Warner Marine Now Has A Pellet Product
- Thread starter Stuart60611
- Start date
A few thoughts:
Trying to keep PO4 <.03ppm with pellets alone may be a very elusive goal in tanks with a moderate to high bioload. Some PO4 may always be hanging around as organic phosphate breaks down to inorganic PO4 species. Going for very low PO4 with organic carbon dosing runs a risk of too many bacteria and too much DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
Personally, I would not attempt dosing nitrate but rather use redundant methods such as macro algae refugia, gfo , etc. Keeping well fed fish should give plenty of nitrogen. Aminos such as aspartic acid may also prove useful in more anemic tanks.
Rapid PO4 reduction may contribute to stn but I suspect it is more closely related to the extra DOC and the potential for localized hypoxia from enhanced bacterial activity,imbalances in the corals symbiont bacteria due to the increased DOC , variations in the alkalinity related to the PO4 reduction or perhaps enhanced lighting resulting from clearer water. Reducing PO4 slowly is a preferred course.
BTW, gfo costs can be much more favoarble if you regenerate it. In any case much less will be required to manage the lower ranges .
Trying to keep PO4 <.03ppm with pellets alone may be a very elusive goal in tanks with a moderate to high bioload. Some PO4 may always be hanging around as organic phosphate breaks down to inorganic PO4 species. Going for very low PO4 with organic carbon dosing runs a risk of too many bacteria and too much DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
Personally, I would not attempt dosing nitrate but rather use redundant methods such as macro algae refugia, gfo , etc. Keeping well fed fish should give plenty of nitrogen. Aminos such as aspartic acid may also prove useful in more anemic tanks.
Rapid PO4 reduction may contribute to stn but I suspect it is more closely related to the extra DOC and the potential for localized hypoxia from enhanced bacterial activity,imbalances in the corals symbiont bacteria due to the increased DOC , variations in the alkalinity related to the PO4 reduction or perhaps enhanced lighting resulting from clearer water. Reducing PO4 slowly is a preferred course.
BTW, gfo costs can be much more favoarble if you regenerate it. In any case much less will be required to manage the lower ranges .
Stuart60611
New member
Thanks so much for your input. I understand that you do not recommend adding nitrate to those systems employing the pellets with low nitrate and residual phosphate due to your concerns about DOCs. However, if one were to use appropriate amounts of a high grade activated carbon, like Rox carbon, and properly change out the carbon regularlly I would assume that would go a long way to reducing your concerns about DOCs?
killerchimp88
New member
new to reef central just want to know how to start a new thread.....thank you
Thanks tmz,
So do you think this stn (tips in my case) will diminish once the corals adjust to the increase of bacterial activity and extra DOC? Do you think it I am at risk of loosing colonies due to the drop of PH4/increase of DOC and variations in alk due to all this (it has only been +/- .5 dkh)
jsdancer
New member
Thanks DJ.
I am due for cartridge changes. But either way I will make sure the cartridges are changed. At what point do you change yours?
When the TDS meter says so. If you don't already have one it's a good investment. I used to just kinda eyeball it and guesstimate when it was used up, but the quality of what comes out of the tap is so inconsistent these days I was finding that the membrane was toast sometimes far sooner then it should have been. I'm lucky if I get a few thousand gallons out of a membrane these days.
DJ
langtudatinh01
New member
so, this is my third week of running the pellets. This week one of my birdnest starts to die slowly. so i ran 3 major tests as follow: Cal 450, Alk 7.5, Mag 1110. i used Elos and Salifer kits. Could it be the pellets that lower my Mag? will low Magnesium cause the slowly dying of my birdnest? Thanks. i dont dose any Magnisum supplement before i only do weekly water change.
Odd that you mention it, but I've gotten some birdsnest frags recently (Stylophora, Seriatopora, and Pocillopora) that just wouldn't adjust to my system, and subsequently melted. I just chalked it up to some systemic thang, but I dunno maybe it has something to do with the pellets.
