Blog Comments

thats to funny

Hey Myhahockeykid, ya tank is looking nice! Whatever kind of Monti that first piece is I like it. ;-)

Wow thanks! That looks awesome, I think I'll go pick that up this weekend. I think that would make this even better. Thanks for the compliment, from the master of reef acrylics himself!

I appreciate the ID, I knew that it was GSP, I just got frag of it a few days ago from a friend and this weekend I think I'm going to put it onto my removable overflow grill and let it grow there for a while so I can get the nice movement and color (these are really really neon green) with the ability to control the growth and easily frag it when I think it needs trimming. Thanks for the ID and for looking at my pics

I'm not very good with id's, but I can say that the gsp on the top of your rockwork, I'd probably take that off and move it to a dedicated rock or something on the floor. I had some that spread like wildfire in less then 5 months! Went from like a 1/2" square frag to covering a 5" rock and trying to reach out and grow onto other rockwork

You might opt to use needlepoint plastic material instead as a protector. You can even buy them in circles at Walmart in the fabrics section. Picture a placemat or coaster with a ton of tiny holes in it. That's what I'm talking about. Then you can place filter pad or floss on top, and the loose carbon. http://www.enasco.com/product/7500165H

Thank you both for the complements!

Regarding your question Marc,

If you look very carefully you will see that the "filter pad" is actually the blue pad cut out of the tops of some prepackaged filter pads that I had laying around. They are pictured in the materials photo. Mine is made up of 3 separate strips of padding and I was concerned about the carbon falling through and into my skimmer possibly causing trouble. If my skimmer goes nuts I could easily tear or cut out the foam that is in there and redo it properly out of one big circle of foam, but for the time being I don't think I should have a problem.

Hope this helps clear that question up.

As a side note, I purchased all of the acrylic products from Avast Marine Works, the maker of the Skimmer Swabbie, and the owner Dan was incredibly helpful by working with me via email to get exactly the parts that I needed. A+ for their customer service, I highly recommend them to anyone who needs equipment or raw materials as they will make custom CNC acrylic parts at very very reasonable costs.

Most impressive.

That's pretty neat. Why did you feel the need to glue in the bottom pad? Don't you think from time to time you'll have to clean it? If the skimmer goes nuts, foam will get into the padding, for example.

Thanks for sharing your project with us!

The system will only use what it can use, If you have nitrates and phosphates then you will use the pellets and if you don't then they will just tumble.

sedor, why do you have to change out the media? I thought that the biopellets will dissolve by bacteria. you only have to add more into the reactor right? i have been using EcoBak for a month now too. good PE and growth with my sps. my LPS does not like it so much somehow.

I'm hoping to be in the 50% as well... going to use the remainder of my GFO and then put the EcoBak pellets online.

Pretty much. I hope I'm a 50% lover of them since that is my plan.

Ive also been using WM's Ecobak pellets simply because well they are the only ones I have tried. When I bought them I had the chance to speak with John Warner about them and I really liked what he had to say so I was sold. Honestly though i'm sure they are all just fine. I'm about 3 months or so into using mine and I have only good things to say about them. I used to dose 20ml of vodka into my tank daily and the pellets have taken that chore away from me. I no longer have to think about NO3 or PO4 issues except for having to change some media out of a reactor every 6 months to a year.

General consensus on the web is about 50/50. Some people love them, others hate em. But isn't that true of any product?

I dose fuel from aquavitro, for amino acids, and two part,also feed coral frenzy. I've seen the brightwell and they are totally different.

I do not dose anything but BRS two part. oh and mine is fed from my overpowered return pump. I chose ecobak because I had seen others' results in their tanks. I have not seen anyone who is using the NP Biopellots that the "smr1" was designed specifically for.

I was told that Brightwell Katalyst is the same as WM Ecobac (sp?) but can't confirm. I use mine in a Phosban 550 reactor fed by a MaxiJet 1200. I got them both off a local club group-buy. I am just a little over a month into it and while my nuisance algae problems have not magically gone away, the problem stopped getting worse and slowly got better. Still looking for more improvements.

thanks midnight and stangchris, it seems that the ecoBAK pellets are viewed as one of the best. Also, do either of you dose any biological supplement (MB7) or anything else?

im using warner marine eco bak, reason being better contact surface for bacteria growth, also they do not slime over, filler free. im running a nextreef mr1 with ubgrade kit from nextreef(bigger plumbing and a diff disc) with a sicce 1.5 pump. http://reefbuilders.com/2010/05/10/w...osing-pellets/

I am using 1 liter of seemed marine ecobak pellets. My system volume is roughly 170 gallons. In a month these have cleared up my nuesance problems. I have not tried other brands and I am using next reef smr1 reactor.