come to the dark side, we have cookies and bio pellets! :biggrin:

I like cookies. Well I am going to do a waterchange tomorrow. Pending results I might pick some up.

Just looking into effects on acans and gorgonias

Triple check the parameters too... thats screwy that the devils hand looked so angry in your tank, and in under 120min in my tank had full extention and the red tissue pigment back in it. Somthing aint so straight there. Even more so that you have the more intense lighting setup

One tank with pellets I had my gorgs in and they were fine. The mulm that the pellets shed might actually be good food for them. However this was a very high bioload tank.

Careful with the Acans though. I tried pellets on another tank which was already low bioload and close to zero nitrate reading on a steady basis (I wanted to see if I could "starve" out the caulerpa in there), and it had some very nasty effects on my LPS. All my LPS bleached out as did my carpets. 8 months later my purple carpet is only now showing signs of improving. My Acans bleached out badly as did my bubble coral and I actually lost a few Acans instead of them recovering. To add insult to injury it didn't do boo to slow down the caulerpa infestation.

My take away lesson is that you definitely want a non-zero nitrate reading before adding the pellets. Adding them to an already low nutrient environment can definitely strip too much out too quick.

lol there's cookies, i was not informed of this

What do think all that baking soda was for?!?! :D

I have a healthy collection of LPS (torch, bubble, acans, elegance, frogspawn) that seem to be doing fine living with a years worth of pellets. One thing that I have noticed over the past year is that my zoa garden seems to have slowed down in growth. Still thriving just not spreading as quickly as it once did.

See that is what I am seeing. its a hit or miss with acans. Could always start with a low dosage. Are you still running carbon kien?

btw, you must be cooking alot of cookies to be going through that much baking soda

...Kien where are my cookies, I seem to recall being part of this "Baking Soda Plan".

Laurier have you tried the zeovit LPS supplement? My acans exploded when I started dosing that, I would start slow though if you are going to try as it will add extra nutrients.

I thought about it. But I have stopped dosing everything. Funny thing is my acans are doing awesome, its everything else, well the blasto's and mircomussa are doing great as well. I just want to add some purple gorgonia and some stags down the road once I have all my equipment (still need a ATO and a skimmer).

As for the biopellets, I have been considering replacing the carbon and running them instead

Carbon and biopellets are two independent things. Biopellets are a place for bacteria to colonize that feed off nutrients. It's like adding a bunch of live rock in your tank except they fit in a nice small reactor. Carbon on the other hand remove organics (not just nutrients) which can cause things such as yellowing of water (water always looks "polished" and "clear" after changing carbon) as well as impeding the growth of certain corals (some organics may not necessarily break down into ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and thus might not otherwise be skimmed or metabolized out of the system).

Basically I think carbon should still be run regardless whether you add pellets or not - there isn't really any overlap between the two. Biopellets and GFO on the other hand ... there might be an overlap there.

HTH

Yes, I have not stopped running carbon since I fired up this tank over two years ago. As tony said, Carbon and BioPellets serve two completely different purposes. One is not a substitute for the other.

I've got your "cookies" right here big boy! :wink:

K guys so here is where I am getting confused

Aren't biopellets basically a source of vodka dosing which would mean it is a source of carbon dosing since the only product in vodka that your using is ethanol and ethanol is carbon based. I am just wondering how two sources of carbon can preform two seperate tasks

worse case, couldn't I run both in the same reactor? The amount of media I use on this system is small so it would fit in a TLF 150

Totally different things that just happen to have the word "carbon" in their names.

Carbon aka charcoal is a porous substance and happens to be really good absorbant of other materials. Once it's done absorbing "stuff" though then the pores are clogged and it cannot absorb any more.

Carbon DOSING is a generic term used to reference things like vodka or vinegar or sugar (or combinations thereof) as a source at molecules that involve carbon to be used as a food source or input for metabolic processes that also happen to consume nitrates and/or phosphates as part of the chemical/biological processes.

Biopellets are intended as a convenient method for carbon dosing because whatever polymer they are made of is carbon based and is also porous - but instead of being good for absorbing stuff, the pores are good for creating large surface area for bacteria to colonize. So bacteria feed on the pellets and in process of doing so consumes nitrate and to a smaller degree phosphates out of the water column. The "tumbling" of the pellets ensures that excess bacteria sloughs off, which is thought to be used by filter feeders but in general really requires mostly to be skimmed out (and they do skim out nicely - skimmate production does increase after starting pellets).

You wouldn't want to run them together in the same reactor as they have different lifespans. Pellets could last you months - carbon (depending on the amount you use per system volume) needs to be changed out every 2 to 4 weeks.

I can see what your saying. Sorry chemisty always gets me going.

But on a side note, I did my waterchange and everyone is looking great. I'm adding a skimmer to the mix this weekend. So just one thing at a time. But the acan garden is looking amazing

Yeah I agree with your approach. And the Acans do look awesome.

Sorry if I missed it but what was your reasoning for thinking you had a nutrient issue? Is it a high NO3 reading? If so what was it (and sorry if that was posted already)?

