Started NPXbioplastics Today

[Swim]

Okay, this is the 180 that I'm in the process of cleaning up. Basically, it was a fish only except for a blue ridge coral that is still in it and a bunch of fish. I was feeding them lots of nori and Tetra large size dried Krill so needless to say the phosphates were off the scale (Looked like black ink.) but the nitrate was only about 40ppm.







Most of the big fish have been moved to larger tanks now and the Naso vlamingi and Naso Brevirostris will be moving out to larger tanks shortly.

I got the new NP biopellet reactor from MTC and started out with GFO first to get the phosphate out. I used a Supreme #5 pump with 2 pounds GFO and it worked perfect. The GFO tumbled gently but didn't leave the reactor. BTW, the reactor is in a loop from the sump and back near the skimmer intake.





Today the phosphate was undetectable and the nitrate down to 20 ppm. I decided to try the TLF brand of pellets.



I got the reactor hooked up and flowing. The biopellets are tumbling nicely but it remains to be seen if the Supreme #5 pump has enough flow once the bacteria start to mat up.



Also, I left both sponges in the reactor to get started but the bio pellets are larger enough than the GFO that I may take the sponges out later. Time will tell. The TLF package says 3 to 4 weeks so I'll post again with some readings and hopefully pictures of a cleaner 180 tank.

[Swim]

Okay, it's day four. My redox has dropped from 390 to 320, the ph has dropped from 8.3 to 8.1 and the corals are closed up. Seems to me that what we are doing with this bio pellet reactor is running a fast flow version of the old school slow flow denitrator. Anyone else notice a drop in redox? Did it come back up in time?

[Swim]

Since my update this morning, I'm noticing more light colored skimate in the waste collector and the foam in the skimmer tube has risen to the hight of the collection cup. The ozonier is set to turn on at 320 redox so it has been running all day and the redox seems to be holding at 310.




The NPXBiopellets are still gently tumbling in the reactor and I'm not able to notice any change from starting it 4 days ago.

[Swim]

Day 6 report, the redox is holding at 320, ozone is cycling on/off and there is still light colored skimmate accumulating in the waste collector. No change that I can tell in the biopellets.

[Swim]

Another day, another drop in redox. Today it's 290, the ph is 8.0 and the corals are not out and bushy. PO4 has risen from undetectable to 1.0 and nitrate is down to 20ppm but I'm not sure the drop in nitrate isn't due to all the water I'm adding due to increased skimmate production.

[Swim]

Since this morning the ph has dropped to 7.9 and skimmate production is increasing. Redox holding at 290.

[Swim]

Today is the start of week two. I've adjusted the skimmer hieght by half a turn on the valve just to stop so much water being pumped out and this is the only adjustment I've made since starting this process. As you can see in the photo this has less liquid in the waste collector but it's also full of foam now. The redox and ph are up slightly today and for the first time the tank is cloudy. The picture is an end to end view. The corals are mostly closed. No change in the pellets that I can tell and they are still tumbling well.

[Uncle Salty 05]

Did you put all of the pellets in right from the start?
I thought you were supposed to start off with 1/4 the dosage and ramp up over time.

[Swim]

Originally Posted by Uncle Salty 05

Did you put all of the pellets in right from the start?
I thought you were supposed to start off with 1/4 the dosage and ramp up over time.

I'm following the directions on the TLF NPXBioplastics package and seeing where it leads. They did say to turn off the ozone so I lowerd the set point on the controller to 250 and so far the redox hasn't gotten that low. It was set for 320. So the only "adjustments I've made so far are to back off slightly on the skimmer hieght and lower the redox controller set point. Redox is holding at 290 this afternoon.

[Swim]

Welp, today I noticed that the NPXBioplastics weren't tumbling as well as usual so I took the reactor off line and opened it up. As suspected the bottom sponge was becoming a weld of sponge, NPXBioplastics and a bacteria mat. First pic shows the sponge that I had given a shake before I thought to take a picture.



The sponge works great for GFO but for NPXBioplastics I'll be running the bare plate in the reactor. This next picture shows the NPXBioplastics and bacterial milk after I took the sponge out of the reactor.



Seems to me it took about seven days to grow what normally might take six months to grow this much bacteria. This next picture shows the bacterial soup that is now my tank from above after putting the reactor back on line. BTW, the tunicates have their syphons wide open in this soup but corals are mostly closed.



Todays Redox is 280 and the ph is 7.9, the PO4 has dropped from 1.0 to 0.2 and the nitrate reading is about 10ppm.

I'm sure opening up the reactor today has set it back but I wanted to know for sure if the sponges would work or not. I'm left wondering if this tank will ever see a 420 Redox again?

[Servillius]

I suspect your redox will eventually recover. Your redox telling you what you already know, that there is biological activity. Once your waste is more completely metabolized, things will stabilize.

[Swim]

Originally Posted by Servillius

I suspect your redox will eventually recover. Your redox telling you what you already know, that there is biological activity. Once your waste is more completely metabolized, things will stabilize.

The last time I used one of these bacterial products it took eight months to get the Redox above 320.

