Bio Pellets....oh boy

[Voxboy]

So my tank is looking awesome....at least to me it is. I was carbon dosing with vinegar and water was clearer than air. For whatever reason I felt a lazy streak coming on and said to myself "self...why not get into the bio pellet thing".

So I ordered a TLF 550 Reactor....yes...I took out the sponges and replaced with plastic needle point disky things. Bought a 500gph pump and put 1/3 the amount of NPX pellets recommended for my water volume....sump included of course.

I put the outake hose from the reactor, attached it to the intake of my Reef Octopus skimmer which is rated for 3 times my water volume.

Water parameters are:

PH - 8.2 (6:00pm)
Cal - 430
Alk - 9-10
Mag - 1300
N03 - .5
P04 - .1
Sal - 1.025
Temp - 78.5

Turned that baby on and allowed the pellets to "boil gently"
This was a month ago.

Now I am the proud owner of a hazy soup mix with closed corals, shrivelled shrooms, diatoms,GHA..... and of course....cyano and dinoflagens........or however the hell you spell it.

I scoured threads before doing this and should have listened to my spidey senses. I remember saying to myself during the time I was researching this chemistry experiment " interesting.....I have never heard so many bad outcomes....yet so many doing it." This hazy bloom has been going on for the last 4 days.

OK....so that's my rant.

Should I stay the course, or take it offline.

Thanks for listening to my crap :mad2::mad2::mad2:

 

[kocho09]

Sorry to hear that, a friend of mine had a bad experience with them as we'll. he has gone fish only

 

[JMLewis]

I'm assuming you didn't start at 1/4 the recommended dosage and slowly increase 1/4 more each month over the period of 4 months.

Many people are having great success with biopellets including myself and both of the last two TOTM. However most of the time I see people having issues is when they add the full amount right off the bat and not take it slowly. You might want to remove half of your pellets and after a month add a bit more then a month more add a bit more. A lot of tanks don't need to have the full amount it depends a lot on bio load.

EDIT: just re-read and saw you did start at a lower dosage. :hmm4:

 

[JMLewis]

I also noticed your running your alk at 9-10. I've read it's better to keep it closer to 7 when running BP.

 

[Voxboy]

I'm assuming you didn't start at 1/4 the recommended dosage and slowly increase 1/4 more each month over the period of 4 months.

Many people are having great success with biopellets including myself and both of the last two TOTM. However most of the time I see people having issues is when they add the full amount right off the bat and not take it slowly. You might want to remove half of your pellets and after a month add a bit more then a month more add a bit more. A lot of tanks don't need to have the full amount it depends a lot on bio load.

EDIT: just re-read and saw you did start at a lower dosage. :hmm4:

Thanks for the reply. I started with 1/3 the amount. The manufacturer recommended 1/2. However"¦I may pull some out anyway. TOTM is stellar!!!

 

[Voxboy]

I also noticed your running your alk at 9-10. I've read it's better to keep it closer to 7 when running BP.

I am going to remove some pellets.."¦wait a couple days and if no improvement then I will look at lowering alk"¦thanks for the input. Still concerned with corals closing"¦fish seem to be ok.

 

[azjohnny]

Your corals could be closing due to the nitrates and phosphates dropping to quickly, I run BPs on my FOWLR and love them.

I feel it may be a better product on a FOWLR tank since BPs are very effective. Corals do not like rapid changes but are ok with slower ones

 

[Voxboy]

I check them every other day…check them when I get home anyway.

 

[Voxboy]

I check them every other day"¦check them when I get home anyway.

 

[Voxboy]

Parameters measured within good range. Water has cleared quite a bit since yesterday.
Softies and shrooms still shriveled. I have a cabbage that is probably the easiest coral to keep on the planet… that almost seems like it is disappearing. Xenia have all but melted.
I have a sense that my test kits are not accurate. Especially Nitrate
Test. I have a feeling the water got stripped of nutrients to fast.
Cannot see any issue with sps

 

[Voxboy]

Forgot to mention that I took out about a quarter of the pellets Nd am now running about 1/4 "¦maybe a little less of recommended amount.

 

[cowlr]

algae bloom maybe - organic carbon sources are dangerous. great tanks can be kept with good skimmers and water changes.

 

[dowtish]

You really dont want to run ultra low nutrient system with softies. They like the nutrients, and you are currently stripping them from the tank and they dont like it.