Warner Marine Now Has A Pellet Product

[BeanMachine]

I finally put the ecobak in a reactor two days ago, but now my tank and sump is really cloudy. The first 24 hours nice and clear, but day two and now three and it looks like I just added Marine Snow. I did not rinse the media before adding. A local guy told me the extra cloudiness is from the high nitrates, which I do have.

My skimmer is going a bit nuts. Lots of stringy white stuff collecting at the bottom of the reactor. One thing I will change after reading the thread is I will point the output towards the skimmer intake.

I am getting tumbling on the left side of my reactor chamber, but not on the right side. What can I do do get everything to tumble?

I don't have another reactor to run carbon, but would passively adding a bag of carbon to the sump help with the cloudiness?

[Rizup]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom to me. Have you been adding any MB7 or other bacterial additives to the tank? When this happens it seems to either be a problem with too high of a flow rate or because of additional bacteria dosing.

Also, how big is your system and how much EcoBak are you using?

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by Rizup

Sounds like a bacterial bloom to me. Have you been adding any MB7 or other bacterial additives to the tank? When this happens it seems to either be a problem with too high of a flow rate or because of additional bacteria dosing.

Also, how big is your system and how much EcoBak are you using?

Well, the media is tumbling on the right side of the reactor, but the right side isn't really tumbling at all. When you say too much flow do you mean through the reactor? Should I restrict the flow a bit more?

The system is 17.5 gallons and I used approx. 20 g (about 10% of the 200g white jug I purchased. So maybe 4 to 5 inches of media dead center in the reactor.

I haven't added MB7 or carbon to the system. I did periodically use Marine Snow (which is why I compared the look of the tank to it) and I think I used it 2 or 3 days prior to setting up the ecobak.

*I guess I should add that the display is approx. 11 gallons and the sump is about 6.5. I have the Bubble Magus NAC3 rated from 25 to 80 gallons. The skimmate has definitely increased since I added the ecobak.

Thanks for the help.

[DJREEF]

"the media is tumbling on the right side of the reactor, but the right side isn't really tumbling at all."


HUH?

DJ

[reef_doug]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

I finally put the ecobak in a reactor two days ago, but now my tank and sump is really cloudy. The first 24 hours nice and clear, but day two and now three and it looks like I just added Marine Snow. I did not rinse the media before adding. A local guy told me the extra cloudiness is from the high nitrates, which I do have.

My skimmer is going a bit nuts. Lots of stringy white stuff collecting at the bottom of the reactor. One thing I will change after reading the thread is I will point the output towards the skimmer intake.

I am getting tumbling on the left side of my reactor chamber, but not on the right side. What can I do do get everything to tumble?

I don't have another reactor to run carbon, but would passively adding a bag of carbon to the sump help with the cloudiness?

Many people experience the bacteria bloom, I did. It will clear up on it's own in a few days. Keep the skimmer going and add an airstone to the display if you have one. Good to use carbon, passively is better than none. I would change it in a week or two. Carbon won't really help with cloudiness that you're experiencing, this is from the bacteria and not yellowing compounds (gelbstoff).

For tumbling you may have too much flow or the reactor may not be perpendicular.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by DJREEF

"the media is tumbling on the right side of the reactor, but the right side isn't really tumbling at all."


HUH?

DJ

Sorry now I see how that is confusing. I meant the left side is tumbling and the right side is not.

I put one of those plastic sewing wheels on top of the black plate the reactor comes with... thought I saw that done on a thread. Maybe I should remove the sewing wheel and just stick with the stock plates and no sponge?

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by reef_doug

Many people experience the bacteria bloom, I did. It will clear up on it's own in a few days. Keep the skimmer going and add an airstone to the display if you have one. Good to use carbon, passively is better than none. I would change it in a week or two. Carbon won't really help with cloudiness that you're experiencing, this is from the bacteria and not yellowing compounds (gelbstoff).

For tumbling you may have too much flow or the reactor may not be perpendicular.

Thanks Doug. The plan is to make the suggested adjustments this evening when I get home from work.

[reef_doug]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Sorry now I see how that is confusing. I meant the left side is tumbling and the right side is not.

I put one of those plastic sewing wheels on top of the black plate the reactor comes with... thought I saw that done on a thread. Maybe I should remove the sewing wheel and just stick with the stock plates and no sponge?

Did you zip tie the sewing wheel to the stock plates?

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by reef_doug

Did you zip tie the sewing wheel to the stock plates?

Nope, and I did notice that the sewing wheel isn't 100% flush with the stock plate... Maybe that is my problem. I'll use zip ties. Thanks!

[Rizup]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Well, the media is tumbling on the right side of the reactor, but the right side isn't really tumbling at all. When you say too much flow do you mean through the reactor? Should I restrict the flow a bit more?

