Offical Eco-Bak Thread

[gmoney243]

hey bob it sounds like you have enough flow through the reactor if the numbers both match. whats your phos reading? i would want to know that before i added more pellets. your nitrates are fine so if your phos are in the .03-.05 range then i wouldnt add any pellets and leave it as is.

 

[sluicebox]

hey bob it sounds like you have enough flow through the reactor if the numbers both match. whats your phos reading? i would want to know that before i added more pellets. your nitrates are fine so if your phos are in the .03-.05 range then i wouldnt add any pellets and leave it as is.

My Phosphates are at 0.025. Thanks for the advice. I'll leave as is for now.

 

[gmoney243]

yea if you were to add more pellets you would strip all the phos out and that wouldnt be good for corals. if you have a fuge or anywhere to add chaeto algae and a light you could try that to lower nitrates by a little. but as is id say ur params are good man well enough to keep sps thats for sure.

 

[MattL22]

Hi guys ! So I'm running a little over 1/4 bottle 250ml bottle ecobak been about 3 weeks about 4-5 days ago I started getting black/ red cyano not out of control or stringy but its enough !
Now I was supposed to add another 1/4 the ecobak bottle pellets according to directions!
So should I still add the other 1/4 of pellets or just leave it for now??
I'm adding fritz live bacteria once - twice a week with water change!
Right now I only have 3 sm baby fish in tank
Thanks for help
Matt

 

[Dowtish]

Bob, I would say that in just 3 weeks you havent even began to see the effects of the bacteria colonizing. What were your phos and nitrates before starting the pellets? You need to keep a log of how fast they drop, so like Mike said, you dont strip the tank too fast. If you think its dropping too fast, slow the tumble of the pellets.

 

[Dowtish]

Hi guys ! So I'm running a little over 1/4 bottle 250ml bottle ecobak been about 3 weeks about 4-5 days ago I started getting black/ red cyano not out of control or stringy but its enough !
Now I was supposed to add another 1/4 the ecobak bottle pellets according to directions!
So should I still add the other 1/4 of pellets or just leave it for now??
I'm adding fritz live bacteria once - twice a week with water change!
Right now I only have 3 sm baby fish in tank
Thanks for help
Matt

Matt how old is your tank? Is it a new setup?

 

[MattL22]

Hi Dow

Yes it is new setup I set up after storm so tank was set up 3 weeks ago with already live established rock and the ecobak was started with tank!

 

[MattL22]

Will water changes or adding more bacteria be a good idea?

I'm not sure but seemed like the cyano increased a bit with addition of the fritz LIve bacteria ? Can this happen should I back off of the bacteria for a bit??

I will do a 5 gal water change tomorrow hopefully that helps

 

[sluicebox]

Bob, I would say that in just 3 weeks you havent even began to see the effects of the bacteria colonizing. What were your phos and nitrates before starting the pellets? You need to keep a log of how fast they drop, so like Mike said, you dont strip the tank too fast. If you think its dropping too fast, slow the tumble of the pellets.

Chris,

Since setting up the tank in May, my phosphates and nitrates have never been very high. I do keep a log of all my testing and the PO4 has never been above 0.05 ppm and the NO3 has never been above 3 ppm. You might ask then why start biopellets???? I like to experiment with new toys and I wanted to be proactive. So, that's how I started biopelllets. I also had a real good experience with biopellets in my old tank that I just rebuilt. What I glean from your and Mike's input is...."don't worry, be happy" for now....continue to watch closely to make sure things don't get out of hand.

I need to work more on stablizing my Alk to tighter variations closer to 8 dKH so that I can keep the SPS corals with the eco-bak. Also, I may need a little more flow. Right now I have 35-40 turnovers/hour through the RSM S650 and need to get up to 50-60 or so...would you agree?

 

[gmoney243]

Flow is fine sps don't require a ton but can handle a ton. I get good PE with nice gentle flow I'm only running about 30x tops turnover

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dowtish]

Will water changes or adding more bacteria be a good idea?

