Well, am still pretty early to have good meaningful results, but am trying the Vertex UF-20 reactor with the Vertex Pro-Bio Pellets. Started a couple months ago, but ramped up very slowly with small additions. Just yesterday, I am now finally up to the maximum recommended bio pellets in my reactor.
For me, it is as much an experiment as anything. I had very high nitrates in my long running, very mature, tank, and wanted to see if I can bring them down, without taking out all my sand and live rock to clean them, and resetting the entire tank. I have a heavy bio load, as I feed my fish about 4 times a day, although small portions.
The nitrates were as high as 100, yes, very high, and are now down to about 40. Amazingly, my corals (no fancy or delicate ones) all seem to be doing well, and fish are active and healthy.
Probably because I ramped up slowly, I did not have any cyano issues or initial tank cloudiness that some others have reported. I did change my skimmer pump, which may have been my big problem all along. It was only pulling about a cup of skimmate a week before, at best. Now I get that everyday, and more, if I don't dial down the water level in my skimmer. I also use MB7 to ensure a good bacterial culture.
So now that I am fully ramped up, will be interesting to see if this will bring my nitrates down all the way or not. I am continuing my feeding as before. My P04, tested (Hanna) last a few days ago, was at .47.
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