EcoBak Pellet Journey

Oiseau Reefer · Nov 9, 2010

I had to start dosing AA's but I'm also vod/mb7 dosing, brightwell's katalyst and using GFO also feeding coral food mixture 3 times a day as well as using brightwell's vit c, multi vitamin, vitamin mineral, and replenish(trace elements) when using these additives all together I've seen great results and you only have to use very little. On my AA's I mixed a bottle of brightwell's aa's, seachem reef plus, brightwell amino omega, and aqua vitro reef fuel all together and add 10 drops a day my total water volume is 175-180g

ReeferRob · Nov 17, 2010

How's everyone doing with this crap? I've seen little to no improvement in anything in weeks. Green cyno bacteria continues to choke out and kill corals, hair algae is out of contral and worse if not better. Water clarity is fine and what corals are left are very beautiful and happy as long as I can keep the green cyno away. ***

Paul_N · Nov 17, 2010

I am getting the same results I did with vodka dosing. Params are low, corals coloring up and the little HA I had from starting my temp system with some new dry rock has started to go away.

thewackyreefer · Nov 17, 2010

I've been running mine for about 5 weeks now and I've noticed a reduction in algae on the glass and cyano on the sandbed. Haven't made any changes to anything other than adding the pellets.

rosebud161616 · Nov 17, 2010

How are you guys keeping the pellets going? The longer I have them in the reactor the stickier they get and the more I am seeing algae in the tank. I have swapped out the pump a couple of times and am currently using a quiet one 1200, but still not getting enough flow to keep them tumbling. What are you guys using?

thewackyreefer · Nov 17, 2010

I'm using an adjustable MJ 900 utility pump w/ an Avast reactor.

Paul_N · Nov 17, 2010

I actually got a used vertex zeo reactor. It has a plunger in it so I can stir it up every now and then.

Acronuts · Nov 17, 2010

ReeferRob said:
How's everyone doing with this crap? I've seen little to no improvement in anything in weeks. Green cyno bacteria continues to choke out and kill corals, hair algae is out of contral and worse if not better. Water clarity is fine and what corals are left are very beautiful and happy as long as I can keep the green cyno away. ***

ReeferBob have you looked at everything from not enough pellets to potentially RO water resins that needto be changed. Did you have green cyno before adding the pellets?

Paul_PSU said:
I am getting the same results I did with vodka dosing. Params are low, corals coloring up and the little HA I had from starting my temp system with some new dry rock has started to go away.

Good for you Paul I as well continue to have great results using the pellets.

luvmyacans said:
I've been running mine for about 5 weeks now and I've noticed a reduction in algae on the glass and cyano on the sandbed. Haven't made any changes to anything other than adding the pellets.

That is the way to do it. Slow and making small changes to the system.

rosebud161616 said:
How are you guys keeping the pellets going? The longer I have them in the reactor the stickier they get and the more I am seeing algae in the tank. I have swapped out the pump a couple of times and am currently using a quiet one 1200, but still not getting enough flow to keep them tumbling. What are you guys using?

I am using a SMR 1 reactor and this pump:

I love it because I can turn it down and restrict flow. Right now I am running 1 liter and have a nice tumble going throughout.

This is a quick video. It is running much faster but since then I have slowed the pump down.

ReeferRob · Nov 18, 2010

Paul_PSU said:
I am getting the same results I did with vodka dosing. Params are low, corals coloring up and the little HA I had from starting my temp system with some new dry rock has started to go away.

Im doing something wrong then and don't know what. Im practically starving my fish and corals at this point (colors and health seem fine however) but my HA is out of controll. Worse it's ever been. I do 10 gallon water changes from air line, yes air line once sometimes twice a week. Syphoning nothing but green cyno from the rocks and corals and HA from everywhere else. Trates are still in the 30ppm range (no matter what I do doesn't change), PO4 hasn't dropped below .18. Again no matter what I do.

Acronuts said:
ReeferBob have you looked at everything from not enough pellets to potentially RO water resins that needto be changed. Did you have green cyno before adding the pellets?

I bought a brand new high efficiency Membrane, .5 micron sediment filter and .5 micron carbon block from SpecraPure just 3 or more months ago. I also converted to a double Di with Silicate buster. This was also all done on a Melevs unit that was less than 1 year old.

Im currently running just shy of 500ml (guessing 350-400) of pellet in a TLF reactor with a MJ1200 pushing the flow tumbling the pellets identically to the video above.
The green cyno was mildly present when I started the pellets, but steadily gets worse as does the HA. I've now lost more than half my Steve Elias, my lokani, a red planet, my sunset millie, my green millie, all my digis, my Tokyo Terror Micro, a chalice, a few favia and a dendro all from being choked out by the green cyno. **** stuff grows quicker than I can keep up with.

Im dying for some help here. I don't know what I should do. But Im leaning toward pitching the pellets.

This is a quick video. It is running much faster but since then I have slowed the pump down.

Akwarius · Nov 18, 2010

Ive found that you still have to use phosphate media along with the pellets. I don't use a reactor, just toss a bag of Rowaphos next to the inlet in my sump and that seems to do the trick.

Shadowramy · Nov 18, 2010

Well I went through some ups and downs with the pellets, biggest was not getting enough flow in my wide reactor. I think the more narrow ones will work better (mine is a 4" zeoreactor). Once I added more flow and got my pellets really tumbling I could see a noticeable difference in water clearity as well as better polyp extension and color.

