INTRODUCING PELLETS

[acepumping]

hey, i am going to be starting to run pellets. two little fishies, reactor and pellets.
was wondering how slow i should introduce.. its only a 65 gal with 9 little fish and a 35 gal sump.

rowa phos w/ reactor
uv sterilizer
chiller
coralife hob skimmer( ehh i know the sh^$%)

please let me know if i should discontinue the sterilizer if running pellets or anything like that

thanks

[acepumping]

anybody help? i need some input

[Aquattro]

Can't offer any advice, but i know it's been discussed a lot in the past. Have you searched on the topic?

[fishoholic]

Go very slow. Start with 1/4 of what you need to run and slowly add more. Tried running them in my system but even at 1/4 of what I should be running they kept making my skimmers go nuts and overflow everywhere. Finally figured I was better off running my skimmers properly then the pellets and gave up. Others have had success with them, I admit I'm fairly impatient. Also be aware that some people had the pellets kill their corals. Unless your nitrates are fairly high (over 20) I wouldn't risk running them. Look into a better skimmer and run GFO.

[dc4]

Make sure you soak your pellets in ro water, the day before you add them. I added a 1/4 cup each week until I got up to a full cup.

You also have to modify the tlf reactor with a screen at the top and I cut off the bottom piece to allow more flow from the mj1200. If you don't modify it, the pellets will float up and out and clump together and create a chemical poison. Took me almost 2 months of mucking around, to get things to work right. I had the pellets keep clumping until I snapped the bottom off the reactor.

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[asylumdown]

Also be prepared for cyano issues at the start. Some people get away with it, but you'll find literally hundreds of threads on the web in which people got cyano explosions shortly after starting the pellets. It looks like cyanobacteria can also metabolize the carbon polymer that gets sloughed off the pelllets as they tumble and makes it in to the water column, so if you're going to run pellets it's strongly recommended to routinely dose a probiotic supplement to help out compete the cyano.

When I added pellets to my old 90 gallon (that had been running for a year), my whole tank was a thick carpet of cyano the next week. This time I added them right at the beginning and haven't had too many issues.

[acepumping]

ok, i will start very slow, its a 65 gal with 20 gal sump. i know they need to tumble slowly,so they dont stick.. but i was told to add micro bacteria.
my nitrates get between 25-35 ppm, i love feeding the fish alot and my corals... where should i have the hoses running too ??


from left side of sump into reactor, then reactor to right side of sump ???

[dc4]

You don't want just a slight tumble with pellets, you want them to tumble a lot, otherwise they will clump guaranteed. You want the outlet hose of the reactor to output right where the input is to your skimmer.

I'm also running Prodibio Bioclean with the pellets.

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[jagermaier]

You might want to disconnect your uv sterilizer as it could have a negative affect on the bacteria you are trying to bennefit from the bio pellets.

[emerald crab]

It might be a good idea to take the GFO offline. If you use bacteria for nutrient export, you don't want to upset the balance nitrates-phosphates. Make sure that you bring the effluent of the pellet reactor close to the skimmer intake.