Need advice on nitrate control, biopellet reactor and cyano

[clownfish_forever]

Hi brothers,

Need some expert advice here. Any view will be good

A little background. My aquarium nitrate level has always been high > 50ppm. I purchased a biopellet reactor and turned it on for 3 weeks but I do not see dropping the nitrate level although I witnessed bacteria bloom due to the cloudy water. Subsequently I had advice that it may be due to my skimmer. Was using Weipro which I know is a not a good brand.

Hence I decided to turn off the reactor for the time being while I sourced for a new skimmer and got my Tunze 9006 and had break-in since installation last friday. I am getting dark skimmate although not a lot.

Now my questions are:

1. Should I turn on my biopellet reactor now? Since skimmer seem to be running? Or should I wait for a few days or weeks before running the reactor again?

2. Since I off the reactor my aquarium has an algae bloom. Mostly diatom and hair algae and some cyano observed. Was it because i didn't have a good skimmer? That time Tunze 9006 haven't come in yet.

3. Also I read that biopellet can create cyano problem. That is puzzling because I thought biopellet is supposed to reduce nitrate? Unless cyano don't use nitrate?

Thanks.

[John Deroe Kenedy]

Cyano needs Nitrate n Po4 to grow.. Since ur cyano is already present, most probably u wont be able to detect Po4 as Cyano is consuming it.. They best way that i know which i am using right now, is to run Po4 Media In a reactor..

And sorry to announce this but ur Skimmer is under rated. Its a good skimmer but its for nano tank up to 200L and ure tank is about 800+ litres.

Regard Bio Pellet i dont know much as I'm not using 1...

Ure first mission is to get a Bigger Capacity Skimmer rated for you tank.. Do researh before buying it.. Know the product first.

[clownfish_forever]

Thanks. My aquarium is 300++ litres and read that Tunze 9006 is recommended for up to 600 liters.

[John Deroe Kenedy]

ouh.. sorry i thought i saw 9002.. haha..

and calculated wrongly...

ok like i said, for bio reactor i dunno much about nitrate reducing... I just use Prodibio Digest to reduce my Nitrate level which is really usefull..

For Po4, Run Rowaphos in a FR... I did mine that way and my cyano was gone less than a week.

[clownfish_forever]

Thanks.

I saw Fauna Marin - Ultra AlgeaX which is available in Madpetz. Not sure if anyone has used it...

[ryanlio]

since you had switch off the biopellet reactor for awhile, you will need to check if the media has clumped together. bacteria could have died off when you stopped momentarily. switching on in this case might introduce unwanted chemical into your system. This was one of my consideration previously when i wanted to switch over a new skimmer. in the end, i just discard the pellets, then add new ones after i gotten my new skimmer.

Hope this helps.

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[sherman]

If you start using the reactor after your algae growth. Its good you manually clean off the algae and do water change for a few round.

Otherwise it is going to take a long time to clear all the growth algae

[DOH]

how long for bio pellet to show results?

[inwear]

Usually 1 month or more, than again depending on your setup and curent water parameter