Is there a best Bio-pellet?

[Janeallisonn]

So I've got my tank up and running ... 29 gal biocube and just filled it with plenty of pretty SPS frags. Skimmer is working well, Mg, Alk and Ca are testing where they should be, but I'm still not getting the color that I'd like out of my SPS.

I'd like to start running a small amount of bio pellets in the first chamber of the back of my tank, directly below the skimmer (Aquatic Life 115) intake and despite some extensive reading there still doesn't seem to be a clear 'winner' when it comes to which pellet it best.

Since I'm working with limited space and will likely only be running about 100-150ml of pellets, the NitraGuard Cubes sound like a fantastic idea if I can set them up with an air stone rather than DIYing a small reactor.

But long story short I'm looking for some opinions.

[Bblinks]

I have been trying the "all in one" biopellets from npx and it's probably one of the best out there. I have had experience with numerous types of pellets and as long as they don't have impurities, they should function all the same except for the "all in one", it has phosphate absorbent material (GFO) combined with the pellets so it will up take more phosphate in the water column. I put quotation on the all in one because its still not the end all product that most has hoped for, you will still need to run GFO if your phosphate level is too high (if you feed really heavy) but if its not than these pellets might just be perfect for your tank. Anyways, there is a good youtube video made by american reef dot com. check it out, it's pretty cool.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

I have been trying the "all in one" biopellets from npx and it's probably one of the best out there. I have had experience with numerous types of pellets and as long as they don't have impurities, they should function all the same except for the "all in one", it has phosphate absorbent material (GFO) combined with the pellets so it will up take more phosphate in the water column. I put quotation on the all in one because its still not the end all product that most has hoped for, you will still need to run GFO if your phosphate level is too high (if you feed really heavy) but if its not than these pellets might just be perfect for your tank. Anyways, there is a good youtube video made by american reef dot com. check it out, it's pretty cool.

What is your consumption rate with these NPX pellets, Rich?

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

What is your consumption rate with these NPX pellets, Rich?

Hard to say right now, I do run a filter sock and have no sand so 300ml will last me 6 months give or take 100ml. Those 1000ml bags should be good for a year.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Hard to say right now, I do run a filter sock and have no sand so 300ml will last me 6 months give or take 100ml. Those 1000ml bags should be good for a year.

What I've noticed with my bio pellets, is that once they get down to about a cup or 2 left in the reactor, they seem to last forever, with very little consumption. Last time, before I filled the reactor again, I went almost 2 years without adding any. And all that time, nitrates remained at zero.

I actually disconnected the reactor for a few months, and then watched my nitrates gradually climb. So the pellets were obviously still working, even with very low consumption.

My concern with the npx pellets might be that if the consumption is too slow, then there wouldn't be enough GFO released to bring down the phosphates.

[Bblinks]

Hence why I think running GFO is still crucial. Mind you, it will last a lot longer in my opinion if you use in conjunction AIO pellets.

[asylumdown]

I'm presently using the Nitraguard cubes. I much prefer them to the biopellets for two reasons:

1. They are relatively cheap compared to the pellets. 40 bucks for a year's supply at the rate my tank is using them

2. I believe the bacterial action is actually taking place to some degree on the cube, as opposed to in the tank.

I have biopellets that I accidentally dumped in to the skimmer chamber of my sump over 2 years ago. They're still there. They haven't shrunk, changed shape, nothing. To me this says there's very little bacterial action taking place on the pellets themselves, I think the tumbling of the pellets in the reactor wears them down and releases microscopic quantities of whatever plastic they're made of in to the water (which would explain why it takes so long for them to start "working"). With the biocubes I'm sure there's still some amount of sloughing, but they're made from a much spongier material that actually seems to biodegrade. Within a couple of weeks they change colour and start to shrink – think a block of swiss cheese melting from the inside out. The ones that have been in there the longest look nothing like the cubes that originally went in went from a mixture of red/brown to brown/dark brown.

