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biopellet reactors

downbeach

downbeach

No two systems are exactly alike, but I have been running bio-pellets for about 8 month's now, and I didn't replace either my GAC or GFO. Although I did start of by re-purposing my BRS GFO reactor as a pellet reactor for a few month's during the start up phase. I have since brought my GFO back on line when installed a made for bio-pellet reactor. I did however replace my fuge. So, I used the pellets to replace my macro algae.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

i got tired of spending money on GFO/Carbon and neglecting to change them out. I know I know you are supposed to stick to that regimen but life interrupts. Anyways I harvest the chaeto and I now just run biopellets. So for me - i keep those two going, but no more GFO/Carbon.

I don't think any one magic pill works - if gfo/carbon works for you - then I would suggest sticking with it. There are plenty of threads out there where people went too far with carbon dosing and had spikes in cyano and RTN.
 
salty28

salty28

so I'm currently running GFO through a TLF 150 and was thinking of running biopellets. Can I take the GFO out of the TLF and switch to pellets or should I run them both?
 
Fish Brain

Fish Brain

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
salty28 said:
so I'm currently running GFO through a TLF 150 and was thinking of running biopellets. Can I take the GFO out of the TLF and switch to pellets or should I run them both?
Click to expand...

It's an A or B situation, run one or the other, but not both.

However, they do recommend a transition period between them, where you run both (in separate reactors) and decrease the amount of GFO as the bacteria populate the bio pellets.
 
D

duijver

I read this front to back yesterday. Good read - http://www.3reef.com/forums/warner-marine/official-ecobak-thread-103809-5.html

It seems like it can take 4-8 weeks before the pellets mature enough to take over the load.

When I was reading up on DSB/RDSB and LR requirements there was a heated "discussion" about bacteria and a theoretical max per tank. Basically, the one side stated that you can only have a certain amount of bacteria in a closed system and more LR/sand (surface area) would not lead to more bacteria/filtering.

So, I wonder how true that is and if using these pellets/media lessens the need for as much LR given that it is being used by the bacteria as food.
 
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