Biopellets - sps folks

[ff337]

I know this subject has been beaten to death.

I understand the concept of their purpose. And the reduction of phosphates and nitrates steady and long term is what has sparked my interest. I am looking for Long term experience.

Who is running them? How long? Amount to water volume? What brand?

The goods? the bads? I want to know everything there is to know about them and how to run the. Successfully.

I have read start slow, add every week etc. Does running a lower amount that prescribed help with some people's problems with the pellets.

Thanks.

 

[russ-iv]

FF337;1052706 wrote: I know this subject has been beaten to death.

I understand the concept of their purpose. And the reduction of phosphates and nitrates steady and long term is what has sparked my interest. I am looking for Long term experience.

Who is running them? How long? Amount to water volume? What brand?

The goods? the bads? I want to know everything there is to know about them and how to run the. Successfully.

I have read start slow, add every week etc. Does running a lower amount that prescribed help with some people's problems with the pellets.

Thanks.

i ran them for 9 months on my old 220.
dr tim's pellets
took 3-4 weeks for it break in
gfo had to be offline for it to work though. i had far less phosphate and a ton of nitrate in that system. 60ppm+
worked as advertised but corrosion on pipes was evident. you will get a white bacterial film on everything and a simple shut off of the main lines will bring in tons of huge white matts and slivers in to your sump to clean out.
i also started having cyano issues constantly from the 3 month mark until i pulled it. also cloudy water wasnt uncommon.

it does kill nitrates. but an algae turf scrubber netted better results with far less maitenance for me. plan on changing out 10-20% of the pellets every 2-3 months.

i didnt notice a detriment running full pellets nor yanking the system offline like you would with vodka.

hth

 

[nickh06]

I have been running BRS pellets for about a year with positive results. Have only added more pellets once in that time. I did notice some cyano recently but I think it was due to the fact that my BP output fell of the skimmer intake. I rigged up some pvc to the skimmer so I could make sure the output always stayed close to the skimmer input. Tank is 180 with close to 300 gallons total water volume. Never have a problem with nitrates although phosphates do creep up every now and then. Still running them but need to upgrade my reactor. Its too small now that I have added a lot more fish.

 

[ff337]

I think I'm gonna skip these biopellets. I'm think I might start my refugium back up.