Bio pellets are peeling and clumpy

[ALang]

I find that if I don't dump out my pellets and scrub and rinse out the moded pads every month or so, the flow gets restricted and the tumbling slows down to next to nothing.
Then I'd gently rinse the pellets, and pour them back in, with the help of lots of water. Man, they are really "sticky" and hard to put back into the reactor.
I have mine now for 8 months and have no problems rinsing and using the RO (freshwater) to help pour them back in.
Then I just start the reactor back up, and SW will then swirl the RO water out of the chamber.
BTW, I run a TLF reactor. And I keep it at rapid boiling speed of tumble. HTH.

[wingedfish]

If I'm not mistaken, any exposure to air or fresh water negates the entire point of biopellets. Imho they do not need to be tumbling, just need water flow to keep the bacteria supplied with what they need and too much tumbling acts like the rock tumbler you had as a kid and knocks off all the stuff your trying to grow. My pellets don't tumble. Every week or so I open the valve and give the reactor a shake to unclump and sluff some mulm to the skimmer. Don't forget the whole concept of pellets is to grow things on the surface and export to the skimmer or have it be food for the coral. How can this happen if the reactor is smashing them about in a vortex of boiling pellets?

What are the consequences of not tumbling? I believe they stick together (do to the mulm your trying to grow) untill water flow ceases and it goes anoxic. I don't know how long this takes as I've never seen it and I would imagine it has alot to do with bioload.

[reef93]

Originally Posted by wingedfish

If I'm not mistaken, any exposure to air or fresh water negates the entire point of biopellets. Imho they do not need to be tumbling, just need water flow to keep the bacteria supplied with what they need and too much tumbling acts like the rock tumbler you had as a kid and knocks off all the stuff your trying to grow. My pellets don't tumble. Every week or so I open the valve and give the reactor a shake to unclump and sluff some mulm to the skimmer. Don't forget the whole concept of pellets is to grow things on the surface and export to the skimmer or have it be food for the coral. How can this happen if the reactor is smashing them about in a vortex of boiling pellets?

What are the consequences of not tumbling? I believe they stick together (do to the mulm your trying to grow) untill water flow ceases and it goes anoxic. I don't know how long this takes as I've never seen it and I would imagine it has alot to do with bioload.

You were right, I don't know how my reactor gets a lot of air inside. After I let all the air out, it is tumble and no more clumpy, back to normal now . Thanks a lot.

And thanks Alang, from now on, once in a while I will rinse them just like you said. I didn't know we need to do so though.

And thanks all of you who were taking your time to help me here. Thank you.

[ALang]

No Problem. The info was just about what I would do on a regular basis. Whether they are correct or not, that's what I do to mine. I might change my way of doing things as I learn new ideas from everyone else, one way or the other. Or that I hear of a better way.
I just stumbled onto that, partly due the the frustration of sticking pellets. I just think that a reactor full of tumbling pellets make sense, if the bacteria attached needs to regularly sloughed off.
If I'm not doing it right, I apologize. Don't want to lead anyone done the wrong path...
Have fun with this hobby!

[reef93]

Thanks again Alang, I think if I rinse them once in a while like you did it will be better, not totally neglecting them for a long period like me.

TO The Grizz, I forgot to tell you, my reactor is TLF and I run with an Aquaclear 802 powerhead. It looks almost like its in a boiling stage and they tumble well.

[The Grizz]

Sounds like you have them turning just right now. I have never washed mine just topped them off when needed.

[kien]

I think the principle behind the pellets and zeolites(rocks) are similar in that they grow bacteria. Both have to be shaken frequently to rid the media of all that bacteria byproduct. It is up to the hobbyist to decide how to go about doing that. You can either manually shack them once a day, rig them up to some sort of pump but still agitating them periodically. Luckily for biopellets you can automate this process of shaking them by allowing them to tumble constantly. Some people have MacGyvered reactors to try and do this with ZeoLite rocks as well with varying degrees os success. Any of the above should work.

[reef93]

Originally Posted by kien

I think the principle behind the pellets and zeolites(rocks) are similar in that they grow bacteria. Both have to be shaken frequently to rid the media of all that bacteria byproduct. It is up to the hobbyist to decide how to go about doing that. You can either manually shack them once a day, rig them up to some sort of pump but still agitating them periodically. Luckily for biopellets you can automate this process of shaking them by allowing them to tumble constantly. Some people have MacGyvered reactors to try and do this with ZeoLite rocks as well with varying degrees os success. Any of the above should work.

Have you ever seen pellets that are peeling off and they were floating everywhere like flakes. It didn't look normal to me when I saw them like that. They are all gone now since I let all the air from the reactor out. Thank goodness.

[kien]

If by "peeling off" you mean the mulm that is sloughing off the pellets then that's normal. However, the fact that they are clumping due to this suggests to me that you are not keeping up with the production of mulm. I'd recommend getting a bigger reactor so that you can send more flow through the reactor. I've used the TLF150 as a biopellet reactor before and found it very difficult to use for this purpose. there are lots of good reactors out there designed for this type of media. Also, if you upgrade your reactor you can upgrade your pellet reactor pump and have much better control over how much flow gets into the reactor. If getting a bigger reactor is not in the cards then you will have to manually agitate the pellets frequently to keep up with all that bacteria byproduct.

[reef93]

I guess I have no choice but to manually stir them once in a while then. I can't afford to change my reactor for another ... NO MONEY for now, I have to save for the Boxing day sale coming in 4 months to get the nice tunze wavemaker. Thanks for your input, Kien.