Questions about Bio-pellets

[sewerman45]

I have been trying to use bio-pellets for a bit now and have had nothing but problems. I was hoping someone wiser than me could give me some pointers.

I am using a Innovative Marine MiniMax All-In-One Media Reactor - Mid Size and NPX Bioplastics for bio-pellets.

The main problem I'm having is that some of the pellets seem way lighter than the others and stick to the top of the reactor as soon as there is any flow through it. It is really finicky to adjust and I can't seem to find a right amount of flow that tumbles the pellets and also doesn't stick a ton of them to the top. I ended up taking the reactor offline after I was getting a ton of algae from the pellets clumping a ton. I can't remember what it's called when the pellets don't tumble and go bad but as soon as I took it offline all my problems went away. I tried soaking the pellets in water for awhile before adding them but that didn't help either.

I have restarted the reactor with only about a teaspoon of pellets but it's still happening. I really wanted something little that I could set and forget to help keep down nitrates but so far it hasn't turned out that way. I use Rowaphos in a phosban reactor as well for phosphates and it's working great.

Do I need a bio-pellet reactor? Is it worth the effort? Should I be using something else?

Thanks.