144G Half Circle Mixed Reef

[kien]

Originally Posted by Carmen

Well I sure got a lesson in both Coral snow and pellets! Cool...! Thanks Tony, Kien and Doug! I know they are pricey! Seen them at the shop! So...I suppose that is a once a month thing then...ouch...ya I think it may be a tough sell in this household!

Once a month as in dumping in pellets once a month? Um, nope! You fill a reactor full of the pellets. You decide how much you want to run depending on your tank size and fish load. The pellets will start to be consumed by bacteria which also consumes Nitrates and Phosphates at the same time. You do not need to dump out the pellets and replace them (like GFO or carbon; not like that at all). Just let the pellets get consumed and as they deplete, top up your reactor as needed. They do not deplete that quickly actually. I have been running a liter of pellets for about 3 months now and still do not see a need to top up the pellets. In theory these pellets should last a year, so you're really looking at maybe $16 a month to run these. I'm not sure how much Nitrate reducing chemicals or ZeoRocks are but for $16 a month to have my nitrates dropped to zero seems like a smoking deal to me. Also, you can not overdose these pellets to just fill that bad boy (your reactor) with pellets (but make sure the pellets tumble!!).

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Carmen

Doug! I know they are pricey! Seen them at the shop! So...I suppose that is a once a month thing then...ouch...ya I think it may be a tough sell in this household!

The initial purchase price is high but you get a LOT of longevity out of them.

Kien pretty much nailed it down. You don't replace these, you just let them get used up.

When you get a chance read my thread (yeah, it's long, but you don't see anyone complaining about DOUG'S thread, so .. um .. yeah, so there. MINE has stuff like pictures and regular test results and stuff.)

@Doug - I was just getting at that I don't think the Coral Snow had anything to do with the LPS issues she had shortly after. Binding agents blah blah blah whatever, it's all good. But thought it worth mentioning that when I hear torch lost a head and so on, I immediate think brown jelly disease. It's a nasty nasty phenomenon, happens every so often though. Lost some Euphyllia myself this way. One day the coral is fine, the next day it is literally gone and if you don't notice the brown jelly right away it too will disappear thus leaving behind no evidence of what transpired. Just a dead coral skeleton.

FWIW, I do Coral Snow every day. No issues that I know of, just cleaner looking water. It should be a fairly safe thing to use if you ever wanted to try it again, Carmen..

[kien]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Kien pretty much nailed it

I nailed it.. hehehehehe.. sorry, that was really juvenile of me..

Anyway, as you've already mentioned Carmen, Kevin has got them running at the store now, have a look at them as that pretty much demonstrates exactly how they work. You will see that in a month from now the pellets are still there, doing their thing.. and in two-three-four months from now the pellets will still be in there doing there thang

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by kien

Once a month as in dumping in pellets once a month? Um, nope! You fill a reactor full of the pellets. You decide how much you want to run depending on your tank size and fish load. The pellets will start to be consumed by bacteria which also consumes Nitrates and Phosphates at the same time. You do not need to dump out the pellets and replace them (like GFO or carbon; not like that at all). Just let the pellets get consumed and as they deplete, top up your reactor as needed. They do not deplete that quickly actually. I have been running a liter of pellets for about 3 months now and still do not see a need to top up the pellets. In theory these pellets should last a year, so you're really looking at maybe $16 a month to run these. I'm not sure how much Nitrate reducing chemicals or ZeoRocks are but for $16 a month to have my nitrates dropped to zero seems like a smoking deal to me. Also, you can not overdose these pellets to just fill that bad boy (your reactor) with pellets (but make sure the pellets tumble!!).

Actually that doesn't sound so bad then Kien...perhaps something I will check out!

Originally Posted by Delphinus

The initial purchase price is high but you get a LOT of longevity out of them.

Kien pretty much nailed it down. You don't replace these, you just let them get used up.

When you get a chance read my thread (yeah, it's long, but you don't see anyone complaining about DOUG'S thread, so .. um .. yeah, so there. MINE has stuff like pictures and regular test results and stuff.)

