After 2 years, still learning with bio pellets

[SchnitzelReef]

well thought I would share my experience with you guys, in case anyone else goes through the same problems I was having. I guess u could say I was over thinking the problem, really it wasn't the pellets fault, it was user error. (which is always the problem with pellets)

i ran pellets on my 180g mixed reef tank for 2+ years and had great results! after i setup my new tank, i filled my bio pellet reactor and let it start doing its thing. this is where i made the mistake, i never measured how many pellets i put in. when i started running bio pellets on my 180, the tank was already established. so i started really slow and worked my way up to the correct amount. since i started pellets from day 1 with my new tank, i just filled the reactor with a decent amount of pellets, but i never knew how many were in there... now that my tank had been running for 8 months or so, things just weren't looking like they did when i had my 180. this was mostly because i had been neglecting the tank, and not running gfo or doing water changes... i suspect my nitrates were pretty low and my phosphates were getting up there..decided i had enough, and started running gfo and doing a few 50g water changes. after about 2 months, things weren't improving. decided i was gunna remove some pellets. i assumed i had too many pellets, and that extra bacteria was fueling the cyano. well i was WAY wrong. after a week of removing some of the pellets, cyano started taking over. my whole tank was covered in cyano algae. it was all over my rocks, sand, pumps etc etc. again i started doing water changes and running more gfo...still nothing helped....

started doing some research online and found ONE THREAD where a guy was having similar problems. apparently he had been running pellets for months with no issues, then slowy cyano started showing up, and it got worse and worse....come to find out, his pellets had started to shrink after months of tumbling, and that somehow threw off the balance in his tank...after another member offered him some advice, he topped off his reactor with pellets and BOOOM problem solved...cyano disappeared

so i did the same thing. measured out 250ml of pellets, threw them in my reactor and crossed my fingers...literally 24 hours later 60% of the cyano had disappeared. after a week, i would say about 80% is gone. i haven't been running gfo, cuz i was worried it might strip too much too fast. gunna keep up on my 50g water changes, and start running gfo again..im gunna add another 50-100ml of pellets to see if that will clear up the last bit of cyano...

i never thought removing pellets would cause an algae outbreak, but i guess it makes sense..less pellets= more phosphates...anyways that's my story

 

[Zoarder]

That's a good read! I sometimes have my bio pellets clump up or I add new pellets and never get cyano. Wonder why that happened to you.

 

[ericta000]

thanks for sharing your experience man. This will help alot of other people as well.

 

[lowbudget]

so it was cyano i was not lying. hahahaha it wasnt the blue lights. hahahha hmmm... more pellets.

 

[Six2seven]

For people who are reading as well. Remember not to ever remove your biopellets completely. The change in bacteria can cause more harm.

 

[jessesoto33]

Nice share even though I don't use pellets

 

[pciscott]

I pulled mine offline almost 3 weeks ago, nitrate 5, p04 .05 as of last night before large water change.

My coral is looking way better.

I had the oposite problem, added a liter of pellets to a reactor that had lost half it's mass over a year and within a few months a major decline in coral health including loosing all my SPS and half my smooth skinned LPS to what seemed to me like some kind of bacterial infection.

I once felt like pellets helped my system, now my lack of understanding has made me rethink there value on my system.

What you do not know can kill coral and I am keeping it more simple for now.

I think it comes into that in a healthy system the pellets can feed the good bacteria, but it can fuel the bad and cause a bacterial infection to wipe out your tank.

I should have dosed strains of good bacteria, but I feel in my case pulling the reactor offline has improved what coral I have left.

Be careful with pellets and if you see your animals decline my advice is too pull them off or run less.

With this said I have never had cyano and I atribute that too flow in my new system.

 

[Mark1002]

I have been running bio pellets for 3 months now. I also run GFO. My tank also has a cyano algae issue. Its only in the sand bed and not out of control, but looks bad. I added a small powerhead directed at it thinking it was a flow problem and I'm still dealing with it I might add a few more pellets and see if that helps. Thanks for the info.

 

[Bouncingsoul393]

Interesting. From my understanding, it takes quite a while for bacteria to colonize the pellets so it's strange to have such dramatic results after only 24 hours of adding more pellets. I'm wondering if the pellets were tumbling too quickly maybe and then the addition of the new pellets slowed them down in the reactor causing them to work more effectively?
Also, what brand of pellets are you using? From my understanding, most brands of pellets are not that great at removing phosphate and that some people even run GFO in conjunction with them. I know NP recently came out with a new polymer blend which is supposed to be more effective at removing phosphate. Considering that Cyano can pop up for a number of reasons other than phosphates there may be a few different factors at play here that we don't fully understand.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

I have been running bio pellets for 3 months now. I also run GFO. My tank also has a cyano algae issue. Its only in the sand bed and not out of control, but looks bad. I added a small powerhead directed at it thinking it was a flow problem and I'm still dealing with it I might add a few more pellets and see if that helps. Thanks for the info.

