N/P Reducing Pellets ("Solid Vodka") - "Wow" ... 3 month update

[Delphinus]

I am starting a review thread for the new pellet product people are referring to as "solid vodka dosing".

For more background info, check out this thread in the Oceanic Corals vendor forum here: http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=58523

Some background: I'm trying these pellets on a mixed reef with a high fish load that I feed heavily (Further details at the bottom of this post). Between the addition of a pair of butterflies who get fed frozen mysis daily, and a pygmy eel this fall who has a voracious appetite, I have been noticing nitrates start to climb as high as 30. So I was very interested in this product when it became available.

So why a combination of these pellets with zeovit and not just one or the other? To be honest, I'm not sure. I just wanted to try it. For one, I had been meaning to consider going back on zeovit anyhow - one thing that always impresses me with zeovit tanks is just how clear the water is.

I am certain that these N/P Reducing Pellets would be more than adequate on their own for nitrate and phosphate reduction, I'm just hoping that the combination of zeolites and N/P pellets in the reactor will be an aggressive nutrient reduction system so to allow me to continue the feeding schedules I've established with the tank residents.

So, what's a thread without pictures. This maybe has nothing to do with the product being reviewed, but on the other hand, if an experiment isn't reproducible, then it's not science. So without further ado, here is the reactor I am using:

The exterior shell:


The inner chamber, with zeolites but before adding the N/P pellets:


I meant to buy 5.5" diameter acrylic but was sold 5" by mistake, so I had to add the top flange to keep the inner chamber from wiggling side-to-side excessively.

The original version of this reactor had the water flow over the top edge, I added a PVC elbow for the output and ground down the inside so the inside chamber could still "pump":



I also constructed an intake manifold for the feed powerhead so that dosing is introduced directly to the reactor (not shown is the standpipe that fits into the "T" piece, the standpipe is where the zeovit additives get dropped):



Detailed tank information follows:
- 115g cube tank (30x30x30)
- Approx 80 lbs live rock arranged in a bommie, or "rock island" style aquascape
- 1" sandbed (about a 4" wide strip surrounding the bommie)
- no refugium (previously was running chaeto in a small aquaclear lit by 2x9w PC; but this is now offline, the chaeto was the first algal casualty to the pellets)
- 2 part autodosing for Ca and Alk, Mg dosed manually
- Skimmer: Precision Marine "Bullet 1" beckett
- Light: single 250w DE on 12 hour photoperiod

Fish inhabitants (currently 15):
- Tangs: Zebrasoma desjardini (Red Sea sailfin), Acanthurus tennentii (lieutenant), A. nigrofuscus (lavender)
- Rabbit: Siganus doliatus (penciled)
- Angels: Centropyge potters (potters), M/F pair Genicanthus bellus (bellus)
- Butterflies: pair Chaetodon ulietensis (doublesaddle or false falcula)
- Wrasse: Halichoeres chrysus (canary)
- Dottyback: Psuedochromis fridmani (orchid)
- Eel: Gymnothorax melatremus (golden dwarf moray)
- Trigger: Xanthicthys mento (crosshatch)
- Chromis: Chromis viridis (green)
- Blenny: Cirripectes stigmaticus (ember or scarface)

Other inhabitants:
- Various tridacnids (T. derasa, T. crocea, T. squamosa)
- Various ps gorgonians
- Various zoanthids
- E. quadricolor (rose BTA)

Currently no SPS or LPS (would be butterfly food).


More info to come...

[Delphinus]

So the pellets arrived December 23, here's a gratuitous picture of them in the bag:


I think they look like white lentils.

For a 115g tank, I am running 1/2 litre zeolites, and 1/2 litre of pellets. Both of these are half the recommended dosage for this approximate volume.

Now, the results:
I put the pellets and zeolites reactor online on December 24, after a 25% water change and replacement of carbon.

I am measuring nitrate with a Pinpoint NO3 monitor and I recalibrate the probe prior to each use, currently on the high range setting (10 to 100ppm).

Day 0 (following the water change): NO3 = 17ppm


Today is day 4, and I took another nitrate test.

Day 4: NO3 = 14ppm

So, 4 days in and already appears to be a slight reduction of nitrate.

I will continue to post back results every few days.

[Delphinus]

For what it's worth, one potential "con" to running the pellets in the manner I have chosen is this.

