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Can anyone provide input on the effects the pellets have on a refugium?
Thanks.
Thanks.
EcoBak Pellet Journey
- Thread starter Shadowramy
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Oiseau Reefer
Well-Known Member
I'm using the brightwell's katalyst almost same stuff and my chaeto was at a stand still for a while then I don't know if it's because of them or not but lately it's been growing like crazy
jcom
Active Member
Interesting. I have slowly been taking my chaeto out of my refugium with vodka dosing and, as of 4 days ago, there is no more in my system. On my new tank, I'm going to start Ecobak w/no refugium and I'll be able to compare (to some extent) Vodka and Ecobak side by side. Granted, my existing tank is over 5 years old, so won't be apples to apples, but will be interesting nonetheless.
...oh, and I'm going to seed and maintain the new Ecobak tank with MB7 even though my questions earlier in this thread never got answered. Just seems to feel right.
I ran my 75 with vodka and MB7 when it was up. I had to pull my cheato and ran without a fuge and just had a skimmer for the past two years.Also no GFO and carbon periodically. I tore that down and put everything into a temp rubbermade system that I initially ran with vodka and MB7 the first month and then got the EcoBak pellets. I never even bothered to set up a fuge so I just have skimmer in my sump again. The first week when I switched from vodka to the pellets I continued to dose MB7 reducing the dose twice per week until zero. Now I just run it on the pellets. Also no GFO and I only run carbon about once per month for a week. When I set up my 220 I will initially dose with MB7 for a couple months with the pellets until system is stable. HTH
* I am going to put a 29 gallon cryptic fuge on my 220 when I set it up but just for diversity and not really for filtration.
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with carbon dosing I always had an issue with running carbon in a reactor. The bacteria (mulm) always grows heavily in the reactor causing major problems with flow. In only run carbon periodically now.
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
so you guys feel the pellets don't need any other supplementation???? vodka which the pellets replaced is just a food source for the nitrifying bacteria.....i could be wrong thou im not sure all what is in the pellets....
ReeferRob
Give me your Brains!
I've been running mine for I believe 4 weeks now.
PO4 is down to .17 from 1.28ish if I remember.
Now my biggest battle seems to be and ever increasing issue with green cyno taking over the top 1/3 of the tank choking out some sticks.
Not sure if I should dose some bacteria or stop the pellets?
PO4 is down to .17 from 1.28ish if I remember.
Now my biggest battle seems to be and ever increasing issue with green cyno taking over the top 1/3 of the tank choking out some sticks.
Not sure if I should dose some bacteria or stop the pellets?
From everything I read these are strictly a food source for the bacteria. I knew people that dosed vodka only, had great success and never needed to add MB7 or anything like it. I am still on the fence if I am going to continue to dose MB7 also. My temp system went through a break in period where my corals all browned out from the move. Everything is finally starting to color back up. I have been trying to see how this goes without MB7. I do have some small patches of HA but they are all on the frags and two power heads. I have none on my rocks or sides of tank. My reason for switching was to avoid the daily dosing. If I have to dose MB7 daily then I will just go back to vodka. I may try adding MB7 a couple times a month in bigger doses down the road but I want to see how it goes sans MB7. Each different carbon source supposedly feeds a different strain of bacteria hence people using the mixtures like v/s/v. I used Biodigest when I first started dosing a bacteria source and it worked well. I only dosed 1 amp per month when I used that.
DarkSephiroth
Community Member
What is everyone GPH going into the reactor? I got a 396GPH pump going to the SMR1 and some people was reporting better results with less GPH. Can anyone confirm this?
swissgaurd
Well-Known Member
so whos good at math here
there must be a formula for this using a one gallon jug.
pending how long it takes to fill a jug in a minute.
how long should it take to fill a jug in one minute
there must be a formula for this using a one gallon jug.
pending how long it takes to fill a jug in a minute.
how long should it take to fill a jug in one minute
swissgaurd
Well-Known Member
thankyou
It's actually the pellets that feed the Biodigest. The pellets are the carbon food source and the Biodigest is the bacteria source. You just have to be careful that you don't end up with a bloom in your tank. If you decide to add an additional bacteria source like MB7 or Biodigest I would suggest doing it slowly and watch your tank and test frequently until you find the balance. For me the reason to use the pellets is so that I don't have to dose carbon and bacteria manually.
rosebud161616
Active Member
We use biodigest in addition to our pellets. It helps to keep diversity in our bacteria so we don't end up with a mono culture.
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