Just judging by the aftermath after dosing acan plus. This is why I am adding a skimmer first, see the effects on the tank with skimming and maybe down the road add the biopellets. My load is a bit heavy

Oh ok - I didn't realize you didn't have a skimmer. Yeah get the skimmer first. That might be good enough. Definitely don't run pellets until after the skimmer though - they shed a mulm which can be taken up by some things but not all of it would get consumed and thus they'd just break down and re-release the NO3/PO4 back into the water ... which can't be good.

Well I can't sleep so I have a few pic's from a week ago, before I added this massive frogspawn

So my LPS craze is coming to a closure... I miss SPS.... ALOT! So this weekend the trial will start. Plan on adding a stag or some acropora of some sort to see how it deals with my system. If all goes will I will be parting with the torch and the hammer as they are taking up perfect SPS territory. but here are some pic's from lately

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P1290081.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P1290094.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P1290097.jpg


And If you noticed in my FTS, an impulse buy exsist's. Last Friday I had this great idea to buy a lionfish. Well without reading up on the species I brought him home only to find out how large he gets. Yep he may be ok in the system now but for sure will need a larger home in the future. Got it eating krill but tonight is the last of him in the tank. Poor guy, I really like him but I just can't give him the proper home.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P1290087.jpg

Nice tank. What size system does the lionfish need?

They get 12"+ but arent big swimmers. Bare minimum IMO is a 90g with a 120 being better and a 180 best.

Did you get him from Red Coral?

Lorenzo, I believe you can get dwarf lionfish (some with the similar colour and pattern as the Volitan) that will do nicely in a well skimmed (messy eaters) 25g.

Fu Manchus and Radiata, though you might want to confirm this with another source.

Fu Manchu's are the shizzy! They don't get too big at all.

yep picked him up at RC. Love the guy and I have been thinking about a Fu Manchus but I might hold off and stick with the reef safe stuff. I am more into the coral anyways, the fish just entertain me

this is what my clown does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83YGoMQY3N0

but got rid of the lion and picked up a benji cardinalfish

Ohhh Benji's. I love mine, its the most depressed looking fish I have. Reminds me of a sad clown. Loves mysis shrimp, and will just sit there and look at flakes float by.. and be like really.. you want me to eat that, when the shrimp comes out, he is the tank bully pushing everyone out of the way for his fill.

Benji? Or Banggai?

Shhh... hooked on phonics worked for us!

That's exactly how mine is and the reason I feed frozen almost every night. Fussy MOFO! He's quite large and out muscles my Kole tang for the shrimp.

I see a Corky back there...nice! I have some from Greg and it's growing like a weed. I'm looking forward to having enough of it to sway like his.

I love my cardinal, cool little angry guy

So the SPS invasion has started. Added a frag (lol personal size frag) of convexa, baby blue mille, purple rim monti cap and some green birdsnest so far. Now I really need to test my PO4 and NO3 cause something is a bit off in this tank. Polyp extension is horriable and lighting and flow are not the issue. But hanna released a NO2 meter so I may look into buying a bunch of those in the future.

Have been looking at running either zeovit or biopellets again. Right now the biopellets are really looking favored due to price and less maintenance. I am also still waiting on my ATO to get here (It should be here friday) so that will determine if its the salitity fluctuation that is causing the issue.

I'm going to do a picture update once everything is re-organized. Moving some LPS over to the 60 tonight

Ooh nice, where did you score a blue milli? I need me some blue in my tank.

I found it took at least a week for my newly introduced frags to start displaying good PE. In my case as a new tank I knew it wasn't NO3 or PO4 yet, so I was all worried about not having enough flow and so on. Sort of the opposite of what you were worried about. :lol: The PE was there the first day but then not after that. But then it came back with a vengeance after a week. I should show you a picture of the RP you gave me - it's super furry now. :lol: So I dunno, could it just be that they haven't fully adapted yet but still might given a couple more days?

Got the blue milli from the 60gal. Just went snip snip. The frag I cut off the convexa should be considered colony size lol. My super grape milli needs to explode a bit more before I chop away. And I am waiting on my red planet to heal more before I go cut some more frags. Letting everyone get theirs before I get my own for the cube. But let me know about baby blue milli tony, could always cut you a frag

See tony this is where I am a bit worried. When I started up this tank at the end of November the rock I used was was dried. All I did was top up the water and when I got home from mexico after the new year I did a water change and than the transfer with as much rock from my previous system and water as well. So even after the transfer I have considered it to be a new system. I just think I need to find an equalibrium in it right now.

Oh and I keep forgetting to write my T5>MH review in here

Well I am a T5 junkie that was interested in MH in the past. In october I picked up a 150watt de and changed out the stock 10k bulb for a pheonix 14k bulb. Big reason I believe T5's blow MH out of the water:

Color - After moving the same corals from my 60 over to the cube I notice that the light is not creating enough "pop" which means that I would need to look into some supplimentals down the road (looking into retro fitting some UVL 18" actinics)

MH fixtures need supplimental. End of story, without a little help from our good old T5 friends they would just be a "meh" bulb. Now LED's... these are sparking interest in my eye

ya LED is interesting.......Im still on the fence about it though...need more proof in the pudding:wink:......cant remember if you have or not...is that fancy coral in the cube yet?

