NP Biopellets
- Thread starter donrando
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07FocusST
Well-known member
I tried it in my Phosban Reactor. Worked great! Took a little while to show its full potential. All my GHA was cleared out in about a month or two. although I farmed a little GHA for pods to thrive for my Mandarins it didn't seem to affect their food supply. I would recommend the Bio Pellets in a heart beat. Just make sure that you thoroughly read the instructions. some of my SPS didn't like the sudden decrease in Nitrates. They recovered just fine and everyone had more vibrant colors.
Normally I am not a big fan of these things, but upon doing lot of leg work and research on them,I believe they have a foundation to work if done properly. so the concept follows the same principle as carbon dosing like vodka/vinager/zeovit and so on (all of which I have issues with) but the thing that separates them from those is that the carbon source is in a solid form. What this does is to make it so you see what the carbon pool is where as with the liquid you have no idea, that and the liquids are broadcast into the tank where as the pellets are isolated.
Ok so what they do is to follow bacterial redfield ratio, which is the bacteria will use 50 parts carbon in order to bind 10 parts Nitrogen and 1 part Phosphorous. So the pellets provide the carbon and the bacteria take the N and P from the water column. I'll buy that. So most of the pellets you see are made from the same manufacturer and have the same properties, so corn syrup, or something similar, as long as they are PHA's their are all the same. So what you have to do is to keep the pellets tumbling this will keep them aerobic, if the flow is to slow they can go anaerobic and create all sorts of uglies like sulfides, methagenes and so on.
You must also start very slowly, so like a 1/4 of what they say to start with. What happens is that bacteria can be pretty efficent when given the carbon they need and whith out the things that slow the process, so ramp up slowly.
Also keep an eye on everything else in the tank, as they also consume oxygen they will be competing for it with our fish and everything else in the tank. One last one is that IMHO the reactor where the pellets are should feed right into the skimmer, this way once the bacteria have bound the nutrients you can remove them from the tank and thus have a positive export system. Give the reactor a shake when you see a heavy bio-film form on the pellets as this will keep the pellets aerobic with a small amount of anaerobic zone around the surface and it will allow you to export the bio-film that breaks free.
Oh one more thing, the ratio I put above, remember all three have to be present in order for it to work, so if their is no P they the N reduction stops, the same applies for all of them. Alot of folks end up with no measurable P but still have an amount of N left, this is the result of what I just explained.
anyway hope it give you an idea of how it works, now its up to you to make the call.
Mojo
Ok so what they do is to follow bacterial redfield ratio, which is the bacteria will use 50 parts carbon in order to bind 10 parts Nitrogen and 1 part Phosphorous. So the pellets provide the carbon and the bacteria take the N and P from the water column. I'll buy that. So most of the pellets you see are made from the same manufacturer and have the same properties, so corn syrup, or something similar, as long as they are PHA's their are all the same. So what you have to do is to keep the pellets tumbling this will keep them aerobic, if the flow is to slow they can go anaerobic and create all sorts of uglies like sulfides, methagenes and so on.
You must also start very slowly, so like a 1/4 of what they say to start with. What happens is that bacteria can be pretty efficent when given the carbon they need and whith out the things that slow the process, so ramp up slowly.
Also keep an eye on everything else in the tank, as they also consume oxygen they will be competing for it with our fish and everything else in the tank. One last one is that IMHO the reactor where the pellets are should feed right into the skimmer, this way once the bacteria have bound the nutrients you can remove them from the tank and thus have a positive export system. Give the reactor a shake when you see a heavy bio-film form on the pellets as this will keep the pellets aerobic with a small amount of anaerobic zone around the surface and it will allow you to export the bio-film that breaks free.
Oh one more thing, the ratio I put above, remember all three have to be present in order for it to work, so if their is no P they the N reduction stops, the same applies for all of them. Alot of folks end up with no measurable P but still have an amount of N left, this is the result of what I just explained.
anyway hope it give you an idea of how it works, now its up to you to make the call.
Mojo
07FocusST
Well-known member
In my experience yes the macro (cheato, etc) will suffer. But that is where you must balance out a perfect 50/50 balance of nutrient export between your macro and the bio pellets by reducing the amount of bio pellets used and the flow rate.
07FocusST
Well-known member
I hd to make that decision. Since I had an enormous ball of cheato with pods thriving I wanted it to continue to produce pods and such while knocking out NO2, NO3, NH3/4 enough to where I had the cheato taking in about 90% of the excess nutrients and the bio pellets were there to remove the last 10%. Its a delicate balance with macros. To make it easy I could have got rid of my cheato and Mandarins and let the Bio Pellets do work. I have complete faith in the pellets maintaining the system to a near 0ppm system.
07FocusST
Well-known member
I agree with Mojo (when dont I?)... anything that is in place to reduce NO2, NO3, NH3/4 can be removed: Any Macros, GFO and such. I did leave a bag of carbon in the sump. Not sure if it was safe enough to remove it. My skimmer was producing about a 25%-50% darker skimmate with the skimmate catch bottle filling up in 2 days rather than 1 to 2 week time frame. It did eventually slow down to about 4 to 5 day emptying of the bottle.
Focus the skimmate you are looking for is actually going to be milky, if its dark green it means your skimming phyto and zoo plankton and bacteria. Which I am not saying is a bad thing, just explaining the color thingy. Oh and carbon is fine.
Mojo
Mojo
NC2WA
Well-known member
Im looking into getting a bio pellet reactor and have a nice size ball of chaeto in a DIY Fuge..
so can chaeto be giving to my tangs?
so can chaeto be giving to my tangs?
NC2WA
Well-known member
As I understand yes...
Dorando the concept of the bio pellet is to reduce N and P by completing the the CNP ratio. SO if you use this all other means of reducing P and N will be competing for the same products?? that would be the issue in running the systems you mentioned.
Mojo
Mojo
