So who`s all on the "bio-pellet" train?

I ordered some from BRS the other day sense they have a really good deal going on right now. I plan on picking up a Nextreef Reactor for them this coming week. Not sure on the pump yet though..hopefully a maxijet 1200 will tumble them.

 

I have been running the WM Ecobak for about 5 months now. And it works great! I noticed a difference after about 6 weeks. I found that the amount of pellets is not realy based on you water volume but more on bio load. I am currently running 1000 ml on my 90dt but about 150g with the sump and frag tank. I have around 30 fish ( I lost count ) and feed them like crazy. I feed 2 cubes of frozen 3 times a day and some pellets and a sheet of nori. My NO3 is 0 on API kit and my PO4 is 0.00 on a hanna checker and has been for the last 3 1/2 months or so. I do still run GAC and GFO in my BRS reactor. I took the GFO off line for a couple weeks once and my PO$ went up slightly to 0.05 which is ok but I like it at zero so I put it back in. It last way longer now so not that big of a deal to run it. I love the pellets and will never run a tank without them. There is now way I could have this many fish and the great growth and color I'm getting without them.

 

I just upgraded to the nextreef MR1 reactor and it is a awesome reactor. But One mod I ended up makeing right away was that the tube that the water comes out of at the bottum has two holes one on eather side. This causes the flow to channel up eather side. You can still get the pellets to tumble but IMO you have to up the flow way to much. So I drilled two more holes on eather side so there are 4 holes all the way around the base of the tube and this fixed the problem.

 

Price isn't that bad man. These things have a 4in di and 14in tall. They are built like a tank not like a crapy TLF reactor. I paid $75 for mine and am satisfied with it.

 

Ya the nextreef reactors arent really that bad compared to other similar units. I think there "specially" made reactors for bio-pellets are a light high so I plan on using the MR1 XL. Just going to mod it by pulling the sponges and swapping it out for a mesh similar to what they are putting in the other reactors.

 

That's what I did. No point in paying all that extra over a couple pieces of needle point mesh.

 

Im thinking about trying them too, and the nextreef rectors are awesome, but it you have a BRS GFO reactor you can retro fit them with the BRS kit, which would save money.

 

I just used a TLF phsban reactor and am really happy. I zip tied two pieces of gutter guard criss-crossed (to make the holes smaller)on the outlet to keep the pellets in. These fit nicely into the back chamber of my biocube 29. The skimmate is amazing. I had 2 days of cloudy water but it is now crystal clear. Super happy with it /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

BTW I used the BRS pellets. I have plenty left over since I originally purchased for 120 gallons of water plus a refill (and some leftover for top-off). If anyone wants some I would sell for what I purchased for /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

I'm running biopellets...using the BRS pellets and running a BRS Jumbo Biopellet reactor. Only about a week into it.

--AJ

 

For those useing the BRS verson are they reducing your phosphates? I ask because they don't claim to do so on the site.

 

They don't claim to, however, isn't the point of them to be a carbon source?  And isn't one carbon source the same as another?  Unless the WM pellets are adding something else to it too (which I don't think they advertise to do), then the BRS pellets should do the same things for phosphates that the WM pellets do, right?
--AJ

 

I suspect you are right. This is purely specualtion on my part, but BRS seems to be the most honest about their products... my feeling is that since phosphate absorption is much more limited in terms of the amount that will actually be consumed by the bacteria and so BRS didn't feel comfortable advertising it as such.

 

Yea that's what I figured to. Just wanted to check your results as I plan on buying some of the BRS pellets when I need more. One thing to think about though I would think different polymers may grow different bactera which may uptake phosphate at different rates.

 

I believe the strains of bacteria have more to do with what you've seeded in your tank and less to do with the actual pellets themselves.  In reading the instructions with the BRS pellets, they say that one option is to seed with thngs like Zeo-bak to make sure that you're encouraging more of the beneficial strains.  If you do this, you're supposed to add it directly to the reactor itself.
So speaking of the biopellets and our experiences, like I mentioned before, I've been running them about a week (maybe closer to two weeks now) and have seen no increase in skimmate at all.  I plumbed my reactor output directly into the line that feeds the skimmer as recommended.  I know I'm getting some back pressure on the reactor, but I'm seeing a good, slow tumble rate in the reactor so I know that water is being pushed thru at the appropriate rate.  The back pressure is not significant since it's gravity fed.  I've not been doing water tests, but I've also not seen  the cloudy water that I was warned about.  Not sure why some people see this and not others....or maybe I just haven't hit that point of the cycle yet.
Jeremy, if you're doing your Biocube, you should be able to use a BRS reactor easy.  They sell the biopellet insert canisters for them and you may already have a single chambered reactor available to you.  Or use a dual chambered reactor and run carbon with the pellets...
--AJ

 

Would the carbon keep the tank from getting cloudy?

 

No the cloudy water is due to a bacteral bloom in the water colum. It useualy only happens if you have high nutrents to begin with.

 

To the point of removing phosphates, here's what the BRS page says about their biopellets:

That being said, it would indicate that all biopellet products would remove a certain amount of phosphates from your tank as the bacteria requires phosphorous to metabolize nitrate.
I didn't see this before and I still have my GFO reactor running on my system...I guess I had better go home and turn that off!
--AJ

 

Hmm I missed that to. They probably don't want to out and out say it will controle your phosphates because then their GFO sales would drop off.