The system is 17.5 gallons and I used approx. 20 g (about 10% of the 200g white jug I purchased. So maybe 4 to 5 inches of media dead center in the reactor.

I haven't added MB7 or carbon to the system. I did periodically use Marine Snow (which is why I compared the look of the tank to it) and I think I used it 2 or 3 days prior to setting up the ecobak.

*I guess I should add that the display is approx. 11 gallons and the sump is about 6.5. I have the Bubble Magus NAC3 rated from 25 to 80 gallons. The skimmate has definitely increased since I added the ecobak.

Thanks for the help.

I am not familiar with the white jug or the media being sold by the gram. I purchased 1 liter and it came in a ziplock baggie. 500ml is rated for 100g, so I was thinking that with your volume it could have been too much for your system depending on how much you used. I would think it is possible to overdose on the pellets if you have way too much for your system. Just a thought.

As far as the flow - the EcoBak pellets don't need nearly the amount of flow that some of the other brands do. I found that I had a lot of pellets floating and I think that is because I had to much flow going through them. Right now I have them tumbling well and none floating, so we'll see how it goes. They have been running for two weeks today. So far it seems as though I have much less algae build-up on the glass and the water has seemed clearer for the past week or so. I'll test my nitrates again tonight, but so far I haven't seen them decrease at all. I did get my Hanna checker last Friday and I tested at .01 and .03. I never had detectable phosphates with my API kit, but the range is pretty bad on those kits so if it was detectable on the kit I would most likely already have a problem with algae.

[Stuart60611]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

I finally put the ecobak in a reactor two days ago, but now my tank and sump is really cloudy. The first 24 hours nice and clear, but day two and now three and it looks like I just added Marine Snow. I did not rinse the media before adding. A local guy told me the extra cloudiness is from the high nitrates, which I do have.

My skimmer is going a bit nuts. Lots of stringy white stuff collecting at the bottom of the reactor. One thing I will change after reading the thread is I will point the output towards the skimmer intake.

I am getting tumbling on the left side of my reactor chamber, but not on the right side. What can I do do get everything to tumble?

I don't have another reactor to run carbon, but would passively adding a bag of carbon to the sump help with the cloudiness?

I am having the same problem with uneven flow in my Geo 420 reactor. The person who zip tied the screen down to the plastic plate was on the vertex thread. However, he did not merely zip tie the mesh down to the circular plastic plate in the reactor, but added an additional circular plastic plate from another reactor that had wholes punched through it. He opined that the reason his flow evened out was not the zip tying of the screen to the plate, but the use of a different plate with wholes in it to allow the flow to pass through the plate evenly. I hope someone can come up with a solution on how to even the flow which appears to be a problem many are having.

[BeanMachine]

Sorry, trying to work and talk aquarium. I bought enough for 200 gallons, so 1 liter is what I have. I used about 10% of that. Sorry... Americans and their measurements you know?? haha

Originally Posted by Rizup

I am not familiar with the white jug or the media being sold by the gram. I purchased 1 liter and it came in a ziplock baggie. 500ml is rated for 100g, so I was thinking that with your volume it could have been too much for your system depending on how much you used. I would think it is possible to overdose on the pellets if you have way too much for your system. Just a thought.

As far as the flow - the EcoBak pellets don't need nearly the amount of flow that some of the other brands do. I found that I had a lot of pellets floating and I think that is because I had to much flow going through them. Right now I have them tumbling well and none floating, so we'll see how it goes. They have been running for two weeks today. So far it seems as though I have much less algae build-up on the glass and the water has seemed clearer for the past week or so. I'll test my nitrates again tonight, but so far I haven't seen them decrease at all. I did get my Hanna checker last Friday and I tested at .01 and .03. I never had detectable phosphates with my API kit, but the range is pretty bad on those kits so if it was detectable on the kit I would most likely already have a problem with algae.

[Rizup]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Sorry, trying to work and talk aquarium. I bought enough for 200 gallons, so 1 liter is what I have. I used about 10% of that. Sorry... Americans and their measurements you know?? haha

Got ya. That sounds good and shouldn't be a problem then.

[BeanMachine]

Day 4 and I've got a nice clear tank again! I had .28 phosphates (omg right?) last I had it checked at our club meeting so I'm hoping this stuff does the trick. Thanks for the help everyone.

[falconut]

About 3-1/2 weeks after replacing my GFO with 500 ml of the WM pellets in a TLR Reactor my algae just seams to have gotten too much out of hand. I did put a small amount of GFO in a filter bag between the sump baffles, but it doesn't seam to have done anything. You can see how the algae looks on page 13, post #309 at the two week mark. It hasn't gotten any better in the 1-1/2 weeks since them. I figure I should be getting near the period where this stuff starts to work.

