3reef Community Bio Pellet Review

if you do not run a skimmer, no way should you be using bio pellets or any form of carbon dosing

 

I run both.

 

I just want to add... if you ever have ANY questions regarding the use of your bio-polymer pellet product DO NOT HESITATE to contact the manufacturer (or visit their sub-forum on your favorite forum).

 

Brown

Still running pellets off of dart. Good tumble. Effluent right next to skimmer intake. Not getting as much "stuff" in skimmer as I was before, but I also think I am skimming a little drier.

Auto feed tank mostly flake food, 2x/day. Just adjusted total light cycle to 7.5 hrs up from 7 hrs on my way to 8 or 9.

A question...Everything seems to be happy in the tank, coral are encrusting, new polyps, decent extension, however, everything looks brownish. Maybe not totally brown but tending that way. Params are in range and relatively constant. Any ideas on cause and/or how to combat?

Thanks for reading. Hopefully you have some ideas.

 

anyone still running pellets and care to update?

 

I am still running ecoBak on my 2 1/2 year old tank. Since my initial post I have changed my equipment quite a bit. Went from a 20L sump to a 40B sump, and also changed skimmers twice. I am still running the pellets in Avast Marine MR5 reactor.



here is a FTS from a few months back

 

I'm running pellets. I would like to hear input from others. I'm beginning to wonder if they are really doing anything actually. The improvement I've seen in my parameters could be accounted for by other things (better husbandry, higher quality skimmer). I do feed pretty much so perhaps the pellets are keeping my parameters in check from that.

I am thinking about looking at other forms of carbon dosing when I start my new tank. Haven't made up my mind yet. Hopefully people will update their experiences here. Thx for finding this!

 

I read a lot of concerns about some people having corals suffer with success dropping nitrates and phosphates with biopellets. When you run an ULNS reef with any carbon dosing filtration method, it is very important to run a lower ca mg and dkh. You do not want to go high in these areas, or you will notice more corals stuggle with tissue necrosis and other forms of coral distress. I would read the zeovit program to learn more. Potassium also becomes an important element at low nutrient levels. You want to maintain a reef with dkh 6.5-7.5 ca 420 mg 1200-1300 k~380-400 to keep the corals happy. You will also need to get a feeding regimen started when you finally reach ULNS. Corals will need to be fed on a regular basis with products like pohls xtra, zeo food, or some kind of amino acid like red sea reef energy. The zeovit guidelines is really a good refrence for keeping a ULNS system and avoiding complications. I would also strongly recomend seeding your biopellets with zeobak, bactiv8, or microbacter7 as directed to keep optimal heterotrophic bacteria populations from becoming a monoculture of dominant strains. I personally went from macro algae to biopellets to zeovit and have had the best success with the zeovit system. I may try biopellets again on a future tank with a recirculating reactor with zeobak x2 weekly but for right now my sps corals are very happy and colorful with this method of filtration. Which ever route you tank make sure to follow the foundations of a ULNS reef which require different water parameters to avoid coral complications. Salt mix is also very important when you reach ULNS you will want to find a salt with a low DKH or you will spike your alk on water changes and possibly kill some corals. I personally had to switch from kent marine to red sea blue label to bring down my alk. In a low nutrient reef high levels of ca mg and alk can be really deadly. Personally if I was to start a biopellet tank and shoot for ULNS I would first stock all my fish in the tank with no corals. Run no GFO in the tank let the nitrate climb and give the pellets a few months to get down to zero then start to add the corals. These pellets need more time to get up in running they require nitrate and phosphate to work right. I believe heterotrophic bacteria consumes nitrate and phosphate at a 16:1 ratio. Many people start them off with GFO also and have issues getting them to work properly. Also do not run UV or ozone with a carbon dosing filtration system it wont work.

 

You should read the threads instead of just posting on everything man, this is a year old.

 

It may be old but it still comes up on google search and people still view it. There were a lot of unanswered questions throughout the discussion and things to point out about these types of systems. Its easy to screw up your tank running biopellets if you dont have all the information. I have ran these systems and have done a lot of research on them as well. I was just answering some old questions because I had ran across this in a search and figured anyone who was seeking information may stumble upon it.