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#21
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Could you maybe show us exactly what you have done??
Really would like to know. Lenny. |
#22
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My 150 In Wall Build |
#23
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Maybe the biopellets consume too much potassium like in a zeo system. What salt are you using? Potassium level seems to vary a lot from one brand to the other. It might be one of the reason why some people experience degradation after a while.
I use the royal nature salt which have a 400 ppm potassium concentration which is a bit higher than NSW. Some brand have concentrations closer to 200! Other brands that have high potassium cocentration are aquavitro, brightwell and KV reef best I think. I recentrly started to put SPS in my LPS dominated nano tank. I was planning to start the biopellets while keeping the heavy feeding of the tank in hope of keeping nice colors and growth. My nitrates are now at about 10 and phosphates at 0.15 with the use of a small refugium and GFO. I was also thinking about trying mb7 and biofuel as an alternative. Is it really important to dose everyday for those? I'm not always at home! |
#24
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Same here. I keep quite a diversity of coral in a heavily fed, aggressively skimmed system. I was just hoping that I could use them instead of GFO to keep the phosphate in my system undetectable. So I tried the minimum recommended amount and then even less a second time and each time many of my soft coral began to bleach within a few weeks and my sandbed started to get covered with cyano. I can think of two things that I may have done wrong that might at least in part explain why they didn't work for me. The first was that the reactor output probably wasn't aimed well enough towards my skimmer's intake. The second was that I have not had detectable nitrate in several years. From what I've read they consume 4:1 nitrate to phosphate. But to me this still doesn't explain why 100ml of Vertex pellets would begin to kill off some of the coral in my +200gal system.
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"We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever." - H.P. Lovecraft Old 120gal Tank Journal New 225gal Tank Journal May 2010 TOTM The 10th Annual Prince George Reef Tank Tour |
#25
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In fact they consume 16:1 nitrates to phosphates I think. I guess you got very limited on nitrates. In my case I would hit 0 on phosphates before. Maybe I shouldn't clean the frozen mysis shrimp before dropping them to keep some phosphates.
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#26
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#27
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I took my reactors off online last night and cleaned my sump. Today I'll be adding chateo and trying out a couple mangroves. And maybe later I'll run some GFO after my tank settles a bit. hopefully thing will turn around
The output of my bio pellet reactor was aimed towards my skimmer. I have a dark brown skimmate which needs to be empty and cleaned at least every three days. I've alway used instant ocean, cause I can always find it. Potassium depletion may have been an issue, but I considered the possibly a supplement of some nature was lacking, and that's why I changed to 40% water changes monthly with no effect. And I don't think tumbling was ever an issue. The first few days I ran the reactor faster than I should have, so the clumping would resolve. When clumping wasn't an issue, I decreased the flow and the pellets would rise and fall gently.
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My 265 gallon build! |
#28
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I started using biopellets after 1.5 years of running my tank and within a month my sand, rocks and glass were covered in cyano. Output was aimed directly at the skimmer, but maybe I had them tumbling too fast in the reactor. It's kind of hard to tell what 'too fast' is without physically watching the reactor of someone who is using them successfully.
I probably would have stuck it out and tried tweaking things if I hadn't needed to break down my tank, but it's food for thought for the next build. |
#29
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I've gone back to basically just skimmer/frequent floss changes/25% water change ever other week, and corals are much happier. Also the MOUTAIN of cotton candy algae that had developed dissapeared. Too bad the feather caulerpa is now firmly anchored to my live rock.... it too is weakening though
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\"She will be mine, oh yes, she will be mine\" Chris Last edited by acropora1981; 05-07-2011 at 02:31 PM. |
#30
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90 gal, 30 gal sump, T5 lights Just getting into simple corals. My wife already hates my new hobby! |
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