Biopellet Reactor

Hey Terri!
I'm using the BR-140 with about 3 1/2 cups of bio-pellets. I think you'll be really happy with the reactor. I've been pretty happy with mine, however, you should consider a check valve. I posted this feedback on BRS in my review. If you have a power outage, the pellets will back-siphon into your pump without one and it gets ugly fast (I found out the hard way). Other than that, it's a great reactor that does a great job of giving consistent pellet tumbling. I think the cone design is key.

I started with around 2 cups and worked my way to the current volume. One thing that i found was the screen has a tendency to float up a bit more than I like, so I used a 3/4" plastic tube and cut it to size to fit between the lid and the screen. Don't make it too long or you won't get the lid to seal tight. With that in place, the lid stays down and doesn't let any pellets escape. I'm using a QuietOne 3000 pump on it right now dialed back a bit. I'm going to change my plumbing a bit a use it to power both the reactor and my frag tank. I'll plumb this into my main return pump when I get my reconfigured sump in place. I found that running it off of my manifold cut my return flow to my display tank more than I wanted.

You should turn off your GFO upon starting up the reactor. You want the phosphates in the water to help make sure the bacteria colony starts as quickly as possible. Carbon is OK to run all the time. I used some ZeoBak to help seed the reactor. I added it for about a week or two. I didn't do it really consistently, just whenever I thought about it. You don't need to do this as your live rock and other things in your tank will put enough bacteria in the water to seed your reactor.

I don't test for nitrates anymore (I know I should, but I guess I've gotten lazy) and things are looking great. I hope this helps. You can PM me if you have more questions and we can talk specifics.

--AJ

 

I run mine with a QuietOne 3000 and it's *way* more than it requires. You could probably run it with your 1800 and be just fine.

--AJ