NPX-Xtra Beads BETA testing thread!

[Delphinus]

I would think it would be OK if they were dried out first?

[Lance]

Before starting up again a real good rinsing of the pellets and dumping out the water in the reactor would be in order, I think. Gonna be a whole lot of dead bacteria in there.

[OceanicCorals-Ian-]

A rinse would be sufficient to restart the Beads once they are discontinued. I am not sure how the Carpets would be connected to the Beads other than possibly the water is to clean? Most other inhabitants benefit from the added food source, interesting subject!

Ps. Tony, I tried calling you this morning! Where the heck are ya?

[Delphinus]

Ok, change of heart, I'm keeping the pellets running.

After speaking with Ian, seems he & I are in the same mindset that it might just be a nutrient shock that you sometimes see with LPS after starting an aggressive ULNS system like Zeo. Since the feeding responses are still strong, I'll just have to step up the feeding of these guys. Plus Ian had a pretty good suggestion of using Sponge Power (SPONGE POWER!!!!!!) and LPS Amino Acids, I figure it probably can't hurt to try it plus I happened to have both anyhow so won't be costing me anything to try it.

[deputy1234]

I've had mine online for 18 days now. I am just wondering how long does it take normally for it to start reducing nitrates?

[Tom R]

I've been running the new style beads since April and here is an update and some observations:

- I never had problems with clumping or with any cloudiness or discharge from the reactor.

- I am using a converted ZEOvit reactor and have had the flow adjusted properly right from the beginning with the beads were tumbling as in the videos.

- I have added MB7 bacterial supplement to help the bacteria colonize the beads.

- I have had quite the outbreak of Cyano and Bryopsis in my frag system. It has not shown itself in my main display tanks only the frag system.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Never saw any HA or cyano in my tank after adding the pellets.

Stinkiest skimmate my ER250 has ever produced. Now I have to clean it before it fills up or Irene complains about the smell. I also have to clean the skimmer cup in the middle of the night or it stinks up the house.

Have seen better polyp extension on my sps compared to before.

Still need to clean the glass a couple of times a week (was hoping that it would be reduced to only once a week).

Just retested the Nitrates and it used to be literally off the charts and now its reading 10-25 ppm which is probably the lowest its ever been since the tank was first set up years ago. I have a very, very heavily stocked 210g (lots of big, hungry fish - over 10 tangs including an 8" Vlamingi and I feed alot - several times a day including full sheet of Nori and 3-4 feedings of pellets & squirt of frozen foods), so any reduction in NO3 is amazing.

Similar reduction in PO4. Was also off the charts prior to adding the pellets but now at 1ppm (yeah, still high, but way better than before) without any water changes since early June.

Originally, the 550ml did nothing probably due to a number of factors including not enough pellets for the bioload/tank size and inadequate tumbling with the poor flow and mulm clogging up the Fluidized sand bed filter. There is now 1000ml + of pellets in the container and tumbles well as long as I shake it once a week or so (still a bit of mulm production).

With the positive results, I will probably rinse out and add some more pellets to the FSB filter.

Haven't done any water changes since before the swap meet so all the reduction in nutrients must be due to the pellets.

So, to summarize:

Added more pellets mid-June
Got the pellets to tumble better (after the swap meet - cleaned out the filter and flow increased).
Nitrates dropped from off the charts to 10-25ppm (vast improvement)
Phosphates dropped from off the charts to 1ppm (vast improvement)
No water changes since early June
Very high bioload on large sps/lps heavy 210g with 75g sump
Using a ER250 skimmer

My corals have gotten used to growing up in high nutrient waters so now they'll have to get used to med. nutrient waters.

For all the local or visiting reefers who saw the 210g reef during the swap meet, yes, my sps have fortunately adapted to less (far less) than the pristine water conditions all the books and experts claim they need. Your tanks should have better water quality so most of the frags from my tank should thrive in yours.

Anthony

[deputy1234]

Day 32 for me and nothing. Just some cyano. I have 400ml in a 2lf reactor with the pellets tumbling gently in a heavily stocked 55g SPS tank. I was dosing vodka prior to the pellets and was still dosing 2 weeks into using pellets before I took vodka dosing offline. My nitrates started at 2.5ppm and after 4 weeks it climbed to 5ppm.

Is there any suggestions on what to do or should I just leave it as it is currently and wait a couple more weeks?


Here's a video of the pellets

[deputy1234]

I forgot to add i am also dosing Microbacter 7. I'm going to try to up the flow and see what happens

[banditpowdercoat]

It's time for more pellets for me. I'm wondering if I should try the Xtra beads??? I'm not around alot to monitor my tank any mroe tyho