Biopellets

[pandora32]

I hooked my reactor back up on friday. This time im trying NPX pellets. My reactor is 4" round and 24" tall. This afternoon, my display looks cloudy and my skimmer cup was nearly full. The only thing that has changed in my system is the pellets. Waterchange was done 2 weeks ago. I did some looking around and i read that the water leaving the reactor needs to go through the skimmer. Is this really a neccesity? Can this be causing the cloudiness?
Im using this skimmer SKIMZ SM 251 Monzter E-Series - In-Sump Protein Skimmer - AquaCave.com
It has 2 Eden ES5000 pumps. Will it hurt the pumps to have a tee hooked up to the end with the water being pumped out of the reactor directly through the skimmer pump intake? Im using a Mag3 pump for the reactor with a valve wide open. Im using clear vinyl hose. Im also only using half of the pellets thats suggested. Thoughts?

 

[Peppie]

Not sure what is making the water cloudy, but you are right to run the reactor water into the skimmer.

 

[pandora32]

Thanks dave. Do you think the skimmer pump would burn up if i hooked a tee up and had the additional water pumping through it? The pump is $199 from aquacave. Rather not mess that up...lol

 

[DTECH07]

No and it shouldn't be that much pressure coming from the Bio-pellet reactor. The cloudiness could be from the increased bacteria the the BPR is producing similar to a "white out" or a slight "white out" that happens when vodka dosing. It occurs when the new strain of bacteria is dominating the old bacteria and your tank becomes unbalanced. Thus is why when starting a Bio-Reactor you should start with 1/2 to 3/4 of the recommended and increase monthly.
Yes there will be some here that will say: "I started at the full amount or higher" but each tank is different and when bringing something like this on line its better to lean towards caution. I've ran a BPR for a year and a half and now run a Sulfur De-Nitrator both work great.
If you want to get deep and fully understand contact MojoReef or OBD they know this well.

 

[Solov]

Yes, BPR tends to cloud water at first (or until nutrients run out) that's why routing output through the skimmer helps reducing the effect - bacteria gets skimmed before getting to display tank. It's also normal for skimmer output to increase.

 

[1guydude]

I've started my bpr twice. 1st time did was lil bits at a time on my setup tank. Did kick the tank into a cycle.
This time was no coral or really fish. I ran it for almost three weeks With just the lr and water.
I run 300-400ml of little fishies. Output is directed toward skimmer input but not connected.

Granular carbon dosing is another word for bio pellets I believe. Basically feeding some bacteria and ur skimmer should b getting a lot more protien (clear skim) out of the process.
Thus
-d

 

[pandora32]

Heres what me and some friends came up with. Had to notch the tee to get it to go around the air intake for the skimmer.

 

[DTECH07]

That will work fine as long as you do not block or hinder the intake to the skimmer.
Also have a look on YouTube at the LA fish guys episode 107 part one and two, They have a really nice conversation with one of the big fabricators in California but really go into biocatalysts how they work and the benefits and cons of having In the management of the water coming from the bioreactor to the

 

[pandora32]

Theres nothing blocking the intake. The tee is 1". The intake for the skimmer slips right in like its meant to be. The other end of the tee is wide open. The hose coming into the top of the tee is 3/4". Ill be keeping a REAL close eye on the skimmer...lol

 

[DTECH07]

Looks sweet and well planned out.

 

[itche_scratche]

I'm planning to hook my Avast Reactor with BRS Biopellet sometime this week. I'm planning to start out with 1/3 of what recommend and increase slowly.
That is a good modification you got there. May be i will use it. Will let you know how it turn out.

 

[pandora32]

I started with 1/2 the recommendation. Got cloudy water after 3 days. So after talking with the lfs, i took half of what i had in, back out. So im starting again, but with a 1/4 of the recommendation...lol
Thanks Detech. Wasnt all my idea though.

 

[myindoorocean]

I'm getting cloudy water too, been running mine for a couple of weeks. However, I added Dr. Tim's Waste Away a couple days ago, and that's supposed to make it cloudy too. Fish are fine, I'm going to wait the cloudiness out. Everything says once you get it going, don't mess with it for 8 weeks. My nitrates went from between 25 and 50 two days ago to zero today. Don't know if it's the Waste Away, the Pellet Reactor, or a combination of the two.

 

[Solov]

Yeah, 1/4 sounds right. I am running even less than that. Idea being - as long as Nitrates are at 0, there's enough pellets as it is Also helps preventing pellet caking, as it's easier to keep them tumbling without a bunch of water shooting through.

 

[itche_scratche]

I turned mine on last night with 1/10th of what recommended. I have the outlet of the reactor near the inlet of the skimmer. This morning no cloudy water so far . Will add more pellet in 4 wks.

 

[pandora32]

I still have cloudy water. Its not nearly as thick as it was. I actually think i caused the bloom. When i read the directions, it said to start with 50%. Which i did. But i wasnt thinking straight...lol. I had my water tested at the lfs the first day of the cloidy water, i dont trust my test kits (api). They told me phosphates were showing 0 and my nitrates were showing 0, maybe 1. The color barely tinted for the nitrate test. So by me adding in all this food source, i just jad the water dumping right back into the return section of my sump, i believe my stupidity played a big part. Oops. Lesson learned...lol.

 

[DTECH07]

Its all good and welcome to the "IT was my fault that it happened" Club. Trust me we are all members haha.

 

[myindoorocean]

Mine got super cloudy for three or four days. Now it's clear as a bell.

 

[pitkat]

Can you run bio pellets and GFO ?

 

[DTECH07]

Yes both have work to lower phosphates
GFO in a sense is like a sponge which has very small pores that traps the phosphates till it gets full. While Bio-Pellets creates a living environment for certain lets say good strains of bacteria (you can seed different types) which starves out other bacteria buy eating the organics and out populating them such as Hair Algae, Diatom, and other thing we want to suppress in our tanks. That's the simple way of viewing but here are two good reads you should read over to get a better grasp.
Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
If you going to run both (which must of us do) you'll need to monitor your N03/P04, while 0.0 seems ideal it's not the tank needs some of both just at very low levels is best around 0.2~0.3 that where mine are with great growth but there are many out that have high levels with success but it all depends on your tank but lower is better.
Hope this helped.