300, initially took about 6 weeks before I started to notice a difference ( slow and steady wins this race anyway) but it has been online for just over a year and I am happy with the results.

If your going to use pellets you will not need any phosban. I stopped running it when I put pellets in. The TLF run good with the mess mod, no foam and good flow.


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no phosphate remover with bio-pellets huh? thatll save a headache or two trying to cram more equipment into that little sump. so how about direct feed to the skimmer? it needs to be fed anyways as it is a recirc, good idea? great idea??

I don't run GFO, phosphate level as measured with my colorimeter reads 0.00 as for direct feed they say you should direct the discharge from the pellet reactor towards the intake of the skimmer so I direct inject thru the ozone port ( Beckett skimmer) I like the way mine is plumbed as I can controll flow rates real easy, also noticed a dramatic improvement in the amount of skimmate produced and it is very consistent, went from emptying the collector once a week to once a day (and boy does it stink!)if I can find the battery for my camera I will snap some pics.

i meant actually plumbing the two together.

smash them pics up!

You mean as in run it thru the pellet reactor and the output direct into the skimmer? The only problem I believe that creates is the flow to keep the pellets tumbling may be too much flow, as I mentioned previous, I think some of the problems people are having with the pellets is a result of too much flow ( only my opinion, not based on any actual scientific study) but I must have been on to something as I have been running my recirc reactor for quite some time and now there is companies comming out with recirc models for exactly that reason, I can controll the amount of pellet tumble independent of the dose rate, if I can get some pics up hopefully it will make sense, kinda hard to explain it.