Been about 2 1/2 weeks since i stopped the pellets. corals are still struggling but seem to be getting better and coloring up. What i think happened to me is that i stripped the tank of its nutients and didn't feed enough to compensate for the lack of nutrients. the corals began to starve and wither away. when pellets where removed it is like starting a new tank. you have to dirty up the water again. it has to cycle again. feed, feed, but watch nitrates and ive cut back on skimming. i would say i was over skimming. so, its best to let the tank chill and save any sps u can by moving them to another tank. I'll keep you guys posted.
Anyone loosing or lost tissue with biopellets?
- Thread starter bridun22ajl
- Start date
sfexplicit
New member
I haven't had any additional stn. The pieces that were losing tissue are now growing back over the dead spots. I ran the pellets for about 6-8 months. I haven't given up on them. They do work to keep nutrients low. I just think I wen to far and wasn't feeding enough. When I start back up I'm switching from he Vertex pellets to the WM Ecobak.
MammothReefer
Active member
The one thing I neglected to mention is now that I've been off the pellets for 5 weeks or so.. All signs of cyano have vanished.
dzhuo
Active member
For those who experience STN, does this happen suddenly? Or do the coral show signs of bleaching first and then STN? Also, are all SPS showing STN or just a few of them? If it's just a few of them, what type or species?
If you have a mixed reef, does your LPS or softy affected by this as well?
If you have a mixed reef, does your LPS or softy affected by this as well?
sfexplicit
New member
My tank has been up for over 2 years.
sfexplicit
New member
I had signs of bleaching but NOT necessarily the pie ES that Iost. Some showed NO signs but still STN'd. Not all pieces STN'd and it wasn't any particular type of acro that did STN. Just my experience though.
ccLansman
New member
I started with the recommended dosage of Virtex pellets a few months ago and had a total STN/RTN/Bleaching of 99% of my corals. I went round robin trying to figure out what the heck was going on in my tank. I saved a few pieces of SPS but my zoos are continuing to shrink and look bad. I believe the sudden drop in P04 and N seem to be the main culprits in this little lesson. Since the pseudo-crash i have been using half of the pellets that I had before and am feeding more and so far so good. I have good PE on the browned out pieces that survived and I picked up a few new frags yesterday to test the waters so to speak. My parameters are on the money 1.025, 7dKh, 420calc, .07phos, not sure on the nitrates, im running 6x24" t-5s over my 55 with a NAC7 skimmer. I definitely believe the pellets reduce the available nutrients much too quickly when used at the "recommended level," and just like everything else in this hobby, when changed too quickly disastrous results are normally the answer. I think taking in slow and using less vs more is a good rule of thumb. Ill try and post more results as time goes on.
dzhuo
Active member
I guess I never understand where the sudden drop is coming from. With BP, we are essentially culturing bacteria and that doesn't happen over night. To reach a mature bacteria colonies, it takes weeks and sometimes months. It's a long process and during this whole time, the bateria colony continue to grow and absorb excess N&P. Following this logic, you shouldn't see a sudden drop but a gradual decline of N&P.
Dave1NC
New member
I had similar issues as you. I didn't lose all my corals, but I lost my favorites of course :furious: mostly SPS and a orange fungia plate coral. I tried to frag what I could of the SPS, but they still didn't make it. Luckily I had fragged some of them prior to the RTN event and they are still alive in my frag tank. I don't think I will be putting them back in the DT until I see things stabilize. I also wasn't be able to save my Idaho Grape Purple cap colony. I've had this coral for 2+ years and was largest best coral in the tank (around 20 inches).::sad1:
I think my problems stemmed from having higher ALK which was over 10 and the levels dropping too quickly. I did a water change over the weekend and it has come down to around 9.6. I also reduced the amount of pellets in my reactor. That also has seemed to help.
ccLansman
New member
I wonder if my sudden drop was from the pellets + my continued use of carbon and micro-bacter for the first month or so. I was told to continue using micro bacter to "seed" the pellets, not sure how great this advice was or was not. The hardest and most frustrating aspect of this hobby is the constant guess work at what may or may not be causing some said problem and what works/not works. 
gary faulkner
New member
I wonder if my sudden drop was from the pellets + my continued use of carbon and micro-bacter for the first month or so. I was told to continue using micro bacter to "seed" the pellets, not sure how great this advice was or was not. The hardest and most frustrating aspect of this hobby is the constant guess work at what may or may not be causing some said problem and what works/not works.
