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Unread 08/01/2014, 10:16 AM   #300
rocknut
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Gilbert, Arizona
Posts: 822
Any opinions on how biopellets react with dinoflagellates? I have been dealing with dinos since April of this year, and am trying to formulate a plan going forward, but can't seem to find much info on the use of biopellets.

The dinos that I have had have had a minimal amount of the typical "snot" like build up on the rocks and sand, but have stayed mostly bubbles attached to the ends of the long hair like structures. About six weeks ago now, I removed my biopellet reactor that had been running for the previous 10 months just to see if it would help with the dinos, treated with Chemiclean, and did a lights out for 3 days. Once I brought the lights back on I was basically dino free, so I started the biopellets up again. Everything was looking good until last weekend when I decided to increase the flow thru my pellet reactor as I wasn't seeing much of a nutrient reduction yet, and the increase in flow caused a layer of biofilm to be released (noticed on the surface of the water in my sump). By the next day I could see the dinos popping back up...

So, wondering if anyone else has found that the dinos can feed on the bacteria being released from the biopellets? I do have the effluent from my pellets feeding directly into the skimmer, but the presence of the biofilm in the sump must mean that the skimmer wasn't processing all of the bacteria, and at least some of it was making its way to the water column. Now I'm not sure if I should leave the pellets going as they are now doing a good job of reducing nutrients, but are possibly feeding the dinos at the same time?


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Current Tank Info: Envision 150 gallon, ATI 8x54w, 30" Venturi skimmer, Neptune Apex flow and dosing
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