klwheat
New member
As some of you all may remember, about a year ago I started a 300ish gallon tank system with a California round stingray, an Australian marbled catshark, and a couple other fish. We went into this know that we were going to need major filtration. So, here goes the update. The equipment is a 252 gallon custom-shaped tank courtesy of Polly's Pets (thank you Steven and Randy and all!). A ruby elite 36" refugium/sump, SRO-5000sss skimmer, and various pumps and powerheads. Lighting is by 2 ecotech radions (love the programmability). It has about 1.5-2" fine sand bed, a decent amount of macroalgae in the fuge, and about 180lbs of live rock between the sump and tank. Now, I know (now) that this is not enough rock for the tank/waste that needed to be managed, but I didn't want to take up any more room that the ray needed. So, after dealing with high nitrates (and I mean HIGH!) with water changes, I purchased a precision marine media reactor for biopellets. After 5 weeks, I had nearly given up hope. My nitrates were well above 100 when I installed it. I also did a 200 gallon water change (what a chore!) to get it back down. After 5 weeks, nitrates were back up to 100 again! I worked very "off" shifts this last week and didn't have much time to do anything other than adjust the reactor for better biopellet tumbling/flow. Then, suddenly this last Thursday, it looked like all of the coral/xenia in the tank were dying! (yes, they had actually been doing reasonably well until then). I knew that this was because of my out of control nitrates and was becoming frantic about doing another huge water change. Just to check before the change, I retested all my water parameters. Imagine my amazement when my nitrates were <10! After 1 more week, and better reactor flow, my nitrates had PLUMMETED! Now, I'm just waiting for everything to adjust. I started the biopellets with just a 1/2 cup, and added slowly each week, but it all of a sudden seemed to work. Not how I had anticipated..but my nitrates are actually down! Just wanted to let everyone know about my experience with biopellets. I even took the water to Polly's Pets to have them test it again because even after 2 tests of my own, I didn't believe it.
You can check out the live feed of the tank now at:
http://wheatstingraycam.viewnetcam.com/CgiStart?page=Single&Language=0
the user name is: wheatstingray
the password is: stingray
You can check out the live feed of the tank now at:
http://wheatstingraycam.viewnetcam.com/CgiStart?page=Single&Language=0
the user name is: wheatstingray
the password is: stingray