Do the pellets change color as they become seeded with the bateria? Or do they just remain the same coloration, just slowly reducing in size as the bateria cumsumes them? Mine still look as clean as they did day one.

[jmoney]

may not be using enough pellets, you cannot overdoes these so for example in my 75 gallon tank i will be using 1l when i start the reactor back up again with a mag 3 powering the unit

[poolkeeper1]

Originally Posted by falconut

About 3-1/2 weeks after replacing my GFO with 500 ml of the WM pellets in a TLR Reactor my algae just seams to have gotten too much out of hand. I did put a small amount of GFO in a filter bag between the sump baffles, but it doesn't seam to have done anything. You can see how the algae looks on page 13, post #309 at the two week mark. It hasn't gotten any better in the 1-1/2 weeks since them. I figure I should be getting near the period where this stuff starts to work.

Do the pellets change color as they become seeded with the bateria? Or do they just remain the same coloration, just slowly reducing in size as the bateria cumsumes them? Mine still look as clean as they did day one.

The pellets have pretty much remained the same color in my experience. Have you done anything to attack your Algae problem or are you relying on the Eco-Bak to take care of this totally?
it seems that you need to attack your algae from all fronts to get it under control then maybe the EB will keep it that way!
I think you are expecting too much from a product that's designed to function in another manner. Introducing a carbon source is not a miracle product that will rid a tank of badly overgrown hair Algae IMO anyway. You may have other Issues in your rock being loaded with Po4 that EB may not solve. If given enough time it may lower your levels enough to slowly rid your tank of this problem, But i do not think it will happen overnight. This is just my opinion and I'm sure others will not agree but i would do everything i can to rid the tank from the algae then see how the EB maintains it.
Bill

[Hdhuntr01]

I am running these pellets using an old Reef Octopus Calcium Reactor which I modified. I have a 150 gallon display tank and about 50 gallons of sump. I started with 250mL of pellets and a week later added another 250mL so now I am running 500mL. My nitrates went to zero within two weeks. They were at around 10. I am probably running about 250GPH flow through the reactor and the pellets are lightly boiling. I have not had any kind of algae bloom or bacteria bloom. Everything seems to be working just like it is supposed to.



I removed the flow meter because it is cheap and didn't work well. Also my output hose is going to the screen of my skimmer input pump.

[saf]

I have been using these bio pellets in a large via aqua poly reactor with a mj 1200 pump. How important is it to keep them tumbling? They have seemed to clump up.

[falconut]

I was kind of hoping that the pellets would remove the NO3 & PO4 and starve the algae. Maybe over a long time that will work, but hasn't yet. That is why I put the GFO back online. I periodically try to manually remove the algae, but it doesn't always pull off easily. Hopefully, the GFO will start to out compete the algae and it will die off.

So, this product is for keeping algae from starting more than stopping it after it starts, I guess.

Originally Posted by poolkeeper1

The pellets have pretty much remained the same color in my experience. Have you done anything to attack your Algae problem or are you relying on the Eco-Bak to take care of this totally?
it seems that you need to attack your algae from all fronts to get it under control then maybe the EB will keep it that way!
I think you are expecting too much from a product that's designed to function in another manner. Introducing a carbon source is not a miracle product that will rid a tank of badly overgrown hair Algae IMO anyway. You may have other Issues in your rock being loaded with Po4 that EB may not solve. If given enough time it may lower your levels enough to slowly rid your tank of this problem, But i do not think it will happen overnight. This is just my opinion and I'm sure others will not agree but i would do everything i can to rid the tank from the algae then see how the EB maintains it.
Bill

[Rizup]

Originally Posted by saf

I have been using these bio pellets in a large via aqua poly reactor with a mj 1200 pump. How important is it to keep them tumbling? They have seemed to clump up.

How long have you had them in the system? They may clump for a few days at the beginning, but after that I think the clumping should be minimal.

[saf]

Originally Posted by Rizup

How long have you had them in the system? They may clump for a few days at the beginning, but after that I think the clumping should be minimal.

Probably ~4 days.

[buy_baff]

At the 6 week mark and haven't seen anything remarkable happen. My no3 and po4 are zero on api kits but they were to begin with. My cheato is still growing at a fair pace and I still have to run GFO otherwise I get a diotom bloom on my crushed coral bed. My color is good but not as good as when I was doseing vite c. Groth has been about the same. I still have to clean the glass every other day so no great improvement there. I can't say for sure if i beleave these things take up po4 or not if they did then why is my cheato still growing and why do I still need to run GFO? My no3 has always been zero as well so i'm not convinced these do anything other than give me a diotom bloom I never had before useing them.

[dvanacker]

Im just going to throw this out there but maybe the bacteria is being N limited. Add some more food. I think you will still need to run GFO though.

[buy_baff]

I'm feeding pleanty. I am concidering takeing the fuge off line and see what happens.