cheato or bio pellets
- Thread starter regaltang
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I have never used chaeto due to space in sump/no refugium. I have used biopellets and they do work. I would only recommend biopellets in a mature and relatively well stocked tank. They take a while to kick in but can strip nutrients very quickly once colonized. I don't recommend them in a tank with Alk over about 8.5dkh due to lots of cases of reported instability and RTN/coral death. That is what happened to me and several people I know including 2 LFS. I am not against them now that I understand their use and will probably use again in the future.
It seems counter intuitive but you actually have to have nitrates present/being produced to eliminate phosphates as the bacteria use a higher ratio of nitrates to phosphates when they multiply. Thus in a lightly stocked tank or one that you dont feed often, you will probably have more phosphates present than you would like. But you can always use other phos removal methods if you wish.
At present I am using "liquid" carbon dosing instead of biopellets that are considered solid carbon dosing. I started with vodka dosing and that did okay. I have been using Red Sea NOPOx for the last year or so and really like it. Either one is cool by me as it is very easy to adjust the added daily dose as needed.
It seems counter intuitive but you actually have to have nitrates present/being produced to eliminate phosphates as the bacteria use a higher ratio of nitrates to phosphates when they multiply. Thus in a lightly stocked tank or one that you dont feed often, you will probably have more phosphates present than you would like. But you can always use other phos removal methods if you wish.
At present I am using "liquid" carbon dosing instead of biopellets that are considered solid carbon dosing. I started with vodka dosing and that did okay. I have been using Red Sea NOPOx for the last year or so and really like it. Either one is cool by me as it is very easy to adjust the added daily dose as needed.
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I run Purigen using a HOB filter (no skimmer). I can tell you my nitrates are always 0. You just bleach your material once and month, and you can do this 3-5x.
Depends what else you're running. Biopellets only have the potential for good if you're already running a skimmer; they foster bacterial growth which binds nitrates & phosphates which can then be skimmed out of the water column. Just running them in a reactor without a viable export mechanism is just going to make for a scummy tank.
Chaetomorpha does the same thing as the bacteria, except that you can export it by hand. And it fosters the growth of copepods that have some side benefits of their own.
Personally I prefer the latter... every time I've mucked with the chemistry of my tank, something in it has mucked right back at me.
Chaetomorpha does the same thing as the bacteria, except that you can export it by hand. And it fosters the growth of copepods that have some side benefits of their own.
Personally I prefer the latter... every time I've mucked with the chemistry of my tank, something in it has mucked right back at me.
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