GFO/Charcoal and Bio Pellets..When to start

[Terry123]

I have a new 180 gallon that has cycled. Now has a small CUC in it along with a lot of pods. Have a couple clowns and a mystery wrasse in QT.

I have a BRS dual GFO/Charcoal reactor and a bio pellet reactor. Should these already be running on the system? They are all plumbed in but no media in any of them yet.

Thanks for all the help up to this point!!

Terry

[yort265]

as far as I can tell by doing lots of reading across many many forums & websites, carbon and BP are ok to start now. it'll take a while (mayb a month?) for the BP to seed and become useful anyway. GFO can be used to lower PO4 whenever it's needed, but with a good feeding schedule and BP, it may not be needed all of the time.

soak the BP for a couple of days in tankl water before trying to get them to tumble. helps with the floaters.

HTH

[worm5406]

Before anything... test.

After testing then set them up...

Give it a day or two, and test again.

Both of these items will help. They will deplete slightly quicker than a established tank only because of lots of extra items making 'a mess' as to say.

[milonedp]

One of the reasons they recommend starting bio pellets at a quarter the amount is to slowly bring your nitrate and phosphate down, with a new tank they are already low so you can go full dose right from the get go. That said when i just started my new tank I started with less because the bioload is tiny for the size tank i have and i didn't want the pellets stripping the water. I'm going very slow adding things to a large tank. I'd say start the pellets early but play with how much you start with depending on what you are trying to accomplish, low nutients or a true ultra low nutients system.

As for carbon that is personal preference some run it some don't but if you are going to then why not start from the beginning if you have something in the water that it will remove it will take it out if not no harm till those thing start to build up and they'll be taken out immediately.

GFO why are you planning to run both GFO and bio pellets? I'd wait to see how the pellets do then use GFO only once you know you need to otherwise if you start using it you'll never know if it's the GFO or the pellets then you could be wasting money. Unless you expect high silicates or phosphate from your rock or substrate I'd wait on the GFO.

[Terry123]

Only reason biopellets and GFO is I was given both the BRS dual reactor as well as a bio pellet reactor. I am so new to this that I am still trying to figure out what is right. The more I read the more confused I get because of all th econflicting information. That is why I am turning to RC for info!

[yort265]

when run properly, BPs will consume nitrate and phosphate. (a lot more nitrates tho) the general consensus from what research I've done is that the bacteria that uses biopellets as a food source will consume carbon (biopellets) : nitrate : phosphate at a ratio of 160:16:1 respectively. due to this rate if consumption, most of the time this will lead to you being nitrate limited. meaning your nitrates will be gone, but your phosphates won't be quite at zero... hence, the need for GFO if PO4 isn't low enough for your system.

[keithhays]

I would start both. I have noticed that in most cases the amount of GFO required is roughly half what is in the calculator on the BRS site, but that is likely that I just don't generate a lot of phosphates. I would get the Hanna Phosphate checker for it though because there is no meaningful set time period to change GFO; even within the same tank it can vary. About 1.5 cups will generally run for about 3 months before any noticeable change in my 300 gallon system. Rox I change every 30 days. Stay away from lignite carbon as it is heavily linked to HLLE.

[Guygettnby]

I have always started running carbon right off the get go. Gfo I usually waited until the tank was cycled. Been doing it for years with no issues. I think it is all personal preference to be honest.

[nynick]

Originally Posted by yort265

when run properly, BPs will consume nitrate and phosphate. (a lot more nitrates tho) the general consensus from what research I've done is that the bacteria that uses biopellets as a food source will consume carbon (biopellets) : nitrate : phosphate at a ratio of 160:16:1 respectively. due to this rate if consumption, most of the time this will lead to you being nitrate limited. meaning your nitrates will be gone, but your phosphates won't be quite at zero... hence, the need for GFO if PO4 isn't low enough for your system.

The 160/16/1 was just explained to me the other day. It is not a measurement for how organisms in your tank consume waste but rather a measurement for how plankton in the ocean do (or what they contain rather)...thousands and thousands of different types combined. Your milage in a tank might vary drastically from this ratio depending on what grows in and what nutrients are avaliable.