cham
New member
Thread bump!
Just doing some research for my restart and I wanted to echo what SneekaPeek is saying. I've been running BB since 2007 and had similar issues to N03 and not being able to feed without blooms like others have. Finally the last year or so that I was running the tank (took a hiatus from 2013 to 2015) I discovered how well bio pellets and MB7 do for a BB tank. I would assume as others have suggested here that the added bacteria do so well in this application because of the bacterial deficiency from being BB.
However you run into a sterile issue. With BB, pellets and added bacteria the tank becomes too sterile and all nutrient values go to 0.
I guess what I was working on the last year of my tank was getting feeding up to increase the nutrient levels. But with a limited fish stock (long story, it won't change) I only have a hippo tang, yellow tang, PBT and two clowns to work with.
So here's my "theory of management" for this restart (trust me, it's just a theory lol). I'm going to continue to run BB with heavy flow, oversized skimming and weekly water changes of 15%. This should take me down to a net 0 nutrient level. Much like an RO/DI strips our tap water to zero so that we can only add "known adjusted levels" of Ca, Alk and trace elements, this is how I'm going to try managing my nutrients.
I've read up on and have bought some acropower. I've set up my auto feeder to feed twice a day NLS pellets. I plan on doing nori a couple times a week and cube frozen too. I hope this gives me a steady known import level of nutrients which I expect to not be enough. From there I'd like to play with acropower on an auto doser to get consistent levels of nutrients put in daily/weekly.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm going to try treating my nutrient import/export much like we treat calcium/Alk levels in our tanks. I stink at guestimating what's too litle or too much food so hopefully a more scientific approach would help me there.
Just doing some research for my restart and I wanted to echo what SneekaPeek is saying. I've been running BB since 2007 and had similar issues to N03 and not being able to feed without blooms like others have. Finally the last year or so that I was running the tank (took a hiatus from 2013 to 2015) I discovered how well bio pellets and MB7 do for a BB tank. I would assume as others have suggested here that the added bacteria do so well in this application because of the bacterial deficiency from being BB.
However you run into a sterile issue. With BB, pellets and added bacteria the tank becomes too sterile and all nutrient values go to 0.
I guess what I was working on the last year of my tank was getting feeding up to increase the nutrient levels. But with a limited fish stock (long story, it won't change) I only have a hippo tang, yellow tang, PBT and two clowns to work with.
So here's my "theory of management" for this restart (trust me, it's just a theory lol). I'm going to continue to run BB with heavy flow, oversized skimming and weekly water changes of 15%. This should take me down to a net 0 nutrient level. Much like an RO/DI strips our tap water to zero so that we can only add "known adjusted levels" of Ca, Alk and trace elements, this is how I'm going to try managing my nutrients.
I've read up on and have bought some acropower. I've set up my auto feeder to feed twice a day NLS pellets. I plan on doing nori a couple times a week and cube frozen too. I hope this gives me a steady known import level of nutrients which I expect to not be enough. From there I'd like to play with acropower on an auto doser to get consistent levels of nutrients put in daily/weekly.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm going to try treating my nutrient import/export much like we treat calcium/Alk levels in our tanks. I stink at guestimating what's too litle or too much food so hopefully a more scientific approach would help me there.
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