Biopellets not rolling

[MBVette]

For some reason recently my biopellets in a avast mr10 reactor are not rolling anymore. They used to roll pretty good 2/ the ball valve closed about half way; now there is little movement. Any ideas why this would be and what I should do to fix it?

 

I just opened up the reactor, cleaned it and put the same pellets back in. Should I take some of the pellets out and use fewer?

[AlanM]

I remember reading that they get a film on them and then start getting a little sticky against each other.

 

Wonder if there's some relation happening here between your new biopellets that aren't rolling anymore, the mass dieoff that happened a month or so back, the skimmer that was making a lot of dark brown skimmate even though the tank was basically empty, the cloudiness that was in your tank for a while which was then followed by a forest of hair algae. Seems like something biological is swinging around.

 

Maybe someone who knows about reef tank biology could connect the dots between the various symptoms that have come up on your tank build thread over the past few months and come up with a diagnosis.

[MBVette]

after fighting with it for the last 3 hours I got it rolling a little bit, but not much. Maybe there isnt enough pressure coming off my manifold?

[OldReefer]

I got much better flow with he Avast bio pellet nozzle. You still have to give everything a good acid soak every month or two. My bio pellet reactors tend to clog up with tube worms. They love the stuff that comes off the pellets.

[MBVette]

I have the nozzle on there, and you would think with me filling and emptying the canister that they would have gotten rinsed, Im still just barely getting a roll. Can you take a pic of how yours is setup. Do the pellets sit on the bottom of the reactor or are they a couple inches off the bottom?

[Jon Lazar]

Is there an outlet screen at the top of the reactor? If there is, they can become clogged and reduce the flow through the reactor.

 

Less flow causes less tumbling.

[MBVette]

Completely clean screen on top. Nothing else

[ctenophore]

Scott, try taking off the hose at the input union and verify that you're getting good pressure from the manifold. If that's not it, check the nozzle itself and make sure it's not clogged. Mine took about 6 months to clog with tubeworms so I don't think this will be your problem but it could be something else made it past the pump and is covering some of the holes in the screen. Lastly, if all is good on both of the above, try giving the entire reactor a big shake/spin if possible. I found one day that my big reactor (6x36, has about 8L of pellets) just didn't want to fluidize like normal. The pellets just sort of clumped up after I took out & washed the top screen. Once I got them loose and moving, they remained in suspension again with good movement.

[astroboy]

If your pellets aren't tumbling, it might not be a trivial problem.

 

I used BRS bio-pellets for a while. They seemed to work OK, but I'm not sure they were any improvement over an occasional vodka dosing (which can be dangerous, of course).

 

For a reason I don't recall I turned off the pump to the reactor and forgot about it for three days, at which time I turned it on again. Within a few minutes all the fish in my tank were on the bottom, gasping. All the corals were closed up. Fortunately, I had enough water on hand for a 90% water change, and I was on had to see the problems as soon they happened. Everything but a couple of the fish pulled through.

 

What had happened was that the reactor had basically fermented for those three days, and what went into the tank contained hydrogen sulfide (to judge from the smell) or some other toxin.

 

If you do a search, you'll see I'm not the only WAMAS member who's had this happen.

 

 

If the flow in your reactor is so low, or so impeded that the pellets aren't tumbling, my guess is that you're on the edge of a situation where the flow could easily stop. If it starts again, you could be looking at the bullet I dodged.

 

My advice, frankly, is to get rid of the biopellets. The good they do doesn't outweigh the possible harm.

Edited December 16, 2012 by astroboy

[ctenophore]

If your pellets aren't tumbling, it might not be a trivial problem.

 

I used BRS bio-pellets for a while. They seemed to work OK, but I'm not sure they were any improvement over an occasional vodka dosing (which can be dangerous, of course).

 

For a reason I don't recall I turned off the pump to the reactor and forgot about it for three days, at which time I turned it on again. Within a few minutes all the fish in my tank were on the bottom, gasping. All the corals were closed up. Fortunately, I had enough water on hand for a 90% water change, and I was on had to see the problems as soon they happened. Everything but a couple of the fish pulled through.

 

What had happened was that the reactor had basically fermented for those three days, and what went into the tank contained hydrogen sulfide (to judge from the smell) or some other toxin.

