Bio pellets in a Vertex reactor

[slough shark]

Picked up the 1.5l Vertex reactor here on Canreef. Now, the reactor has a pump (obviously) and in the chamber there is the bottom plastic filter, a rod up the centre and a top plastic filter, all housed inside a stand alone clear plastic cylinder that fits inside the main chamber.
So here is my question:
I dumped one bag of bio pellets in the reactor and its tumbling but just.... the pellets are sort of clumping together at the top and not tumbling like I've seen in other similar systems..... Do I need a bigger pump?
Anyone have any expierence with these things?
Im a little iffy to dump another full bag in if I can barely make one tumble is all.
Any help would be much appreciated.
derek

[Tom R]

I had the same problem with a 3 Lt ZEOvit rector.

I pulled the inner chamber up about 4" to just below the outlet hole. This helped quite a bit, however when I increased the amount of pellets to 2 Lt the pellet movement was non existent. I then replaced my Sedra 2500 with a mag 7 and now I have 2 Lt of pellets moving very nicely in my 6" wide 24" high ZEOvit reactor.

Tom R

[slough shark]

so a bigger pump is the right solution? Figured as much.....
Thanks for the help
derek

[Zoaelite]

What pump are you using derek?

[slough shark]

just the one that came with it in the box.....
Im not sure type/ size but Im sure it's the one that the reactor is sold with....
it says 290gph on it

[viperfish]

I have the same reactor. It doesn't come with a pump. The store that originally sold it may have set up a package deal. I currently have 1000 ml of pellets and my pump is running at 400 gph. I took out the foam and added plastic mesh, other than that no mods. Everything works just fine.

[slough shark]

changed out the pump from a 290gph to a 400 gph...
Bio pellets are tumbling perfectly...
thanks for the help everyone
derek