Weigh in with your experiences with biopellets or vodka dosing

Reef Pilot · #1 11-04-2011, 02:22 PM

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.

chris121277 · #2 11-05-2011, 05:58 AM

just tagging along here

cwatkins · #3 11-05-2011, 06:03 AM

Someone I know actually uses both methods. BioPellets and Vodka dosing.

daniella3d · #4 11-05-2011, 03:25 PM

MOst of the crash I have seen are from people going to fast and creating a bacteria bloom and that endup up killing all the fish usually from lack of oxygen in the tank.

So what ever you do, go very very slowly.

Bblinks · #5 11-05-2011, 04:30 PM

Why don't you give Paul form oceanic corals a call, he has experience on both systems, he is currently running both on his systems.

Parker · #6 11-05-2011, 04:43 PM

I've used both with success, I found the bio pellets the better option for me only from a time investment standpoint. You really can forget about biopellets and let the do their thing.

Bblinks · #7 11-05-2011, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker

I've used both with success, I found the bio pellets the better option for me only from a time investment standpoint. You really can forget about biopellets and let the do their thing.

Parker, do you by chance dose any bacteria source? I am adding zeobak so it doesn;t case a monstrain of bacteria. Also when you are running the pellets, do you also use a phosphate absorbing material like rowaphos or do you soley rely on the pellets?