Bio Pellet-No change

[BuckeyeTodd]

Looking for some advice. I am not getting the n/p reduction I was looking for. I'm using BRS pellets, up to full quantity recommended, in a Octopus 110 reactor. I have perfect slow tumble. I have an ATB elegance skimmer, with the reactor flowing directly into skimmer. I'm still running gfo and carbon as I am concerned about n/p levels rising without.

I have been running these for three months, and I'm still reading somewere between 25-50 on Salifert nitrate(which is where I started). Po4 has been .06 with gfo(which is where I started). I'm currently feeding on one day pellets twice and the next day pellets and frozen, so I don't think my feeding is excessive. I recently used a bottle of mb7 to try and kick start these pellets, and am still not getting any noticeable skimmer increase.

What is going on, why am I not getting any results? Should I add more pellets?

[jimmy frag]

i use the pellets on a few set ups and found if your nitrates are 50 and over it does take quite some time before you see a change. hang in there

[BuckeyeTodd]

I'd be OK if I saw increased skimmer production, but at least to my eye I'm not seeing much. Did you see increased skimate? On a side note, I HATE nitrate tests with their color chart. I can't wait for the Hanna No3 checker to come out.

[javajaws]

Do you have the output of your reactor dumping into your sump where your skimmer can pick most of it up?

[Plato]

Do you have the output of your reactor dumping into your sump where your skimmer can pick most of it up?

Hit the nail on the head. Make the effluent from the reactor go to the feed/supply pump to the skimmer. Are you also doing routine water changes to aid. The pellets help keep low but to pull a tank down from 50 will take some time. My 275 had 25-30ppm and with 2L of pellets I did 100 gallon water changes every other week until I got them to 10ppm. No for the past month just 10% weekly changes and the pellets have brought the NO3 to 5-10ppm and for now falling.

[javajaws]

I'd also recommend to stop the GFO. If you strip the water column of phosphate you aren't leaving any for the bacteria which require both phosphate and nitrate to grow.

[BuckeyeTodd]

I'd also recommend to stop the GFO. If you strip the water column of phosphate you aren't leaving any for the bacteria which require both phosphate and nitrate to grow.

this is what I was thinking, but with an acro heavy tank I've been concerned about po4...maybe take gfo offline, and go to weekly waterchanges instead of bi-weekly.

I've got the reactor directly feeding the skimmer. I am considering adding another cup of pellets, as I am not concerned with them stripping the water too fast since I've gotten no change so far.