With the whole world of aquarium filtration seemingly moving to the biopellet game, it’s refreshing to see someone who’s taking a different approach to the media. Reef Interests, the same company that brought us the PO4x4 phosphate remover, has a new product on the market coming to us by way of our friends at Aquarium Specialty, and this new media isn’t like your typical biopellets. Instead of being the small grain pellets, the NP Reducing Biopellets XL BioPellets are actually huge in comparison…which means that tumbling these biopellet logs is all but impossible. Fortunately, they don’t need to be tumbled, which also means they can be incorporated into other applications besides media reactors.
Instead of having to use a huge media reactor fed by a powerful pump to properly agitate the biodegradable polymer and prevent clumping, the XL pellets can be used by a much broader audience by just tossing them into an already existing piece of filtration equipment, such as a canister filter or a Phosban reactor fed by a pump that normally couldn’t agitate the smaller media enough. All that said, the XL pellets may not work as efficiently as the smaller pellets as they have a smaller surface area. It may not be a noticeable difference in the long run, but it might be something to consider.
In terms of availability, our friends at Aquarium Specialty currently have the Reef Interests NP Reducing BioPellets XL listed on their site in a 500ml bag for $38.99. Additionally, Aquarium Specialty is the sole distributor for the product and will sell to directly to hobbyists at the retail price and to fish stores (online and brick & mortar) at a wholesale price.