I'm not sure but seemed like the cyano increased a bit with addition of the fritz LIve bacteria ? Can this happen should I back off of the bacteria for a bit??

I will do a 5 gal water change tomorrow hopefully that helps

Matt-

Your bio-pellets have nothing to do with the cyano and algae problems that you are seeing. This is just what happens in the first few months of a new setup, regardless of parameters. Give it some time, and it will clear up. WC's are always good, but early on, I wouldnt go too overboard with them. Adding bacteria to the system will help as well.

 

[sluicebox]

Flow is fine sps don't require a ton but can handle a ton. I get good PE with nice gentle flow I'm only running about 30x tops turnover

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

Thanks. Flow is definitely a secondary issue for me.

 

[Dowtish]

Chris,

Since setting up the tank in May, my phosphates and nitrates have never been very high. I do keep a log of all my testing and the PO4 has never been above 0.05 ppm and the NO3 has never been above 3 ppm. You might ask then why start biopellets???? I like to experiment with new toys and I wanted to be proactive. So, that's how I started biopelllets. I also had a real good experience with biopellets in my old tank that I just rebuilt. What I glean from your and Mike's input is...."don't worry, be happy" for now....continue to watch closely to make sure things don't get out of hand.

I need to work more on stablizing my Alk to tighter variations closer to 8 dKH so that I can keep the SPS corals with the eco-bak. Also, I may need a little more flow. Right now I have 35-40 turnovers/hour through the RSM S650 and need to get up to 50-60 or so...would you agree?

Bob, are you having ALk swings with the dosers? Or are you saying it is just higher than 8 right now?

Flow through the RSM at the critter seems pretty good IMO, but I'm sure that depends on your scape and placement of corals as well. IMO, you can always add more variant flow, and the SPS will thank you.

 

[sluicebox]

Bob, are you having ALk swings with the dosers? Or are you saying it is just higher than 8 right now?

Flow through the RSM at the critter seems pretty good IMO, but I'm sure that depends on your scape and placement of corals as well. IMO, you can always add more variant flow, and the SPS will thank you.

I'm trying to dial the dosers in to slowly reduce the ALK to 8. I didn't worry too much about ALK early on and let it get too high (about 11 dKH) for the Eco-Bak primarily due to the Red Sea Coral Pro salt mix. Prior to this, my ALK did vary from 9 to 11 and visa versa between water changes. I'm trying to limit any more ALK swings to not more than 0.5 dKH per week. Anyway, I only have one SPS in the tank now that seems to be handling this sort of variation without an issue. The LPS don't seem to be effected whatsoever.

 

[Dowtish]

Bob-
I have found that if my alk has gotten too high, I reduce the dosing by half for a day or 2, and then bump my cal by 1/4 for those 2 days. this will typically let the alk fall without any major swings for either one.

 

[sluicebox]

Bob-
I have found that if my alk has gotten too high, I reduce the dosing by half for a day or 2, and then bump my cal by 1/4 for those 2 days. this will typically let the alk fall without any major swings for either one.

Thanks, I'll try that and let you know.

 

[schooleyosis]

Picking up my reactor tonight and I already have the pump and EcoBak at home. Is it recommended to run the pump and the reactor minus the media in a bath of vinegar and water for a day or two to clean it?

 

[Dowtish]

I would just soak the reactor and pump in 20-30% vinegar to 60-70% water for about 3 hours. This will remove all oils from manufacture. Then you should be good to go. Also, I would soak the initial 1/4 of pellets in fresh RO/DI for 24 hours to alleviate floaters.

 

[schooleyosis]

Thanks Chris.

What brand of test kits do you recommend to test for Nitrate and Phosphates? My API test kit just does not have the accuracy that I will need to test while in the early stages of running EcoBak to monitor it's effectiveness.

 

[Dowtish]

I use Salifert for Nitrate, and a hanna checker for phosphates. you should be able to get both from BRS.

I think the new red sea test kits are good for nitrates, although I have never used one myself.