It will be a great management tool if this technique works as advertised and benefit outweighs cost.

[Swim]

Day ten's report is startling in that I opened up the reactor yesterday to remove the sponges. The Redox is 300, ph 8.1, PO4 and Nitrate so low I'll have to start using the LaMotte test kits for the readings. The tank looks clear end to end. I notice no difference in the bioplastics in the reactor.

[Swim]

Todays report has the Redox up to 330, PH 8.1, PO4 and Nitrate undetectable, No visible change in NPXBioplastics tumbling in the reactor. Skimmer is producing tons of foam but not pumping out water. Tank is clear and corals are mostly closed but looking better. The tunicates seem to have enjoyed the whole experience. The fish couldn't care less about the whole process as long as they get fed.

[Servillius]

Originally Posted by Swim

The last time I used one of these bacterial products it took eight months to get the Redox above 320.

It will be a great management tool if this technique works as advertised and benefit outweighs cost.

I'm going to guess the difference is that with a bacterial product, you are adding bacteria which then dies off to some degree. With pellets, you are growing bacteria which die off in a controlled way and only in relation to the tanks requirements.

This fits neatly in the catagory of totally wild guess.

[Swim]

Originally Posted by Servillius

I'm going to guess the difference is that with a bacterial product, you are adding bacteria which then dies off to some degree. With pellets, you are growing bacteria which die off in a controlled way and only in relation to the tanks requirements.

This fits neatly in the catagory of totally wild guess.

Yes possibly since with the bacteria product I added what ever medium was keeping the bacteria alive/hibernating as well when I poured it into the system. Evidently this polymer is a different animal than was used as a medium in the past. Time will tell as concerns the Redox.

I'm going to feed some nori and see what happens to the PO4 reading.

[Swim]

Day twelve report and the numbers are Redox 320, PH 8.1, PO4 0.2, Nitrate barely detectable. I started feeding nori again last night so I'm sure it's reflected in the PO4 reading. I'll continue feeding the nori and start feeding the dried krill as well and we'll see what happens with the numbers.

[Swim]

Day 13 report shows Redox 320, PH 8.1, PO4 0.8, Nitrate undetectable. I guess we can assume that feeding the nori and krill has the PO4 rising. The corals are still not out and bushy but continue to look better. NPXBioplastics are tumbling okay.

[1leftygolfer]

Curious - maybe you mentioned it and I missed it. What are you using to test your parameters?

[Swim]

Originally Posted by 1leftygolfer

Curious - maybe you mentioned it and I missed it. What are you using to test your parameters?

Extech PH and Redox meters, clean and calibrated probes. I use seatest when the numbers are high to get an idea and LaMotte PO4 and Nitrate when the numbers get low and I want to be accurate.

[Swim]

Day 14 report, Redox 320, PH 8.1, PO4 1.0, Nitrate undetectable. Corals starting to come out and the tank looks generally like it's getting back to normal. Water is clear. Glass is just starting to fog again so I will wipe it off. It's 6 days since I last wiped it.

[Swim]

Day 15 report has the Redox at 320, PH 8.2, PO4 1.0, Nitrate undetectable.

[Swim]

Day 19 report has the Redox at 320, PH 8.2, PO4 0.8, Nitrate undetectable. NPXBioplastics are nicely tumbling away in the MTC reactor but with the exception of a slight change in PO4 the chemistry seems to be resting at the same place the past few days. Corals also are pretty much unchanged and I suspect the low Redox may have something to do with that. Hopefully week 3 will bring better results.

[Swim]

Day 25 report, Redox 320, PH 8.2, PO4 over 1.0, Nitrate 4.0, and the bioplastics are tumbling nicely in the MTC reactor. The corals are still not out like they were before I started this process, the tank shows no visible sign of cleaning up, the fish couldn't care less so long as they get nori and dried krill and I still have to clean the viewing panes once a week.

What good is this stuff? It doesn't seem to be controlling PO4 and Nitrate and the Redox refuses to go above 320. I still have a week 4 to stick out with this experiment and then I'm probably gonna throw the bioplastics in the garbage and put GFO back in the reactor.

[Swim]

Okay, pulled the plug on the NPXBioplastics today. The reason for doing so is that after 34 days the redox has dropped to



and the corals are not out and I don't want to stress them further. I have replaced the NPXBioplastics in the reactor with 2 pounds of GFO so I can start getting the PO4 which is off the scale back down to undetectable.

Not ready to say exactly what has gone wrong with this experiment but I've noticed a couple of things. First, the volume of NPXBioplastics over the period has reduced by about one third. The Bioplastics have been tumbling in the MTC reactor the whole time. One difference is that when I tore down the reactor there was no sign of any bacterial plating or mats. As you can see in the photos there was also no bacteria milk water.




Not sure what changed, other than removing the sponges in the reactor, over the period so I'll just let the tank recover for now and digest my notes for a while. I'm wondering if maybe the problem is as simple as not having enough MPXBioplastics in the reactor for the amount of PO4 and Nitrate my system was holding. Time will tell.

The numbers at shut down were, Redox 280, PH 8.3, PO4 off the scale, Nitrate over 40 ppm.