Just remember, my tank is 250g and my total water volume is 300+ gallons. If u have a smaller system, add fewer pellets and do it slow.

I suspect I was at about half the amount of pellets that I needed, that's why I added so many pellets.

Keep us updated. Interested to see if adding pellets has any effect on your cyano

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Interesting. From my understanding, it takes quite a while for bacteria to colonize the pellets so it's strange to have such dramatic results after only 24 hours of adding more pellets. I'm wondering if the pellets were tumbling too quickly maybe and then the addition of the new pellets slowed them down in the reactor causing them to work more effectively?
Also, what brand of pellets are you using? From my understanding, most brands of pellets are not that great at removing phosphate and that some people even run GFO in conjunction with them. I know NP recently came out with a new polymer blend which is supposed to be more effective at removing phosphate. Considering that Cyano can pop up for a number of reasons other than phosphates there may be a few different factors at play here that we don't fully understand.

I'm not 100% sure on all the science behind it, but adding pellets to already colonized pellets might not have the same waiting time as starting fresh. I have a CADLights reactor, and controlling the flow is really easy. I always keep the pellets tumbling really slow. But I was just as surprised as u were when I got home from work the following day. The cyano on the sand bed was almost completely gone. It had been covered in cyano for months...idk how it happened, but the only thing I changed was adding the pellets the night before.

 

[xmas_one]

From what I've read it's just another way to carbon dose, and if you're not testing no3/po4 religiously and making adjustments you're playing with fire. Sounds like a lot of people don't really understand the science behind it and get lucky for a while until it goes sideways on them. Thanks Nick for posting this, these threads are a great learning opportunity.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

From what I've read it's just another way to carbon dose, and if you're not testing no3/po4 religiously and making adjustments you're playing with fire. Sounds like a lot of people don't really understand the science behind it and get lucky for a while until it goes sideways on them. Thanks Nick for posting this, these threads are a great learning opportunity.

I don't know about the testing no3/po4 religiously. For me, it was the opposite. Once I dialed in the amount of pellets I needed, I never tested nitrates or phosphates again. (On my old system) the initial setup is when I was testing religiously. It was literally every 3-4 days I would test nitrates and phosphates. But Once bacteria started doing their job, i stopped testing.
I was carbon dosing with vinegar and getting great results. I was just tired of manually dosing, and didn't wanna buy a doser just for carbon dosing. The bio pellets have worked wonders for me. The people that claim that pellets are junk or don't work, either don't understand them or have never used them. Like anything in this hobby, if u don't do your research, results could be catastrophic.

 

[lowbudget]

but back to bio pellets. it is a form of carbon dosing. too fast is not good. and its a form of feeding bacteria. if you have good bacteria then cool. you are feed the good bacteria, if you have bad bacteria, then you are also feeding them so thats not good. something to think about.

 

[xmas_one]

Nick, were you running a recirculating style reactor, or one that just runs inline?

 

[pciscott]

biopellets can fuel the bad and you need to be careful because the tank with ultra low nutrients and a bad bacteria is going to kill coral while the healthy tank may get a false sence of cruise control. I thought I was on cruise control until things went bad.

I like the name of this thread, as I do not understand biopellets and I was a believer for years.

Go slow and less than needed for heavy bioload, and dose good bacteria so the bad does not kill your tank. MAYBE? This is why I have reservations.

 

[watchguy123]

How do you know good vs bad bacteria. How do you add "good" bacteria

 

[lowbudget]

How do you know good vs bad bacteria. How do you add "good" bacteria

good is the ones we put in when we cycle our tanks. bad is when the tank is going down hill start doing wc cant see it until you take it to a lab and test. who can test? he might want to be unnamed i will check.

 

[pciscott]

Watch guy as I said I do not understand? Good bacteria brakes down waste in your tank, bad bacteria turns your coral flesh to brown jelly. This is experience, not understanding, and taking things offline talking not science. I do admit that you told me so Sagn.

Prohibio, Dr. Tims, Microbak 7???? Are they good???? I will let you know how my next test goes.

 

[lowbudget]

Watch guy as I said I do not understand? Good bacteria brakes down waste in your tank, bad bacteria turns your coral flesh to brown jelly. This is experience, not understanding, and taking things offline talking not science. I do admit that you told me so Sagn.

we live and learn. but have a safe and happy holidays to you and your family [MENTION=3580]pciscott[/MENTION] if i dont talk