My Warner Marine EcoBAK journey.

So here is a write up on a new biodegradable carbon source for Nitrate and Phosphate removal.

Background.... The bilogical filtering going on in our tanks consume ammonia and nitrites which are bad for the inhabitants. There are anerobic bacteria that live in low oxygen zones of out tanks and live rock that house bacteria that consume nitrates. So there is some nitrate removal already going on.

Phosphates are introduced mostly by food. We add it to our tanks. Phosphates themselves are not bad, but they feed alage and that outcompetes corals and can cover them. Also, PO4 inhibits skeletal growth in stony coral. So PO4 levels need to be very low... below .02. Alage can still grow at these very low levels, but so can coral. Most hobby test kits for PO4 are worthless. They only tell gross amounts and are not accurate at low levels.


There are coil denitrators, sulfur denitrators and GFO for phosphates. Macro alagae and DSBs to get nutrient levels very low for demanding SPS coral tanks.

Enter carbon dosing.
There is a whole host of information on dosing carbon sources such as sugar, vinegar, vodka...ect. I'm not going into it here. The point of it is to feed certain bacteria that need nitrates and phosphates to grow... so as the bacteria colony grows, nitrates and phosphates are consumed and levels are lowered in the tank. These bacteria are then skimmed out by your skimmer and nutrients are exported. So you need a good skimmer to do this because out put will be increased.

PROS...
Food source for coral.
Ultra low NO3 and PO4 levels can be achieved.
CHEAP
Can be run in place of refugiums and other nutrient export systems

CONS...
The bacteria consume oxygen as well and can actually sufocate the fish
Can be overdosed killing everything
Can cause bacteria blooms cyano blooms.
Very tedious daily regiment.

Even still many many people swear by it and have beautiful tanks as a result to show for it.

Enter Bio Pellets.

These have not been around for very long. A company introduced them several months ago called N and P bio pellets. It is a biodegradeable polymer than is a carbon source. The bacteria eat it and release the carbon and consume nitrates and phosphates in the mean time. It has recieved a lot of attention. You run them in media reactors such as BRS or TLF reactors. You run the reactor effluent to the skimmer where the bacteria is skimmed out and nutrients are exported. The pellets slime up and need to be tumbled to keep clean.

Pros...
No daily dosing
No chance of overdosing
No carbon source in the tank, just in the reactor.
Not very expensive equipment.

Cons...
Needs high flows to keep from clogging
not exactly cheap.

Enter Warner Marine.

I won't be shy about this. I love Warner Marine products. Jon Warner has very ingenious solutions, his equipment is top notch... and hell, just spend 5 minutes talking to Jon. He actually answers the phone, he is a true enthusiast, he is passionate, and he is a pretty sharp guy. So... when I heard he was putting out some bio pellets I was quite excited since I was looking into running some anyway.

So they started from scratch and made a new pellet. Bio degradable polymer. Solid carbon source run in reactors. He has been running them for a while. Completely inert in salt water. Will never break down or leach carbon. These do not slime up and do not need high flows. He feels 100 gph for 500ml is plenty. He recommends lower amounts. Best of all is the $35 price tag for 500ml which is good for a 100g. consumption rates will vary but that just might last a year.... even doubled at $70 a year/100g is not a lot of money.

So that is where we are at.

EDIT... I changed the first post that is why the one below does not match.

 

What is the advantage of the mesh over the sponge? Why didn't the mesh work on the bottom the 1st time? Where did you get the mesh?

Sorry for the questions, just trying to learn

 

Sponges clog, so since this is designed to run all the time I don't want to be cleaning it. Screens won't clog.

The BRS bottle is a bit smaller on bottom lip and then bigger. S o it did not sit right and then flip up. Now with the ring in the lid, the lid sandwiches the screen between it and the bottom of the bottle and works much better.

You know needle point or those hook latch rugs.... that stuff... plastic backing for hook latch stuff at any crafts store. Cost me $1 fro two. make sure there are no big holes.

 

Here is my setup. I put a screen on top to get rid of sponges.
Here is the pellets, they are pretty small.


I put the same screen on bottom. I use the plastic backing for needle point at hobby stores. They come in 3" round shapes. It didn't work very ell on bottom so this was my second attempt that works great.

And here is 500ml in a BRS reactor and them running.


I don't really have them tumbling, but flow is increased to expand them and make sure they don't get clogged.

 

And so here is some back ground on my tank.

I have never had nitrate problems. I keep good flow through my rock and power head them from time to time. I have a good skimmer. I feed appropriately.

I didn't have a nitrate problem but wanted to run a refugium for other reasons. I have a ball of cheato but it barely grows. I have no nusiance algae in the tank or cyano. My tank is very clean and some of the credit goes to my kick butt Warner Marine K2 skimmer.

I never thought I had phosphate problems cause my API kits always said zero. I started the shift to a SPS dominate tank and wanted to know more about PO4. Heck, by that time I had stopped doing water changes except once a month. So I got a DD-Merck kit and it showed I had .05... pretty high for SPS. should be below .02.

So I got some GFO and PO4 runs from .015 to .008 with the Merck kit.

So.... I never really had problems, but I want a very low nutrient level for my SPS to thrive. I'm thinking that I might be able to stop running GFO. Perhaps my cheato will just die. We shall see.

I took out my GFO, I'm doing 30% monthly...daily water changes for stability, and I still run GAC. That is where I'm at.... we shall see how the EcoBAK does.

 

Great review porweman.
K+ for your time and dedication

 

Very Nice writeup powerman.

To avoid having to buy a new reactor/pump what do you think about running these in a BRS dual reactor and replacing GFO? Do you think it would be better to run the pellets before or after the Carbon? I was thinking probably after.

 

Spoke with Jon, and he is a great guy. My order is on the way.

 

Depends. I had two BRS reactors... but not dual. Bought at different times and I just plumbed them in series.

I discussed running in series with Jon. He felt the GAC would strip too much to feed the pellets... and depending on how the pellets are and how fine your GAC is, it might get clogged. I run ROX and it clogs pretty easy. Flow is not going to be a problem though cause the GAC can handle what ever the pellets need. So if you are going to do that, run pellets first and let us know how it goes.

 

I know, right! I thought you might be interested in these.



***Important note about Phosphates.***

Our tanks already have some nitrate reduction mechanisims with live rock and sand and such. So while natural processes might take up nitrate and phosphate in set ratios.... the balance of our tank's ability to process nitrates and phosphates are not necesarily going to be equal.

While we know these backteria will consume phosphates, that does not mean they will be reduced to zero. The rates of addition and consuption betwen nitrates and phosphates can be different.

So.... some folks running the other pellets have continued the need for GFO. I might very well need to continue running GFO myself. For now though, I want to run with out GFO and see where everything settles out. If I need to mop up some additional phosphates in the future then I will address it then. But for now, I want to see what the pellets will do FOR MY SYSTEM alone.