Bio-Pellets - Lets Hear Your Experience

[btkrausen]

So I'm currently vodka dosing, and haven't dosed in a few days, as I'm thinking about stopping. It didn't really help my SPS grow much...as a matter of fact, I think it stunted the growth, as I was getting the best color and growth before I started. (I only moved forward with it as an attempt to help with my bubble algae.)

Lets hear your experience with it, what pellets you are using, what reactor they are going through, etc, and what changes you saw with it.

Any other products that you have used to get phosphates down besides the normal GFO????

 

[swannyson7]

I've been running the WM EcoBak for about 6 months and have had pretty good results. My nitrates always used to run around 5-10, but now are always zero. My phosphates were always low due to a fuge filled with chaeto and GFO in a reactor, but I've been reluctant to pull the GFO offline due to the mixed reviews about how much of an impact the pellets had on PO4.

 

[Jcr's Reef]

I pulled mine off line. I really don't think my tank needs carbon dosing 24hrs a day. I'd rather dose MB7 etc... a couple times a week manually if my tank needs it.

 

[btkrausen]

Hmm...two opposing reviews. My buddy put Vertex pellets in a PM reactor and didn't have good results with it. I was thinking that he might not have run them long enough to make a difference, but who knows.

I currently dose MB7 in my tank, and had great results with it before starting with vodka. I had great color and awesome growth. Maybe I'll get back to that state with running some type of GFO or Phosphate remover, and see what happens.

 

[mojo]

I have tried a couple different kinds of them and from everything I have read it takes 6 to 8 weeks for them to truly start to work. To build enough bacteria to balnace everything out. Almost like your tank cycling.

The ATB, vertex, Warner Marine, Bulk reef supply, and Np biopellets are pretty much the same. They are all trying to do the same thing. I have not seen any difference in how any of these work.

Now I will also say I have no chemistry background. But have been the hobby some time. I probably give them much time to work the way they are suppose too. Its hard to go through that when I can just run carbon and gfo and all is good.

Mojo~

 

[btkrausen]

I have tried a couple different kinds of them and from everything I have read it takes 6 to 8 weeks for them to truly start to work. To build enough bacteria to balnace everything out. Almost like your tank cycling.

The ATB, vertex, Warner Marine, Bulk reef supply, and Np biopellets are pretty much the same. They are all trying to do the same thing. I have not seen any difference in how any of these work.

Now I will also say I have no chemistry background. But have been the hobby some time. I probably give them much time to work the way they are suppose too. Its hard to go through that when I can just run carbon and gfo and all is good.

Mojo~

Thanks. I did the vodka thing for about 80 days, and didn't see much difference in my tank. My water was already crystal clean from MB7 and carbon, and my corals really didn't take off, I think they actually slowed down when dosing vodka.

 

[Jcr's Reef]

I was running them like swannyson. ATB pellets and I still ran GFO, plus dosed MB7 occasionally as I did waterchanges or messed around with the tank. I didn't run the pellets long though, and started out at 1/4 the recommended dose to avoid algae outbreaks. Plus I don't want my tank stripped of nutrients. I never noticed any change in skimmer production (before dosing,after, and now) like everyone says. I still Kicks butt with or without dosing. and produces the same amount. I don't want to knock'em though. I guess it all depends on what livestock you have and what you are wanting to achieve. For the mixed reef I have, I don't think they fit well.

 

[btkrausen]

I'm running primarily SPS in my tank, with a few recent additions of some mushrooms and such for looks and color. I'm going to be gone this week on business, and I'm not going to have my g/f dose vodka this week, only MB7.

I wouldn't just stop, but there was a thread that went around a few weeks ago about just stopping the vodka dosing, and nobody saw any ill effects from it. I'm hoping my tank is still colorful when I get back

 

[droblack]

I've been running the swc pellets since August 2010. Everything was great until a couple of months ago, when the pellets became quite depleted. An algae bloom followed, and I have since replenished my pellets. The size difference was amazing between the new pellets and the used ones, guess my tank was really working them. I'm not so happy with my modified TLF reactor, going to invest in the new swc.

 

[btkrausen]

I don't think I'd use a TLF reactor, not really a huge fan of those. I'd either run a Precision Marine or a one of the other nicer ones, like the Avast Marine or Octopus.

 

[Jcr's Reef]

I'm running primarily SPS in my tank, with a few recent additions of some mushrooms and such for looks and color. I'm going to be gone this week on business, and I'm not going to have my g/f dose vodka this week, only MB7.

I wouldn't just stop, but there was a thread that went around a few weeks ago about just stopping the vodka dosing, and nobody saw any ill effects from it. I'm hoping my tank is still colorful when I get back

Good call lol.
I don't see how stopping would have a detramental effect on your tank. Over the past year or 2 I have started and stopped dosing Vodka many times with no ill effect.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Quite a few threads I have read on here and reefcentral are guys who used the pellets to switch off of vodka dosing.

Im eager to see this thread...seems hard to gather information on solid carbon dosing, its all over the place in small, lightly visited threads like my own most recent carbon dosing thread.

It will be good to have one thread with everyones different experiences and results.