[jason604]

does it just remove nitrates from water or does it do anything else special to help corals?

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I'm presently using the Nitraguard cubes. I much prefer them to the biopellets for two reasons:

1. They are relatively cheap compared to the pellets. 40 bucks for a year's supply at the rate my tank is using them

2. I believe the bacterial action is actually taking place to some degree on the cube, as opposed to in the tank.

I have biopellets that I accidentally dumped in to the skimmer chamber of my sump over 2 years ago. They're still there. They haven't shrunk, changed shape, nothing. To me this says there's very little bacterial action taking place on the pellets themselves, I think the tumbling of the pellets in the reactor wears them down and releases microscopic quantities of whatever plastic they're made of in to the water (which would explain why it takes so long for them to start "working"). With the biocubes I'm sure there's still some amount of sloughing, but they're made from a much spongier material that actually seems to biodegrade. Within a couple of weeks they change colour and start to shrink – think a block of swiss cheese melting from the inside out. The ones that have been in there the longest look nothing like the cubes that originally went in went from a mixture of red/brown to brown/dark brown.

[asylumdown]

I'm not sure we know enough about corals to say whether something beyond low nutrients, lots of flow, stable parameters, and good lighting "helps" them.

They keep the nitrates low, as advertised. Whether they help, hurt, or hinder corals beyond that... who knows. There's lots of opinions in both directions. No one even knows what any one brand of solid carbon is specifically actually made of (we know what family of compounds they probably are, but none of the manufacturers publish specifics), how much of said compound makes it in to the water column, what that compound does to coral metabolism, exactly what said compound does to the microbial population of your tank (or where it does it), or what, if any downstream effects it has on the micro and macro fauna of your tank's ecology.

Literally the only thing that's "known" about them is that adding them to your tank in some fashion will reduce testable nitrate in the water column after some period of time, and there's some established biological principals to suggest a reasonable hypotheses as to why. But that's at the most macro of levels, eeeeeeeeverything else, including all the specifics and what other effects they may have, is no better than a guess. Like many of the products sold in our hobby, if you dig deep in to the things lots of people believe about them, you'll find that most of our accepted 'body of collective forum knowledge' can be traced back to some off-hand comment made somewhere by a person who probably knows as much about marine biochemistry as I do about quantum computing, or marketing material published by the people who make a living charging you 70 dollars for a 27 cent bag of plastic beads.

anyway I don't mean to be all ranty, but you asked what the 'best' brand was. 'Best' implies there's some metric against which to evaluate them. Beyond how effective they are at reducing nitrates, and whether they tumble well in your reactor, there is no such metric. All of them seem to be equally as effective at reducing nitrates, and which ones work best in your reactor depend more on your reactor than the pellets.

[ReEf BoSs]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I'm presently using the Nitraguard cubes. I much prefer them to the biopellets for two reasons:

1. They are relatively cheap compared to the pellets. 40 bucks for a year's supply at the rate my tank is using them

2. I believe the bacterial action is actually taking place to some degree on the cube, as opposed to in the tank.

I have biopellets that I accidentally dumped in to the skimmer chamber of my sump over 2 years ago. They're still there. They haven't shrunk, changed shape, nothing. To me this says there's very little bacterial action taking place on the pellets themselves, I think the tumbling of the pellets in the reactor wears them down and releases microscopic quantities of whatever plastic they're made of in to the water (which would explain why it takes so long for them to start "working"). With the biocubes I'm sure there's still some amount of sloughing, but they're made from a much spongier material that actually seems to biodegrade. Within a couple of weeks they change colour and start to shrink – think a block of swiss cheese melting from the inside out. The ones that have been in there the longest look nothing like the cubes that originally went in went from a mixture of red/brown to brown/dark brown.

So nitraguard cubes don't have to be tumbled in a reactor ? If that's the case that is real easy.