The pellets are porous (as they intended to be). This means when dry they will float. The zeovit reactor I am using has a check valve but it failed after 2 days (possibly due to a pellet lodged in it, I haven't yet had a chance to investigate the reason).

I was initially running the reactor on a 3 hours on / 3 hours off cycle (as per zeovit prescriptions). However with the failed check valve, the water level would drop back down to sump level which is approximately 1/4" lower than the top of the pellets, so 1/4" of the pellets would dry out during the "off" cycles. These would float up to the top of the reactor at the start of the next "on" cycle and ended up in the sump, some of which ended up getting sucked up into the sump return pump and spat into the display tank.

I'm not worried about the pellets in the main tank, they will eventually dissolve, but it's disappointing that there is a non-zero percentage of pellets are not in the reactor as was intended.

The pellets are also small enough to fit through the holes of the reactor and fall through to the outside chamber when the inside chamber is "pumped."

So there is a case to be made to suggest running these pellets in a separate reactor with a strainer on the output, such as a Phosban reactor.

[StirCrazy]

Hey Tony, how are you explaining the reduction happening so fast when the manufacture says it will take two weeks for the bacteria to build up on the pellents and start giving you a noticable reduction?

Steve

[don.ald]

i understand you want the NP to tumble, but just a thought: could you put the NP loosly in a media sack and agitate them with the daily cleaning of the zeolites? since you are using both zeo and NP would this maybe be enough?

[Tom R]

With Zeovit you have to change out the rocks every 8 to 12 weeks. Are you going to also change out the N/P Pellets at that time?

Tom R

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Hey Tony, how are you explaining the reduction happening so fast when the manufacture says it will take two weeks for the bacteria to build up on the pellents and start giving you a noticable reduction?

Steve

It's just a guess on my part but I was sort of hoping that with the combination of zeo and these, that the addition of the bacteria to the reactor would explain this.

It does mean that I don't know if it's the zeo or the pellets responsible or if it's both. I don't have a way to quantify how much reduction is attributable to either.

Originally Posted by don.ald

i understand you want the NP to tumble, but just a thought: could you put the NP loosly in a media sack and agitate them with the daily cleaning of the zeolites? since you are using both zeo and NP would this maybe be enough?

Maybe. One thing the pellets are good for is sloughing off a bacterial film which the manufacturer claims is good coral food. A sponge on the output or a filter sock would impede this, or possibly get clogged.

Zeovit also makes this claim.

I have noticed that when I agitated the reactor that more of this film is released than when I was running zeovit before on its own. So there seems to be some truth to this aspect. Whether it's as good as they say it is for corals though, ... too early for me to speculate on.

Having mixed the two together though ... I do have a problem down the road when it comes time to replace zeolites. The pellets don't stay put as a layer on top, the agitation fully homogenizes the mix so I'll be picking out zeolites one pebble at a time when the time comes. We'll see how much I hate that. Putting a sponge in the chamber to separate the two substrates seems defeating. So I still wonder if in the long run these are better off in their own reactor, or passive in a high flow area in the sump in a loose filter bag. But we'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Tom R

With Zeovit you have to change out the rocks every 8 to 12 weeks. Are you going to also change out the N/P Pellets at that time?

Tom R

The manufacturer claims no need to replace the pellets but just let them slowly dissolve, theoretically dissolve into nothingness over 6 months. So the plan is to keep the pellets but just pick out the zeolites.

[wayner]

So are these pellets suppose to replace the need for zeo rocks in a zeo reactor?, or are we taking different types of bacteria here., if this is the case, then I suppose one would have the option to just dose a color enhancing product or anything else for that matter without the need to pump the reactor daily and change out rocks periodically as these pellets disolve over time..

Sounds easier, but maybe I don't have this down right just yet?

[RuGlu6]

Thank you for starting this thread Tony,
You are doing a favor to all of us by testing these pellets, because if they Do work it will be huge step forward in reef keeping.

I spend a lot of $ monthly to fight NO3 and PO4, so i hope this will work as advertised!

[andestang]

This is great Tony. I can't really tell from the pic of your reactor, but do you have an inner chamber like how I made mine which actually holds the zoevit media so it doesn't bind during shaking ? Maybe you could make a separator plate for inside the inner chamber or it looks like these pellets won't bind during shaking you can modify so they are on the outside of the inner chamber by drilling appropriate size holes for water flow. Make sense ?