Anyone loosing or lost tissue with biopellets?

B

bridun22ajl

New member
I seem to be getting some stn/rtn on a few acros and the only thing i can think of is the bio pellets. I have been running them for 6 months now. in the beginning it was good but now its the only thing i can attribute the stn to.

my alk is 8-7dkh

I was running gfo with the pellets but i have took it off a week ago.

Im loosing tissue at the base of some and in the middle on others. I dont see any pest if i dip. nor do i see any eggs. I tried basting and nothing came off so im ruling out any pest.

thanks in advance.
 
The tank is 90 gal. No nitrate or phos(Hanna). I use itech cone skimmer. 2 vortech mp40. Alk was lower a few weeks ago at like 6-7dkh and I slowly bumped it up to where it is now,8-7 dkh.(salifert)
 
Tank has been set up for 4 years and I have never really had any problem keeping acro until now. Will I shock the system if I remove the pellets and just go back to gfo?
 
were was your alk before it dropped to 6-7dkh? also what is your cal and mag?

i have noticed that usually issues such as spikes and drops dont show there effects on sps till weeks later. then you have to rack your brain to try and figure out what happen.

just my 2 cents
 
When I was dosing VGV (which has a similar concept of creating more bacteria) I started to have STNing at the bases of my corals. I believe I was dosing too much VGV and almost no nutrients were left in the watter. I stopped dosing right away, fed heavily and did a 20% water change. The STNing stopped and a month later the bases started to grow back. Now everything is growing great again.

I think our tanks can be too clean...meaning not enough phosphates. I had a cyno problem, so I was trying to beat it with VGV and prodibio. I guess in was too much. I haven't gone back to VGV. I'm just using GFO again.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps.
 
I have a 150g SPS being running about year and few months. I started running NP pellets 5 months ago to help fight Phosphate problems. I never had any Nitrate problems. My Alk is at 9, Ca at 450, and Mag at 1440. No spikes since it was dose by Aquatronica. Monthly 20% water changes. I run a ITech 400 skimmer. In the 2nd to 3rd month using pellets I was having STN on several corals. Not at the base but in the middle. I checked for parasites and found none. I study my corals everyday carefully. Start asking around in my local club and a few people were having the same issue. Everyone conclude that the last change was done was adding the NP pellets. We end up shut the pellet reactor off and a month later the coral tissue has recover and looking just fine. Like the other guy said, the pellet strip the nutrient out the water that can starve the corals. SPS do need some Nitrate too.
 
bridun22ajl said:
bolo,
did you remove the pellets all at once? what do you do for phos control now?

thanks everyone
Click to expand...

I use RowaPhos and change every two weeks. It has kept the Phosphates at bay. When I did run the pellets it didn't not lower my Phosphates. I had to run RowaPhos along with the pellets. Some of the members on The chemical forum said the bacteria could not consume the Phosphate quick enough so running Phosphate remover would help.

Also, this issue problem I had brought to the attention to the guru in the Chemistry forum a few months back. They said there are too many variable to determine it is pellets which cause the issue. But if this issue is true we will see more people posting problems within the new year or so. This product is so new and not many people has run the pellets in a successful tank over 2-3 years. Time will tell.
 
There are a lot more people who has issues with STN/RTN with pellets. They are unable to come forth since they have ties with distributors to the products. The conspiracy begins..... LOL
 
I am running bio pellets too along with a gfo reactor, and started to get some stn at the base on a few corals. NO3 and PO4 are at 0. Corals also were a bit faded. I more than tripled my feeding, and corals look much better, and stn stopped and started to heal(encrust) back over the dead spots. I really do think that biopellets strip the water too much and increased feeding is needed.
 
I've also had the same issue with one type of SPS RTN/STN in the middle of the coral. I have two of them in different part of the tank and they were acting the same way. One of the LFS guy dropped by to check it out and the conclution was the system was just to clean the recommendation that was provided was to feed the fish more just to balance out the system. I followed the recommendation accordingly and happy to say that the coral is recovering slowly.
 
That was a caution told to me by the lfs in regards to using bio pellets. they do such a good job stripping the nutrients from your tank that you have to feed your corals or they will die.
 
I've had issues with STN on a piece here and there. I usually attribute it to an Alk swing but this last time I know it wasn't that.
 
From my understanding of bio-pellets, it was created to help remove phos & Trates allowing the user to feed more and keep a heavier bio load. I have been using for about 4 months no issues. My trates are undetectable (salifert) but my phos is .02 - .03(hanna meter). I do believe having 0 phos isnt good for your tank, IMO...
 
I think people try to hard. Ive seen people crash their tanks just trying to lower their trates from 1-0. If your tank has been thriving for yrs y change what you have successfully been doing.
 
what is everybody whos experiencing STN/RTN running their alk at? if biopellets work like zeolites, they expressly say that running your alk over 7 or 8 will cause this
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Z
New lps frags - 1 day not doing well
Replies
16
Views
469
Reefing102
Reefing102
P
flat brown/grey growing all over rocks-
Replies
10
Views
685
BeanAnimal
B
D
From too much dusting on the glass, to a lush dark green cyano carpet....
Replies
4
Views
579
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
Dogs442
NEED HELP WITH RO/DI SYSTEM
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
griss
griss
M
Frogspawn Issue Help.
Replies
10
Views
810
MNtadpole
M
Back
Top