I am now 100 percent zeovit free (other than adding CV and some Amino Acids). No more K+ supplimenting and feeding my fish and tank like mad with no ill effect. I am doing monthly water changes at 55 gallons (on a 220g).

Paul_N · Nov 18, 2010

Ricordea said:
Paul,
I see where you mentioned about still needing GFO and pellets.I think a lot of folks using pellets no need for GFO anymore.I was thinking the same thing when this product came out.If you NEED both that can be costly to maintain.So why pellets to begin with vs.Vodka dosing.I know Vodka can be more radical method vs,amount needed.I thought when this product came out,the GFO wouldn't be needed anymore.That the pellets and bacteria would solve lowers levels we all are looking for.
Oh by the way I'm still using GFO with my pellets.It needs to be changed out.And I surely don't want to order more GFO.But by using both,not very fond off additional costs.I know it's a new product,and we are stilling trying to find our way here.But if this is the case,I think we should have been told,that this method needs both.

Sorry missed this. I don't use GFO anymore. I haven't used GFO in over a year and a half. I took it off line when I dosed vodka. I agree that if I had to use GFO I probably wouldn't use pellets or dose vodka. I started Pellets because I wanted "hands free" carbon dosing. I hit the plunger once a week on my reactor and that's about it. For the record, didn't stop using GFO when I dosed vodka until after almost a year. I got the nitrates down quickly but the phosphate were another story. I had a different situation though. I had a FOWLR and used tap water. When I switched to a reef I kept the same rocks and sand. The phosphate were all bound up in the rocks and sand and it took some time for me to hit low numbers.

Acronuts · Nov 19, 2010

ReeferRob,
It is true add a bag of phosphate remover. Get it down as much as possible.
How old are your lights?
What is your day to day amount of light period?
You said your corals are looking fine and heathly. Except your green cyno. Whats flow like in your tank?
What type of skimmer do you have?

ReeferRob · Nov 19, 2010

Acronuts said:
ReeferRob,
It is true add a bag of phosphate remover. Get it down as much as possible.
How old are your lights?
What is your day to day amount of light period?
You said your corals are looking fine and heathly. Except your green cyno. Whats flow like in your tank?
What type of skimmer do you have?

Just changed bulbs three weeks ago, previous bulbs were 9 months old on an Aquatinics TX5HO fixture.
Photoperiod is 8 hours with 1.5 hours on the front side and back for dusk to dawn. 3 Blue +, 1 Aqua Bluespecial, one Fiji.
Flow is moderately intense with a mp20 and mp10 and a QO 4000 for return in a 60 cube.
Skimmer is SWC 160 extreme with reducer mod and needle wheel mod/ upgrade.
I used to run BRS GFO with my GAC in their reactor but took out the GFO as instructed by a fellow reefer on here when I put the pellets on line. In the past month I have ran some GFO passively to see if I noticed a difference and did not. Through speaking with others here some have suggested trying a different brand as the BRS GFO is not very efficient.

Guerry · Nov 20, 2010

Great thread guys, I just oderred a bio pellet system a couple days ago so this was just on time for me. I plan on setting it up on my frag system to see how it works then maybe my DT later if everything goes well

Acronuts · Nov 21, 2010

ReeferRob,
Something is gotta be feeding your green cyno. From all the equipment you have it seems as though you got everything covered from new RO cartrigdes to new bulbs and great flow.
In one of your earlier posts you had indicated that your po4 was .17, that is not an awefully bad number. Not great but I have heard of worse. How is it this week? How are your nitrate readings? Your live rock was it ever exposed to any meds? Sorry if I asked this already, how often do u change water? and do you feed heavily?
Also I looked but maybe I just did not go far into the thread but how much EB are you running for your tank?

The only other thing I can suggest is for you to call and talk to Jon at Warner Marine maybe he can give you some additional guidelines. Any of you guys here know of something we are missing?
I know some guys are running EB with GFO, I have not in the past and I am currently not so I can't give you any advice there.
Anyone can chime in here and help!

ReeferRob said:
Just changed bulbs three weeks ago, previous bulbs were 9 months old on an Aquatinics TX5HO fixture.
Photoperiod is 8 hours with 1.5 hours on the front side and back for dusk to dawn. 3 Blue +, 1 Aqua Bluespecial, one Fiji.
Flow is moderately intense with a mp20 and mp10 and a QO 4000 for return in a 60 cube.
Skimmer is SWC 160 extreme with reducer mod and needle wheel mod/ upgrade.
I used to run BRS GFO with my GAC in their reactor but took out the GFO as instructed by a fellow reefer on here when I put the pellets on line. In the past month I have ran some GFO passively to see if I noticed a difference and did not. Through speaking with others here some have suggested trying a different brand as the BRS GFO is not very efficient.

Oiseau Reefer · Nov 21, 2010

Hey start dosing some mb7 it should help I started getting a little green slime when I started slacking on my mb7

SaraB · Nov 22, 2010

Akwarius said:
Ive found that you still have to use phosphate media along with the pellets.

Agreed, this is a misconception in the hobby that once you use the pellets you can drop the GFO, which is NOT true .... you must continue to run GFO to control the phosphates.