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Inherited 90

redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
When I first set up my BioPellet reactor June, 2013, I was told to cover it up because the bacteria preferred darkness. So I took a piece of four inch drain pipe and made a cover for the reactor that even had a door to view the pellets moving:



Jump ahead now, almost 2 1/2 years, and I'm not overly impressed with BioPellets. I'm close to needing to order another gallon of pellets from BRS ($159.99) and questioning if I should try vodka or vinegar or a mixture of the two. I continue to have hair algae issues, so I know I still have a phosphate problem.

So Brian @Fish Brain , visited today, and he questioned my biopellet cover. He claimed that he was told the same about keeping it in the dark, and did so until he added a refugium and a light to his sump. Up to this point, he too wasn't overly impressed with the performance, until after about two to three weeks with the light hitting the reactor, and now his nitrates and phoshates dropped like a rock and were now zero. He believes the bacterial prefer light and that is what caused his reactor to step it up and clean up his tank.

I've now removed my cover and am going to see what happens. My reactor now also gets some spill over light from the refugium.

What's your experience with light or no light for biopellets?
 
kschweer

kschweer

Administrator
Staff member
Officer Emeritus
Moderator
Interesting. I'm curious to hear the results. When I was running biopellets they were not kept in the dark and worked pretty well. Maybe send a pm to Jon Warner and pick his brain a bit. He seems very eager to help and discuss biopellets.
 
Juano908

Juano908

kschweer said:
Interesting. I'm curious to hear the results. When I was running biopellets they were not kept in the dark and worked pretty well. Maybe send a pm to Jon Warner and pick his brain a bit. He seems very eager to help and discuss biopellets.
Click to expand...
+1 I started running BP 3 weeks ago, being I have a refiugium my reactor get some light too.

Sent from my LGLS751 using Tapatalk
 
H

horseplay

NJRC Member
Paul - BP won't solve your PO4 problem completely. It almost always deplete NO3 first. Some people even dose NO3. You can run a little GFO to remove the excess PO4.

For hair algae problem you can get a couple of Emerald crabs. These have done wonder for me.
 
downbeach

downbeach

When I started adding SPS to my system, they weren't coloring up as I had expected, and found that my N's and P's were a little on the high side. After some research/reading, I started to carbon dose using Vodka. This brought the N's and P's down a bit, but I started to get some cyano. I switched to vinegar, the cyano disappeared, and the SPS improved. This required daily dosing, and a lot of trial and error, to say nothing of the fact that I was burning through my NO3/PO4 test kits. As an aside, at this point I found that the PO4 kits were not going to do the job, and went to a Hanna meter(good move). Being somewhat lazy, and getting tired of buying test kits, I decided to try BP's, since they were touted to be a "set it and forget it" solution. As with most claims made of products in the hobby, I was very cynical of this statement, but felt it was worth a try, so I bought a BP insert from BRS for ~ $10.00, along with the smallest amount of pellets I could get. I successfully ran BP's for a number of years following the recommendations I found on line(BRS/Reef Octopus/et al), and a bit of fine tuning with experience. When I started, I went through the typical start up regime until I reached the recommended amount (BRS) for my system. I started with my re-purposed BRS reactor I had been running GFO in, and replaced it with a RO reactor once it appeared the BP's were working. During this time I took the GFO off line, but continued to run the fuge. After a short time, the Chaeto started to fall apart, and it became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to run both the BP's and the fuge at the same time successfully, due to the fact that there weren't going to be enough N's and P's for both systems. After removing the Chaeto and the necessary lighting, the pellets began to do their thing in earnest. So my take away/experience from using them was: Use the amount that will work best with your system. Make sure you have the proper flow(just fluidized) going through the reactor. Too slow, and the pellets will begin to clump and clog the reactor, too fast, and you'll just flush the bacteria off the pellets before they can fully colonize, and do their job. Use a reactor intended for BP's, I started with a re-purposed BRS reactor(my GFO), but found the RO reactor made for BP's provided the right flow throughout the entire reactor, and was noticeably better. Also a reactor of the right size is important; I found that filling the reactor(a RO BR110 in my case) about half way when idle, and running it at about 2/3 when fluidized was the sweet spot. A reactor that is too small will not allow you to provide enough flow, and cause the pellet to clump and clog, using a reactor that is too big will cause too much flow, and slough off the bacteria before they can do their job Use and adjustable flow pump(Eheim +2000 in my case), or a valve that you can adjust the flow as needed(lowering the flow as the pellet are consumed). Although the reactor wasn't in black out condition, there was no light in the cabinet once I removed the Chaeto/fuge. It's also important to keep the reactor clean so it will continue to provide the proper amount of flow. To this end I would remove the reactor from my sump about every six months, thoroughly clean, and add another 500 mL of pellets, which is about what was consumed during that time. After a few month's I noticed that the N's were kept in check, but the P's were still a little high (I fed fairly heavy), so I redeployed the GFO reactor. I never used a UV or an Ozone gen, so I can't speak to their effectiveness while using BP's, but it is also recommended that they not be used together with a BP reactor. Although I'm sure there are a number of brands of pellets that will work fine, I never tried them since the brand I bought(BRS) was working fine, and I'm a firm believer of, "if something works, don't fix it".
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Lost a good friend this past week. :cry2:



I'm not sure if he committed suicide, died of old age, starved, or just did a boneheaded thing and got caught.


I'm talking about my big Mexican Turbo that I've had since the beginning.




The day before Thanksgiving I found him perched on a piece of Cap upside down, and out of water. I have Cap growing right at the waterline, and he somehow got on top and flipped upside down. I'm still puzzled how he did this. When I found him, his trap door was closed, and not knowing how long he was there, I placed him down on the sandbed.

Three days later his was still there and I went to remove him thinking he was dead. When I pulled him out, the trap door was still firmly closed, so I'm thinking maybe he's still alive.

Now I place him back into the tank, but up against the glass so I could see his trap door. Nothing! Nothing until last night were I noticed my glass, which I usually get a good week between cleanings, was really schmutzed up. So now I figure it's time to remove him.

He was dead! Or should I say the smell caused me to do that little throw-up thing in my mouth.

Although he was a bulldozer in my tank, I'm now looking to replace the big guy.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Apollo Users Beware!

Here's a shout out to the other Apollo users we have.....keep a close eye on your fans. I have now replaced all fans on my two ancient Apollos.....five of the six which had failed. HERE is the post documenting these failures.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Thank you Juan, Krista, Kevin, Pete and Jim.....you are all too kind. I like to think it looks like Darren, Herbie or Sunny's tank.....:eek:....and then I wake up from that dream. :D By the way Jim, that bird's nest in the middle of the tank is yours. I almost lost it when I had my light issues, but fragged a couple good pieces of it, and it came back with a vengeance......Back to growing like a weed now.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Vortech Controller Bracket

I was a bit incensed when Kevin @kschweer told me that Ecotech makes a bracket for their controllers to replace the cheesey Velcro they originally supplied. I had a little rant over on his Tale HERE (post #570) perplexed that for an expensive powerhead, they can't supply this inexpensive bracket that they now sell independently for $12. To me it made no sense. It's like buying a Mercedes, and the dealer then telling you the lug nuts will be another $100.

So here's my DIY controller bracket that cost me nothing. I used thin wood that came as the crate for clementines my wife recently purchased. After about an hour, and playing with my hand coping saw, here's what I've got. I think after drilling the mounting holes and painting it, it will look great. So there Vortech PPTHHPTHPFFTHPPPT!!!





I'm happy now!
 
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