biopellets- who has had luck with them

bowkry · #1 10-02-2010, 01:54 PM

why I ask I started pellets 2 months ago, great right off the begining within 5 days water was so crystal clear corals coral was great except my millis didnt realy like it, no algae at all. Then it all hit just over a week ago first the bryopsis covered all my sand

then algae started on all my rocks water is got a brown color to it my LPS started looseing color

. Now algae is on ever part of my tannk starting to cover corals everywere. I run carbon all the time and my filter floss is clogging in 3-4 hours with crud. My tank is starting to crash. So I took the pellets out of the reactor filled it full of carbon I am doing a 25% water change today and another one in 3 days. It was weird my phos and nit were at undetable last week and this week they are right over the top. I also added a seahare and a urchin to help. I have a very small bioload A small tomini tang, flamehawk, read headed jawfish, and a scooter blennie

kat · #2 10-02-2010, 02:16 PM

holy crap...what brand of pellets are you using? I have read that there are some brands far superior to other brands...did you start out with a small amount and gradually increase it?

frd72 · #3 10-02-2010, 02:33 PM

i am using it too but no such problem like that for almost a year now. are you dosing some additives, i had a huge issue of zeovit overdose because i follow the bottle dosage.. Just my thoughts..

bowkry · #4 10-02-2010, 02:40 PM

I am running vertex or was, I did slowly add them. No I used to run zeo so I know do not go by there labels 1/4 what they say. All I was adding exta, sponge power, and amino acids 2 drops every 3rd day, and I only feed my tank ever second day, use ro water so the only place the algae came from is bad salt or the pellets, and it the same salt I been using, The only thing I have changed I added a few frags and a wave box

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #5 10-02-2010, 02:56 PM

Did a snail die or something else?

bowkry · #6 10-02-2010, 03:30 PM

no nothing has died Oh sory I lost a tiny tiny goby I think he got sucked into the wave box but he was under an inch or my flamehawk ate him

kien · #7 10-02-2010, 04:36 PM

They seem to be working for me. Ive been using them since January and my nitrates and phosphates are still near zero. I have a huge bio load and feed 2 times a day (flakes and frozen). I do not use any additives other than alk and calc. I run them in a vertex-20 reactor and have a mix of the original bio pellets and vertex pellets.

whatcaneyedo · #8 10-02-2010, 05:52 PM

I tried out 100ml of Vertex pellets on my 200gal system for the month of August. I started with undetectable levels of nitrate and phosphate and that did not change. However because I ceased running GFO (normally I run a cup monthly) my macro algae which was in stasis exploded with growth. I had a minor bacterial bloom that lasted about two days. Around the middle of the month most of my soft coral began bleaching and some of my LPS began loosing color. By the end of the month I removed them and went back to GFO because the softies were completely white. The whole time I did notice an increase in skimmer performance and an increase in cyano on my sand. Everything else appeared to stay the same. Its been a month since I've gone back to normal and some of my softies still haven't completely recovered but the LPS are nearly 100% again. Most of the cyano has disappeared.

I also change 1 cup of carbon monthly and did 5-10% weekly water changes. I run a calcium reactor and a kalkwasser reactor but otherwise don't add anything except food to the water. Occasionally I'll add Selcon, Garlic or Vite Chem to the food.

daniella3d · #9 10-02-2010, 08:11 PM

biopellets are carbon source for bacteries. I don't beleive that it will produce phosphates or nitrates in your tank, quite the opposite.

I beleive something else is wrong and I don't think it's even related to the pellets.

Maybe your carbon release phosphates, because some carbon do. It is important buy good quality carbon made for marine use.

Your should run some GFO to remove the phosphates instead of carbon. Honestly carbon is not going to do anything for your tank except absorbing chiminal in the water but not the nitrates nor the phosphates.

When using pellets, skimming is very very important. Also it is best to start with a very small amount of biopellets and increase as the system adapt to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowkry

why I ask I started pellets 2 months ago, great right off the begining within 5 days water was so crystal clear corals coral was great except my millis didnt realy like it, no algae at all. Then it all hit just over a week ago first the bryopsis covered all my sand

then algae started on all my rocks water is got a brown color to it my LPS started looseing color

. Now algae is on ever part of my tannk starting to cover corals everywere. I run carbon all the time and my filter floss is clogging in 3-4 hours with crud. My tank is starting to crash. So I took the pellets out of the reactor filled it full of carbon I am doing a 25% water change today and another one in 3 days. It was weird my phos and nit were at undetable last week and this week they are right over the top. I also added a seahare and a urchin to help. I have a very small bioload A small tomini tang, flamehawk, read headed jawfish, and a scooter blennie

ottoman · #10 10-03-2010, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

biopellets are carbon source for bacteries. I don't beleive that it will produce phosphates or nitrates in your tank, quite the opposite.

I beleive something else is wrong and I don't think it's even related to the pellets.

Maybe your carbon release phosphates, because some carbon do. It is important buy good quality carbon made for marine use.

Your should run some GFO to remove the phosphates instead of carbon. Honestly carbon is not going to do anything for your tank except absorbing chiminal in the water but not the nitrates nor the phosphates.

When using pellets, skimming is very very important. Also it is best to start with a very small amount of biopellets and increase as the system adapt to it.

+1...I am running biopellets without any problem...remember that not all corals like extremely low nitrate...SPS may do good while LPS may need go the opposite way because they require more nutrient as well as any filter feeder.