Nope the fancy coral has not made it into the cube yet. A few people who bought frags off of me had some issues and I offered to get them new frags once the colony has healed up. Probably won't be for a while till I get my own into the cube, but I have some new plans.

Well my LPS craze is starting to die off. I plan to sell off some of my ultra acans so I can focus on my true passion, sps. Picked up an ATO off another member and all I need to do now is pick up a pump and tank, this should fix my issue with the salinity change which has effected the sps in the tank now to the point where one is browning out and another has what seems to be burn marks on it (this is the convexa). So back to the diagnostic board.

I also added in a bag of chemi-pure elite to the mix. More issues. After one week of running this stuff I now have brown film algae growing all over my sand and on the glass to the point that its driving me nuts. two thumbs down for you chemi-pure.

But here is the big news. After years of debating I have decided to take the dive. As some of you know I debated about running biopellets for the past few weeks but have now come to a horriable conclusion of what to do in my tank, zeovit. I have always wanted to try it and after seeing lobsterboys results in person and lerking the zeovit forums I think its time. Once the tank is a bit more stable with the addition of the ATO I will be adding a reactor and jumping on the "I have to leave the bar early to shake my zeolite stones" club.

oh and to make this thread interesting, a sweet old pic my dad took in aussie land

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/IMG_1183.jpg

Loook at that shot.. your dad could have won you photo of the month ;)

Brought the new toy home today, also there is more zeo stuff in my fridge than food HA

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P2180108.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...0/P2180106.jpg

So here is my plan. This weekend I have to leave town to go to edmonton (wish I could meet up with a couple of people but my time is tight) so getting fully started will have to wait.

So when I come home sunday the skimmer is getting a vinegar bath due to slime build up, I am going to hunt down a timer for the reactor. I also need to find a scale to measure the amount ot stones that will be in the reactor. But here is my schedule:

first month:

0.4L zeolite rocks (run on timer 3 hours on, 3 hours off)
1 drop zeoBac for the first 10 days than 1 drop every 2nd day
1 drop zeoStart3 x2 a day (morning and night)
1 drop zeoFood for the first 10 day than 1 drop every 2nd day, same time as zeoBac
1mL Coral snow per day
1mL Pohl xtra every second day
1 drop ammino acid per day
1 drop coral vitalizer per day

Later on I am going to add in PS and SP. Also debating about B-balance or Zeozym down the road.

Looking good so far. As for your zeo regiment I would hold off on the zeofood for the first 10 days or so. This will lessen the likely hood of a algae bloom. I rarely use it anymore and mostly just use the xtra. I would even go as far as suggesting just using the the bac, zeostart and spongepower (don't see it on your list) for the first 10 days or so. But that's just from my experience. Good luck !

Hey Laurier, nice addition. How's that skimmer working out for you now, after a little break-in time? I've run chemi-pure since about the 2nd month on mine without any brown slime issues. I did switch to brightwell carbon once, but notice a change in the water clarity, now I run the chemi pure & occasionally both.Keeps it nice and clear so far. Also I added 1 of those actinic led strips that they have at ocean city, they make it look awesome after the main lighting goes out, it's like a fish rave.

Sub sauce, parm cheese and Captains.... we could be friends! lmao!!

first month:

0.4L zeolite rocks (run on timer 3 hours on, 3 hours off)
1 drop zeoBac for the first 10 days than 1 drop every 2nd day
1 drop zeoStart3 x2 a day (morning and night)
1 drop zeoFood for the first 10 day than 1 drop every 2nd day, same time as zeoBac
1mL Coral snow per day
1mL Pohl xtra every second day
1 drop ammino acid per day
1 drop coral vitalizer per day

Later on I am going to add in PS and SP. Also debating about B-balance or Zeozym down the road.[/quote]

Is this what's recommended to start for additives? I'm already running the rocks and have noticed a difference, looking into a dosing schedule.

Well off today to look like a drug dealer, need to go buy a scale to measure my stones. Since the bag I purchased was in Kg I had to figure out how much to run since all my calculations were in L.

So zeolites have a density of 0.85g/cm3 and the conversion for cm3=mL is 1cm3=1mL

So I am going to run 500g of zeolite in this system

umm school is paying off

Thats exactly why I haven't picked it up yet. I probably won't add zeoFood for at least 2 weeks and I do want to add spongepower, just need to wait till next paycheck. Went over my bi-monthly budget lol. When I swing by your place with your frag I will have to chat with you about your regiments

HA HA its the three essentials of life


If your just running the basics (Zeolites, zeobac and zeostart) your ok. The list I have is the reccomended schedule from zeovit for a nano 40 and under. There are still lots of guys out there who have great success with the system who aren't running zeozym,b-balance... but CV,SP,PS,PX,CS and AA are all ones that are highly reccomended to run. K-balance is another one.