Anyone using bio-pellets?

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Beautiful tank you got there Greg!

[gregr]

Thanks. I've been spending a lot of time sitting in front of it enjoying the beauty. And taking lots of pictures I got a tiny Tailspot blenny the other day- this fish is so awesomely awesome- started grazing algae immediately and ignores the other blennies in the tank and they ignore him. He sits in the red flowerpot and stares at me. Stares at the camera, I mean

[Original Fin]

Well done Greg! That's one of the nicest reefs I've ever seen. May I ask how long you
You've been in the hobby? From the looks of it, a very long time.

Bring back TOTM! I've cast my vote!

[gregr]

Thanks. It's been a long time... long enough to make all the usual mistakes and more. This tank is about 3.5 years old now. Had a magnificent first year, then ran into huge trouble and fought hair algae for one very long year and now this is how it's been for a while. I tell ya, this hobby is not for sissies

[Mad Mead]

just awesome tank

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Thanks. It's been a long time... long enough to make all the usual mistakes and more. This tank is about 3.5 years old now. Had a magnificent first year, then ran into huge trouble and fought hair algae for one very long year and now this is how it's been for a while. I tell ya, this hobby is not for sissies

Definitely takes a huge amount of commitment and a true love for the hobby to battle something like NA for a whole year. I applaud you for your hard work and from the looks of your tank, it payed off big time.

[gregr]

Yes indeed it has paid off... and yes, it was a lot of hard work. I tried pretty much everything you can think of- go ahead try- I'm not kidding. I finally removed about 90% of the liverock and basically started over. I'm going on the assumption that phosphates had absorbed into the rocks so much that no matter what I did it wasn't enough.

[acanlover]

Im going to stay neutral here because I know someone that uses them and has made his tank amazing and I also know someone that used them and it made the water so clean all the lps and softies died and it was so clean that even some of the sps died so its really a 50/50 chance using them IMO.

[gregr]

I went thru two hugely long threads, took days to wade thru it all, but I got a lot out of it and wouldn't have tried bio-pellets with only two examples to base my decision on. I know people at two fish stores that use it- one with great success and the other with no noticeable effect. If you're someone who's thinking about using bio-pellets you really need to do the research first. I'd bet anything the person who's corals all died used too much too fast. "Too much" could just be the recommended amount- it can have a really big impact on some tanks right away. I started with a little less than half the recommended amount for my tank, added some more a few weeks later. The results have been outstanding for me. Now it's just a matter of seeing if it works long-term. I've been running it for about 4 months so far.

[gregr]

Time for the six month update. If a picture is worth a thousand words then video is worth 30,000 words per second-- here's about 3 million words :

‪Canon 1D Mark IV shots of my tank, August 2011‬‏ - YouTube

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Very nice Greg! Love the tube anemone. All of the colonies are huge and everything looks amazing.

[gregr]

Thanks!

[gregr]

Another month has gone by. Another camera has been bought... and another video has been made
Going on 8 months using bio-pellets.
In case the embed code doesn't work here's the link:
My Tank Fall 2011 - YouTube

[gregr]

Coming up on the one year mark. Tank still doing well This video is a couple months old so just imagine the same thing... but corals a little bigger.

[atlanticreef]

Wow that's some amazing tank you have there.

[gregr]

One year anniversary since I added the bio-pellet reactor to my tank

[gregr]

Also found out why bubble tip anemones don't like my tank. Too much light. I put one in the refugium (under T-5s) a couple months ago and it's doing great. Same water, less light. And unbeknownst to me and the guy at the fish store- there was a tiny rose bta on the rock too! Also doing well.