 

If you do a search, you'll see I'm not the only WAMAS member who's had this happen.

 

 

If the flow in your reactor is so low, or so impeded that the pellets aren't tumbling, my guess is that you're on the edge of a situation where the flow could easily stop. If it starts again, you could be looking at the bullet I dodged.

 

My advice, frankly, is to get rid of the biopellets. The good they do doesn't outweigh the possible harm.

The same thing would happen with carbon or GFO. Any aerobic chamber that is allowed to turn anoxic and then flushed into the tank is going to cause problems. This is easily solved by proper setup and maintenance. Biopellets are probably the lowest maintenance media available.

[Origami]

The same thing would happen with carbon or GFO. Any aerobic chamber that is allowed to turn anoxic and then flushed into the tank is going to cause problems. This is easily solved by proper setup and maintenance. Biopellets are probably the lowest maintenance media available.

True. You don't even need media. If you just let tank water sit in a pipe for a bit, it will get loaded with hydrogen sulfide. Ask me how I know. Releasing it into the tank not only stresses inhabitants, it stinks. It's one reason that you want to, for example, keep tank water flowing through a calcium reactor even if you take it "off line" for a while. Biopellets weren't the problem. It was the stagnant water. The same situation would have arisen in almost any other reactor that was taken off line.

[MBVette]

Water is definitely moving through the reactor since it is feeding into the skimmer and the skimmer is producing good skimmate. Now I'm thinking maybe its just not enough flow since I have a waterblaster 10k feeding the tank, and 2 mr5's, but I don't know how much flow is actually moving through the reactors.

 

Is there a way to test to see if there is actually enough flow?

 

 

[Der ABT]

My pellets will bind up every so often, i usually just open the top and take a piece of hard tubing or a chopstick or something and stir them up really good, it usually happens when i get some particulates in there and it slows the flow down too much....

easiest way to check to flow would be to unconnect the output to the skimmer and see how much water is coming out.

 

also need to make sure the mesh is clean, i take mine out every so often and scrub it....

 

hope this helps

[MBVette]

I just took the whole thing apart multiple times and cleaned it, dumping the ballets into a clean container to scrub the reactor and still nothing. So I have to imagine that I'm not getting enough flow.

[ctenophore]

Put a 1 gallon milk jug on the output of the reactor and time it.

[MBVette]

Ok so I think we have the culprit. The output of the reactor took 1:15 to fill a 1 gallon jug. So I need to find a pump for the reactor and skimmer, what would you recommend?

[Der ABT]

im using a MJ1200 on a mr5-18 and it is just enough, so definately would go higher than that (i dont know maybe a mag 3 or something. Justin will know best

 

Can you adjust the pressure with the manifold/

[MBVette]

Im using the short MR10, so I would guess the mj1200 would not work then. Unfortunate since thats what I was thinking since it was cheap, and doesnt cause much heat.

 

That is with the manifold fully open. So I dont think I can do much there to create more pressure in the manifold. The only thing that is odd is that there are 3 connections on my manifold. The pellets, carbon that seems to roll just fine, and then a third one that has a line that runs to a sink for water changes and that seems to put out a lot more pressure. I think I might take the barb off that spot on the manifold to see if there is anything in there blocking it.

[MBVette]

ok so I just took apart the manifold and everything was fine there and was putting a ton of pressure out. So then I took apart the reactor again and the biopellet nozzle was blocked causing no pressure to come out. So I cleaned that up and tested again and I filled the gallon jug in about 17 seconds so about 300gph? The pellets were rolling great, then I connected it back to the skimmer and pellets are still rolling, but slower now. Why would they slow down when I hook it up to the skimmer.

[Der ABT]

just a little more back pressure im sure, most likely the intake for the skimmer is on the bottom so it has to push up all the water in the skimmer,

try closing off one of the earlier T's/barbs like the carbon feed or the return line and that should increase the pressure in you manifold (problem is it will effect all of the t's off the manifold if you adjust one unless you have a pressure regulator which i doubt)

 

if you have a ball valve after the manifod that controls the rate returning to the tank and you can close this off a little it will also increase the pressure.

 

hope this helps

[MBVette]

Your right, it does drop to the bottom of the skimmer and then have to move back up. So you are probably right on the back pressure. I will try and play with the manifold a bit when I get a chance, but at least the pellets are rolling some again.