Biopellets crashing tank?

[Fishamatank]

Well,
I know what most of you are thinking, that things changed too fast and that's what crashed the tank. I disagree.

Here's the story:
120 gallon mixed reef with sump, total water volume ~120 gallons. Always had undetectable N&P. Alk 9, Ca 400, Mg 1350, SG 1.026 by refractometer. RODI water with 0 TDS always. System had been up and running for ~1 year when the issues started.

I started having problems with cyano, GHA, grape caulerpa & halimeda. Treated with aggressive water changes for ~6 weeks with the problem only getting worse.

I started with about 200 ml of biopellets, and over the course of the next 8 weeks I continued to slowly add pellets as nothing was changing. Eventually I ended up with 1000 ml (the whole bag) in the reactor. The GHA and cyano started fading. Never saw any cloudy water indicating a bacterial bloom, and the grape caulerpa & halimeda continue to spread. Still have a small amount of cyano.

Over the course of about 3 weeks I have lost 10 SPS colonies, and a couple of LPS. LPS are now starting to fade. Clams and LTA are still looking good.

I have taken the reactor off line.
I wish I had never tried these things.

Thoughts?

 

[lordofthereef]

My only thoughts are I haven't heard of this happening, though they are a very new product (all things considered).

Which biopellets were you using? It used to be that saying "biopellets" referred to one product. Now there are possibly dozens.

I will say that I have certainly heard of a tank crashing for "no reason". That is to say that the keeper wasn't aware of any sudden (or not sudden) changes. It is possible that you are in this same boat and attributing it falsely to the pellets. Not saying this is the case, but it is possible.

 

[tqpolo]

What brand did you use? Happened to my friend who used BRS biopellet. He had bacteria bloom which irritate all his corals. Did you have the output of the reactor near the input of the skimmer? I think this is the problem with my friend's tank that he couldn't do this.

 

[pmrossetti]

can be a problem if not vigorously tumbling. they do have their problems.

 

[Fishamatank]

Pellets always vigorously tumbling. Output of the reactor right near the input of the SRO XP 2000 skimmer.

These were NP Biopellets.

 

[joker295]

i run bio pellets in my 220gallon and lost pretty much everything bc of taking gfo off line before they established.. after the crash i left them in and havent had a problem since .. its been 7 months online on my tank and they are great... did you have gfo online when you put the bio pellets online? if not your phosphate was probably creeping up or did you monitor your po4 during bio pellets?

 

[tkeracer619]

It is common to have issues around the 1 year mark. Without any more info it is very hard to place blame on np biopellets.

My personal opinion is that you were already having problems (hence your algae issues) and chose a route to fix the issue that takes a long time and is more proactive then reactive.

Unless you were manually removing the algae and running gfo you could have very well spiked po4 rapidly. Since you say it is still there I have my doubts about the manual removal.

Algae is natures way of controlling excess nutrients. Killing the algae pollutes the tank further unless something is in place to reduce the pollutants.

 

[Scej12]

I believe that one of the largest risk factors when using any form of carbon dosing, bio-pellets included, is a pH down-swing. If these things do suddenly ignite in to action, they can certainly use up a lot of O2 fast, replacing it with CO2 as part of their respiration. You could find that your pH suddenly registers at 7.7 which is really detrimental to your SPS and even LPS...

Did you take notice of your pH before and during your crash??

Regards,

Sheldon

 

[Fishamatank]

calibrated PH monitored has showed no swings outside the normal swing from the light cycle.

tkeracer - i'll be honest, the manual removal has been lacking, but only the last few weeks as I have grown frustrated. The macro algaes never showed any drop whatsover in their growth rate. The chaeto in the fuge is still growing like a weed as well.

I've always run GFO and carbon as well. Like most other maintenance it has slacked with my frustration in the last couple weeks, but I was on top of things when the demise started.

 

[jimsplace]

I have had the same problem (BRS pellets) and have taken my rx offline. I am inclined to believe that the rx removed all of the nutrients from the system, killing the sps. I also had a huge outbreak of lyguna (sp) prior to taking the rx out. Within 2 weeks the lyguna was gone and what corals I had left started improving.

 

[Scej12]

calibrated PH monitored has showed no swings outside the normal swing from the light cycle.

Do you have a reading to offer...?

8.1 - 8.2; 7.8-7.9...??

Did you cross reference your tests/test kits to confirm their accuracy. The only reason I mention this is because it has happened to me in the past, where I was getting acceptable results, only to find that my tests were off when checked against another method... in fact it has happened to me several times (magnesium; pH monitor; Specific Gravity).

SJ

 

[Crisis64]

Hello thought I would chime in here, but I have been using BRS biopellets for almost 8 weeks now, & I'm having excellent results, I was cautious when I started & only used 2/3rds the recommended amount. It clearly states that after initial setup don't touch, refrain from any adjustments, they also state that it could take 4 wks for bacteria culture to establish properly. I got my biopellets because I too was battling cyano which kept on getting worse no matter what I did. Also I have never seen water so crystal clear!
I found that most people who have bad results with biopellets is due to to either using too much or the constantly changing things expecting to get instant results, remember that old saying set it & forget i

 

[dg3147]

My experience with biolpellets:
1) they drove pho4 and no4 to zero --even better than vodka.
2) sps/clams faded and browned a bit.
3) LPS all died.

Once I stopped pellets and restarted vodka, the process reversed itself.

My pellets were in a specialized reactor and big time tumbling.

 

[sneaton]

how long were you guys running the pellets before noticing issues(browning,receding)?

 

[jimmy frag]

how good is your skimmer, also, you must of had high nitrates and phosphates before starting the bio,s for the algae to get out of hand. your test kits may be reading 0 only because the algae has been consuming it quickly