To bio pellet or not to biopellet?

[alb_56]

Have a softy and lps tank and a SPS tank plumbed to the same sump. Recovering from a crash in a previous tank. At the moment I'm in the sweet spot and getting visible growth daily out of almost all the SPS. I'm putting the GFO and carbon reactors on today and skim constantly. Going to hand dose two brs until the consumption reaches calcium reactor level then I'll get the calcium reactor up and running again. I also use 100 micron filter socks and have a large amount of rock in the sump ~30-40lbs. Will probably add some cheato into the refuge area and I've been doing roughly 30gal water changes weekly. Total water volume is in 180 area. So far I'm trying to avoid another crash by keeping up on the reactors. When the previous tank crashed I was t using any extra filtration. No reactors or socks, just a good skimmer.

So what do you guys think? Is a bio pellet reactor a good idea? I have never used one but I have one. Currently there are no issues in either tank and all the coral is growing back with a vengeance but I want to make sure that nitrates and phosphates don't even get the chance to accumulate.

 

[lion king]

My experience with biopellets was not a good one, I did extensive research and got advise from a trusted lfs with experience. I got the classic cyano and it become a 3-4 month battle to get my tank back. I now use nopox(a form of carbon dosing), it's been working with no negative side effects. The trusted associate at the lfs has since pulled her biopellets also. Some people have positive results, but I have met more people with negative results than positive. There's also added maintenance to be considered, while a form of carbon dosing is so much easier and controlled.

 

[Staggs]

I also moved to nopox from biopellets.... My sandbed looks the nicest it's ever looked. I test Nitrates once a week and adjust my dosage accordingly with nopox. At some point I'm going to get a doser but until then I just do it nightly.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Biopellets worked great, though the corals seemed rather bland and perhaps bothered when I turned up the reactor because it wouldn't bring nitrates or phosphates as low as I liked to combat the ever-aggressive algaes. Nopox definitely seemed to fix that though and the corals don't have the same issues. I often speculate if it's the addition of the isopropyl, methanol, and perhaps other unknown compounds beyond ethanol+acetate. The organisms that utilize methanol itself is staggering so there very well can be more biological roles at work than we've realized.

Overall, the system was a little more on edge continually with biopellets than what I've seen with nopox.

 

[alb_56]

Thank you very much for the responses guys. I think I have a little homework to do on nopox and carbon dosing. I will leave the bio pellet reactor on the shelf.

 

[alb_56]

I have met more people with negative results than positive.

Definitely seems to be a common theme.

 

[zoomonster]

Usually people that have issues with bio pellets don't have an adequate skimmer, don't output bio pellet reactor to skimmer, don't periodically supplement bacteria etc. or use to much media and strip the system. If you are having cyano issues that's usually a sign your not skimming the output of the bio pellet reactor adequately and the output is feeding cyano. ULN systems are already on edge and there's a fine line with removing to much nitrate/phosphate. I have a heavily stocked/fed system so that's not really an issue for me. There's a lot of choices but at least for me bio pellets were about less maintenance (zero mait other than adding more pellets a few times a year) and not continually using con$$umable products that require more maintenance because you have to replace them. Of course like with many medias the proper reactor is key. With mine the reactor never clogs which is what I assume most people call more maintenance.

 

[lion king]

So I run nopox on a 210 fowlr and a 90g reef, I use a liter every two months at $28 a bottle. I test my nitrates weekly and adjust is necessary and refill my dosing containers monthly, easy. Investment: brs doser on sale for $72 and a digital timer on amazon for $12. Depending on the size tank you have a decent biopellet reactor with pump can run you $150 to as much as $300; start up cost of biopellets and cost to maintain exceeds total cost of nopox . And with biopllets you will be constantly diddleling and adding pellets is bit more of a pain than filling a dosing container.

 

[blkhwkz]

So you spend about $168 a year on nopox. I spent $178 on reactor and biopellets. That should last me about a year on the pellets, then after that about $28 a year or so to buy more. So by year 2 you are far outspending what I did for biopellets and reactor.

That said, I do happen to have an unopened bottle of nopox here I bought for something else, so if I need to switch from biopellets it will be easy.

 

[lion king]

I only use about 1 liter a year/$28 on my 90g reef, and my reef has 4 dwarf lions eating live food. It's my 210 fowlr with big fish that I over feed that cost me so much money; puffer, triggers, etc. But I save in water changes, I'm able to do about a 35g water change monthly to keep my nitrates around 10 never over 20, and my phosphates at .02-.04.
Before nopox I couldn't even dream of that with 4x the amount of water changes.

 

[1stNoel]

Thank you very much for the responses guys. I think I have a little homework to do on nopox and carbon dosing. I will leave the bio pellet reactor on the shelf.

Ditto on the switch from biopellets to NoPox.

Biopellets caused a cyano outbreak and could never lower NO3 beyond 16ppm. Switched to NoPox and within a month my nitrates were below 1 and my algae died off.

If you're having algae problems and switch to NoPox, be sure to clean the sandbed every few days to get rid of the dying algae before it turns back into more NO3/PO4.

 

[dgrigor02]

I ran an large external Bubble King skimmer that was feed directly from the overflow so there was no good way to have the bio pellet effluent to go into skimmer. During the 18months of pellets I constantly battled cyano ( not huge outbreak just enough to tick you off ). Stopped the pellets, cyano went away and never had it since. So for me, pellets weren't the answer. I have been skimmerless for almost 5 years now and Algae Turf scrubber as main filtration and never looked back. My days of owning a skimmer are probably over.

 

[melev]

Did you watch my biopellets video yet by chance?

 

[Paul Carpenter]

Thank you very much for the responses guys. I think I have a little homework to do on nopox and carbon dosing. I will leave the bio pellet reactor on the shelf.

I have a 500 gal mixed reef DT with many SPS running now for 20 years. Total system is 709 gal. I started vodka dosing 2 years ago and have had startling results. I also started GFO. ROWAPHOS. I now feed fish heavily and corals Benefit. Test all water parameters weekly and make slight adjustments to the vodka dose if necessary. I require around 45 ml daily(about half ounce). Cheap. I also dose kalkwasser 24/7 and run a calcium reactor about 3 days a week. I provide very high circulation, 25,000 gal an hour and will add more. 20% water change every 6 weeks. LEDS. And of course RO water with zero TDS. Works for me!