I agree completely. That's why I try to only change one thing at a time. I know that sometimes that's near impossible but limit changes as much as possible.
HTH
Hate to bring this thread back up, but I just noticed some STN on a couple of acros. It was a gradual lightening of the overall color(which I thought was nice), and then all of the sudden I had a stag bleach over night, and spotty RTN on a tricolor. I pulled the reactor and Im hoping it helps, but we will see. Params are and have been stable, 420 ca 7-8 dkh 1250-1300 mag. 81.8 F 0 nitrate, and 0 phosphate (as far as I can read). I really probably underfeed, which might be the source of my problem, but we will see. Up until this point the pellets have been great.
Finland
Member
I have been running bp for about 7 months and started to get stn at the base and the middle. I wanted to blame the pellets until I found I had red bugs. I couldn't see them unless I used a magnifying glass. A couple doses of interceptor and now 2 months later corals are back to looking good. Stn is healing over nicely and still using bioipellets. They have worked good for me. I do feed alot and readings stay good.
Finland
Member
nemokeeper
In Memoriam
I have vertex pellets last few months been battling cyano! Lost my oregon tort, hawkins echinata, and a echinata from greenwich aquaria... i'm gonna take the pellets off line.... i think that is the cause!
jnc914
Active member
I figured I would update my experience with WM Eco-Bak pellets as I am at almost 8 months of use. I had to recently replenish the pellets as the bacteria in my tank ate away a good portion of what was in my reactor. During the 8 months of use there was obvious growth, great coloration, and no nuisance algae, including cyano. My parameters were stable and the tank looked great. Then......
I ordered my replacement pellets. I took out what was left of the pellets in the reactor and rinsed them and put them back in the reactor with the new pellets. I used the recommended dosage for my water volume (240 gallons), which equals roughly 1100ml. What I did not account for or measure was how much used pellet I had left. Needless to say I "overdosed" the system and immediately started seeing my tank crash. I started to get heavy cyano, nuisance algae on rocks and glass, and my corals started to STN from their bases. Needless to say I went into full panic mode. Did several water changes, took out half or more of the pellets that were in the reactor, and replenished my GFO and GAC. My tank is slowly coming back, however I did lose some smaller colonies.
Still a believer in pellets, still using them, just more wary of how much I am using.
I ordered my replacement pellets. I took out what was left of the pellets in the reactor and rinsed them and put them back in the reactor with the new pellets. I used the recommended dosage for my water volume (240 gallons), which equals roughly 1100ml. What I did not account for or measure was how much used pellet I had left. Needless to say I "overdosed" the system and immediately started seeing my tank crash. I started to get heavy cyano, nuisance algae on rocks and glass, and my corals started to STN from their bases. Needless to say I went into full panic mode. Did several water changes, took out half or more of the pellets that were in the reactor, and replenished my GFO and GAC. My tank is slowly coming back, however I did lose some smaller colonies.
Still a believer in pellets, still using them, just more wary of how much I am using.
Moser
Active member
2.5 years with the original 1st edition NP Biopellets. I did run them in my smaller system and then switched over to my bigger system 1 year ago.
I still have the ones from the original batch that were supposed to be patented!.
dKH is 7.
I run 11L of pellets.
I am pretty confident that all of those posts mentioning stn in their corals were underfeeding compared to what is required for Biopellets.
You need to feed FAR more than in non pellet systems to stop your corals starving.
Bold statement, but true!. Test me!!.
Mo
Last edited:
Similar threads
