How do YOU lower your Nitrates and Phosphates?

[whatcaneyedo]

Originally Posted by PoonTang

Funnily enough I have never had a problem with any Cyano or cloudiness or bleaching with using the beads

Cloudiness was minor for me and only lasted a day or two. Bleaching only occurred in several soft corals and there was only minor color loss in some LPS (listed in my above post). All of my other coral including different species of soft, LPS and SPS appeared to be completely unaffected. I tried out a variety pack of that pro bio stuff a month before trying the pellets and I noticed that all of my cyano disappeared during that time period.

[steve fedyk]

I use posban, daily water changes, fuge and skimmer to keep my po4 and nitrates low

[Youngster Dan]

I think somewhat overlooked, and honestly one of the harder things to do is just to keep the bioload down and not feed a tonne. It is hard not to add that extra fish!

[Delphinus]

Hey, did the colours come back after you discontinued the pellets? It's been at least 3 months for me and there is no sign of the colours coming back. I replaced the light in case it was the lamp to blame for the bleaching but it did not make a difference. I have not discontinued the pellets though. Maybe I should?

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I had several soft coral and LPS bleach when I tried out biopellets as well. So right now I'm just using a large skimmer, 10% weekly water changes and a little macro algae to keep nitrate undetectable in my system (according to Elos and API).

[whatcaneyedo]

I should also mention I use GFO to keep phosphate undetectable as well. I guess that falls under 'other' according to the poll.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hey, did the colours come back after you discontinued the pellets? It's been at least 3 months for me and there is no sign of the colours coming back. I replaced the light in case it was the lamp to blame for the bleaching but it did not make a difference. I have not discontinued the pellets though. Maybe I should?

Color has begun to come back for some of the coral that were effected. Its been a full month since I stopped using the Vertex bio pellets. My acans, fungia and a chalice were the LPS that began to loose color. Many of the soft coral that completely bleached are still looking pretty white as their recovery seems to be slower. Capnella, sarcophyton and sinularia were the ones bothered. From what I've read in some threads on RC its pretty common for toadstools and leathers to bleach.

I started with the recommended minimum amount outlined on the package and my tank didn't have detectable levels to being with. Maybe I'll try them again by starting with only 1/4 of the minimum once everything has made a complete recovery.