Vertex Bio pellets question - slime/gel?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by aquatechy

the pellets are tumbling quite nicely actually. The film is forming on hardware mostly (reactor well, tubing, etc). i dont want it to be a constant battle, having to clean out this sludge all the time.

by closed loop, i mean like this: http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/09/r...ellet-reactor/

kinda like a calcium reactor.... i can control throughput through the reactor and the tumbling separately...

I don't think you should be recirculating water in the reactor. You want to send all the reactor output to the skimmer. This might be why the sludge is building up in your reactor, instead of being constantly flushed out, and fed only with fresh tank water.

Also, you should turn off the UV, as recommended by Vertex. It might be killing some of that beneficial bacteria that your MB7 creates.

I have had my UF20 running now for about 9 months, and never had any sludge build-up. I recently added the Vertex bio peller option, too, but only use the top part now. I found the that the bottom piece screen was a little too fine for my flow volume and would push up the column which caused uneven tumbling. So I just use the Michaels mesh insert at the bottom, as before, and it works better with that.