[sirreal63]

I am still using NP's and no longer run them in a reactor. I noticed that with the reactor they degraded quickly, I think this is from the friction of them grinding against each other. I just add some into my canister filter at the bottom, no tumbling, no grinding, my nitrates and phosphates are still under control and they seem to be lasting longer. I don't believe the reactors are needed, they came about after people were making their own, no real science is behind the use of a reactor, but marketing is. In the early days of this product, people had just as positive results from hanging them in a bag and periodically stirring them up. If friction is grinding up the pellets and those small quantities are free floating in the tank, it could be a plausible reason why people have the issues with them that seem to pop up daily. I have had no cyano but did use too many and managed to strip my water to the point where even chaeto died and my glass never had any algae on it. I only use about half a cup of them now and have no issues at all. YMMV