Biopellet Adventure
- Thread starter amonchak
- Start date
It came with Two Little Fishies NPx Biopellets (~100mL or 1/2 cup). Per my reading of various manufactures the recommended dosage of the pellets is 200mL for 50 gallons. I have ~60 gallons total water system so I'm using a 1/2 dose to start.
I hooked up all the parts and turned on the pump (Rio+ 90). Here is what I ended up with:
I really wan't happy with the way the turnover was happening so I replace the pump with a Maxijet 900 (not throttled- running full blast) and ended up with this:
This is more along the lines of what I am looking for from reading it seems that highly fluidized beds may work better. Now we wait for 4-8 weeks without tweaking anything and let the bacteria colonize the reactor/biopellets. FWIW I also added three capfulls of Brigthwells Microbacter7 to help jump start the process.
I'll update as things change, but that won't be for 4-8 weeks.
I hooked up all the parts and turned on the pump (Rio+ 90). Here is what I ended up with:
I really wan't happy with the way the turnover was happening so I replace the pump with a Maxijet 900 (not throttled- running full blast) and ended up with this:
This is more along the lines of what I am looking for from reading it seems that highly fluidized beds may work better. Now we wait for 4-8 weeks without tweaking anything and let the bacteria colonize the reactor/biopellets. FWIW I also added three capfulls of Brigthwells Microbacter7 to help jump start the process.
I'll update as things change, but that won't be for 4-8 weeks.
Wow I totally forgot about this thread.
I am still running the bio pellets. No huge change noticed but the majority of the sps in the tank do have good color.
I was and still am battling algae so it didn't help much in that regard. I think that in the near future I'll add an additional 100ml to get to the full dose and see what comes from that.
A review of the reactor would be that the pump that came with it was not powerful enough to tumble he pellets at about half full. The way the reactor sits on the pumps needs some work. I have to have it leaning against something to keep it from falling over. Other than that seems to be ok.
I am still running the bio pellets. No huge change noticed but the majority of the sps in the tank do have good color.
I was and still am battling algae so it didn't help much in that regard. I think that in the near future I'll add an additional 100ml to get to the full dose and see what comes from that.
A review of the reactor would be that the pump that came with it was not powerful enough to tumble he pellets at about half full. The way the reactor sits on the pumps needs some work. I have to have it leaning against something to keep it from falling over. Other than that seems to be ok.
Well here's my update on Biopellets. I'm abandoning right before leaving on a long trip (3 weeks). I followed instructions, built up amount slowly and all the way to the final level, but I got a bacterial bloom (cloudy) that only stopped when I took the biopellets offline. I washed the pellets, threw away 3/4 of them, waited for the tank water to totally clear, and restarted. Bacterial bloom started again.
I have an established tank and a lot of other nitrate reduction stuff going on (algae scrubber, sulfur reactor), so not sure if I have a controlled experiment to report. The problem may have been with the ghetto DIY reactor I built, who knows. Anyway I guess the moral is, from my run with them, you have to be careful and take it slow. You may just ween off the vodka and see if your tank really needs carbon first? Before you start biopellets?
Also, I would not throw them online right before you leave. You should run it for at least a few weeks while you can watch for signs of the bad effects.
My $.02
I have an established tank and a lot of other nitrate reduction stuff going on (algae scrubber, sulfur reactor), so not sure if I have a controlled experiment to report. The problem may have been with the ghetto DIY reactor I built, who knows. Anyway I guess the moral is, from my run with them, you have to be careful and take it slow. You may just ween off the vodka and see if your tank really needs carbon first? Before you start biopellets?
Also, I would not throw them online right before you leave. You should run it for at least a few weeks while you can watch for signs of the bad effects.
My $.02
Just my 2cents, I am a huge fan of biopellets but I have noticed there is an enormous amount of patients required for them to effectively kick in. I dosed vodka for a good two years prior to my addition of a reactor, and while the results of vodka alone were promising, the consistency I was able to provide did not live up to the long term expectations I had of daily dosing. As stated by others already in this thread the reactor was added for when I could not personally dose the vodka, but the results for the long term consistency had exceeded my expectations. Only thing I noticed is while it has been advertised to take 6-8 weeks to take hold, it took over 4 months to stabilize even with weaning the tank off an alternative carbon source.