Bioplastics Reactor Media

got some of this nifty new reactor media to try out.i am going to put it to work on on of my larger bio loaded systems in hopes to see its claimed nitrate and phosphate drop.i am a big fan of biological filteration and this should be the goods in that department.it must be in conjunction with a good protien skimmer so i put mine on 24/7 to deal with whatever sloughs off.
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let me know how it works. I am very interested.

so basicaly after about three weeks i am seeing results.it takes about two weeks to get the bacterial colony going i guess so things were slowly going south.i didnt even think about it but this may have something to do with my brown slime on my euphylia as until now things were slowly getting worse due to my not changing water.i forgot to mention i am a weeklly to biweekly water changer so things usualy look really good in the fisrt place but i had to not do changes to see if this media really works.

after having the pellets on for some time as in after a month i saw a slow drop in nitrates and phosphates..after about 5 weeks i had no nitrates and no phosphates wich was great but i did notice my PH was lower than usual.i let it run for another week and then another.each time my PH was droping about .1 until it got too about 7.9 i had to intevine.my presumtion is that the constant bacteria working then sloughing of for the skimmer to remove was causing a lower in PH through accumulated cabonic acids.not to mention the water was getting depleted of its buffers through my corals growth.this is a tank that was used to getting regular weekly to biweekly water changes....ahh the experiments.

so a buffer is what i went to add.i have kalkwasser on hand and decided to start with the dosing of that.i also have the seachems marine buffer but i want to try alternate options first.

i usually just do weekly water changes...

i know that is the best method of clean water but its also one of the spendier ones.salt goes up never down in price, at least for me.so minimizing those changes is of interest as is a nitrate free enviroment.unfortunatly there are some side effects whenever you are to change a system and this is what i am aiming to find out.

oh i understand about the salt prices and all (one reason my tanks stay at 30gallons), but yeah i see what you're saying...

a friend of mine pointed out these nice little tid bits to give the basics behind the reactor and the pellets.the closed loop design makes it all a bit more feasable as to not over strip your tank of nutrients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLhmI8vtnfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMx4HOsG3Rc

i really like that guys format, it felt natural and like someone i was talking to. also the shop advertised in the first one looked epic...

I am already scheming on moding or making a reactor that incorporates a closed loop pump.

The aquarium guys have several series of videos on the web and most of them are pretty informative and/or entertaining.I bet you already looked at the series on skimmers? A little drawn out but pretty much leaves no questions asked.

yeah like 8 parts or something like that...but your right it is a good watch even if you know your skimmers, its a nice review.It certainly makes me want a flow gauge so I can measure the intake of the venturi,now thats a simple yet great idea.

So I have setup the reactor again but this time with the intentions of moving the reactor between tanks as to keep the bacteria in constant supply of food without completly stripping the tank of available nitrates and phosphates.

this time I also went with a hang on method as to observe the reactor more closely.I started with ABOUT 20 PPM nitrates and in just 2 weeks I am down to about 5.I also jump started this batch of beads with some already started media to speed things along.

Looks like my thermometer is on the fritz again L is not quite the temperature I am wanting.

WOW once this thing is chugging along it really starts to eat the nitrate.I am almost unregistered on the chart.almost time to move the reactor to another tank to strip its nutrients.

The pellets are also getting noticably smaller,almost too small.I dont want them floating away through the return line.I am also getting a tiny amount of pellets that have decided to stay at the bottom.I suppose I am going tohave to add more pellets soon so I will see about the non fluidized pellets then.

Servicing the reactor is not as pleasant as I would like it to be but like changing filters, a necessity.
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It only takes about 5 minutes or so to do the rinse of the sponges and throw in more bio plastics but it can be a little messy some times so I recommend doing it over a bucket or if you want to make your significant other annoyed you can do it in the sink.You are bound to lose some of the tiny tiny beads.
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As I mentioned earlier you can clearly see the size of the ones on the right being new and the smaller pellets to the left that are partially depleted.