DJ
langtudatinh01
New member
yeah, my birdnest was doing really good before i add the pellets. it has double in size within 4 months span.
NaClH2Opgh
New member
I've been running Ecobak since July and my birdsnest are actually doing better and have more color to them.
MammothReefer
Active member
I don't have any issues with my birdsnest and i have quite a few frags that I can relate to the pellets. If anything the better my parameters have been getting the better coloration I'm starting to see..
With that said i've got some weird things going on. I've been running pellets for a few months now, started off in a bag moved to a brs reactor w/foam and then removed the foam and replaced it with plastic mesh.
I'm having some mixed results.
Nitrate and Phosphates finally hit 0 on both. - After going out of town for 4 days and not feeding I came home to 0'd out numbers a good sign imop. I don't know how much can contribute to the ecobak though and how much to the fact my tank was just over run with a mixture of different aglea, and the fact that my skimmer just isn't pulling anything out. Despite my tank having some cyano, and some brown algiea, and various others growing . The numberrs are great and I am getting a coraline algea outbreak for the first time (this is a pretty new system)
The downside to it all is my reactor is back to clogging up again, even with the plastic discs instead of the mesh. It took about a week for it to clog, and now I have to bang it free whenever I walk by the reactor again.
My corals, and fish all seem healthy and happy minus 1 sps frag despite some issues i had with some serious die off from a bad shipment of wild sps polluting the tank.
I'm going to keep an eye on things as I go back to my normal feeding and water change regiment to see if It will maintain @ 0, or start to rise again. Although it may all be mute as I'm moving everything over to a new for me tank this upcoming weekend. (but with all the same livestock, rocks and mostly the same equipment)
With that said i've got some weird things going on. I've been running pellets for a few months now, started off in a bag moved to a brs reactor w/foam and then removed the foam and replaced it with plastic mesh.
I'm having some mixed results.
Nitrate and Phosphates finally hit 0 on both. - After going out of town for 4 days and not feeding I came home to 0'd out numbers a good sign imop. I don't know how much can contribute to the ecobak though and how much to the fact my tank was just over run with a mixture of different aglea, and the fact that my skimmer just isn't pulling anything out. Despite my tank having some cyano, and some brown algiea, and various others growing . The numberrs are great and I am getting a coraline algea outbreak for the first time (this is a pretty new system)
The downside to it all is my reactor is back to clogging up again, even with the plastic discs instead of the mesh. It took about a week for it to clog, and now I have to bang it free whenever I walk by the reactor again.
My corals, and fish all seem healthy and happy minus 1 sps frag despite some issues i had with some serious die off from a bad shipment of wild sps polluting the tank.
I'm going to keep an eye on things as I go back to my normal feeding and water change regiment to see if It will maintain @ 0, or start to rise again. Although it may all be mute as I'm moving everything over to a new for me tank this upcoming weekend. (but with all the same livestock, rocks and mostly the same equipment)
Actually I'd be a little more suspicious of a serious pop in coralline growth. Some systems are just Mg black holes.
DJ
poolkeeper1
New member
Refugium
Refugium
You do not need Macro Algae to have a Fuge, It is a place free of predators that pods can multiply without being eaten. Live rock rubble is a perfect place for pods to multiply. FYI
Bill:thumbsup:
Refugium
You do not need Macro Algae to have a Fuge, It is a place free of predators that pods can multiply without being eaten. Live rock rubble is a perfect place for pods to multiply. FYI
Bill:thumbsup:
langtudatinh01
New member
well, latest update. seem like i will loose my brown birdnest. it has not improve much since monday. it shows more white skeleton around the colony. my other sps and lps are doing good nothing change on them except better PE and color. tested water again after readjust all level magnesium is still low but everthing else is in good range. PH a bit high at 8.5 so iam little concern. i will not dose Kalk for the next couple days so PH will go down. i never have any cloudy water condition with the pellets.
