Bio pellets are peeling and clumpy

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by kien

It is possible that you are starving your corals to the point where they have stopped growing. Perhaps with the pellets your water is way too clean? Same thing can happen with any nutrient export method.

Kien is on to something here.... I recently removed all my pellets. Yes, believe it or not I did! But I am now seeing white tipes/growth on most of my corals, and corals that had no polyp extension, now are showing small polyps.

BUT... I also have some algae growing on my powerheads. Just noticed this last night, not much... but it is there. I have recently put a refuge back in with live rock and chaeto. Seeing great results, but will see where it takes me.

If algae comes back, maybe put pellets back in but at a much smaller amount, as I think maybe I was starving all my coral? Just don't know.

FYI, also my skimmer has changed. very green, so this is indicating a much higher nutrient level in my tank prior to the pellets.

Was running about 2-3 litres of pellets before... Maybe I should just use 150-250ml of them after the refuge? Any thoughts?

[tang daddy]

I have a 75g sps dominated tank running a vertex reactor with 1000ml of pellets, I don't notice a slow down of the growth on my sps since starting the pellets. I only feed the fishes once a week with pei mysis and as much as they can eat and feed the anemone at the same time aswell.

I believe the pellets don't slow down growth on sps, but calcium does!
As for feeding sps, it's not needed but it does help to feed them if you have the time. The best time to feed them is 2 hrs after the lights are off, the sps have crazy polyp extension at night. I use to feed zooplankton, phytoplankton, reef roids and cyclopeze but got lazy and haven't done it in a year.

[reef93]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

I have a 75g sps dominated tank running a vertex reactor with 1000ml of pellets, I don't notice a slow down of the growth on my sps since starting the pellets. I only feed the fishes once a week with pei mysis and as much as they can eat and feed the anemone at the same time aswell.

I believe the pellets don't slow down growth on sps, but calcium does!
As for feeding sps, it's not needed but it does help to feed them if you have the time. The best time to feed them is 2 hrs after the lights are off, the sps have crazy polyp extension at night. I use to feed zooplankton, phytoplankton, reef roids and cyclopeze but got lazy and haven't done it in a year.

You made me feel better now, my tank and yours is exactly the same, I also run 1000ml pellets in TLF reactor. But do pellets suck up calcium too ? Because I have never checked my calcium for years but my corals were growing like crazy before. I just do water change 20% twice a month but that is it, I don't feed my corals. I can try to start feeding them and let's see if there is any improvement.