@Doug - I was just getting at that I don't think the Coral Snow had anything to do with the LPS issues she had shortly after. Binding agents blah blah blah whatever, it's all good. But thought it worth mentioning that when I hear torch lost a head and so on, I immediate think brown jelly disease. It's a nasty nasty phenomenon, happens every so often though. Lost some Euphyllia myself this way. One day the coral is fine, the next day it is literally gone and if you don't notice the brown jelly right away it too will disappear thus leaving behind no evidence of what transpired. Just a dead coral skeleton.

FWIW, I do Coral Snow every day. No issues that I know of, just cleaner looking water. It should be a fairly safe thing to use if you ever wanted to try it again, Carmen..

Tony, I PROMISE I will read your thread okay! I am sure it's full of excellent information! Thank you for all your insight into the pellets!
As for the coral snow...I refuse to believe it was a coincidence. I have read of others having similar occurences right after adding the coral snow...not exactly sure what the "bad combination" was that caused the LPS losses but it was all too ironic for it to suddenly happen right after adding it. Perhaps it is a combination of the snow and something else in my particular tank at that particular time but...I guess I will never know and am hesitant to try it again. I did check for brown jelly and dipped. (I have seen brown jelly before). But these corals literally just fell off their skeleton in one day.
The pellets are something I will consider if the nitrates do not resolve. I do have to remember that this is a new system and I tend to rush things a little working at the store and such. Just too easy to bring something home every week. I will try to check those nitrates today.
Thanks guys!

[Delphinus]

I wouldn't suggest to you the pellets if I thought there was any reason to be hesitant.

The coral snow thing - it really doesn't matter to me if you use this or not as it's a total cosmetic thing for the most part - sort of like whether you use 10k or 14k lights - it's totally personal choice; however - from all I understand about it, in my mind there's no way it did your LPS in.

Unfortunately what you describe is a typical LPS way to go. It's RTN in a way like for SPS, but on a bigger scale. I've seen that happen on torch, frogspawn and other Euphyllia sp., candycane, brains, etc. It can literally happen overnight. I'm 100% certain that was coincidence for you.

But like I said ... I'm not trying to convince you to use Coral Snow. It's not a product you *need* to run.

Pellets on the other hand ... you will be amazed at what possibilities they open for you.

[Carmen]

Retested my Nitrates and they are still high...around 25. So....I picked up some NP Biopellets! Thought I better snag some from RC since I am sure they will be sold out within a few days! They were a very POPULAR item this week at the shop.
I need to do some reading on them (ie Kien and Tony's thread!) and I had planned on using a TLF reactor for now...since I have access to one.

[Delphinus]

I think they will work out nicely for you. There are two sort of key learnings I can distill out of that whole thread of mine for you:

1) The pellets need to be fluidized in your reactor, dancing and churning around all the time
2) Don't worry about the overall volume of pellets at first, just get the TLF reactor say about 1/2 full. It's more important that they are fluidized in the reactor than it is how much you have of them.

Smaller learnings maybe include:
1) Presoak the pellets overnight before using so that they're good and waterlogged, otherwise you'll have startup issues with them floating to the top
2) Cut the foam sponges in half, or go and get some quilting mesh to use instead. All you want to insure that pellets can't get to where you don't want them - but sponges are a little bit too restrictive and are also more prone to clogging over time.

Any questions with them - ask away! We're here for ya'!!!

[Carmen]

So I did indeed pick up some of the N/P Reducing Pellets from RC last week and tracked down another TLF reactor to use for now.
(And Tony I have read through 21 pages of your thread...may take me a few more days...)
I retested my nitrates today and they are still around 20.
Hooked up the reactor with a MJ1200 and giving it a go. Already noticing some clumping at the very top so I will likely have to remove some of the pellets tomorrow.


Also grabbed a Canary Wrasse since I have some pyramillid snails that I need dealt with and the last time I tried one they seemed to keep the pests in check.


Kevin treated me to a couple of Fire Shrimp...love the little guys. Thanks Kev! Couldn't get a good pic cuz they are in the back part of the rocks.


And thought I would snap a pic of my tiny little sps collection. Starting slow and easy but they are looking good so far!

[JDigital]

Very very nice..

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Carmen

(And Tony I have read through 21 pages of your thread...may take me a few more days...)

Says the girl on page 33 of her own thread

Everything is looking nice. BTW, you have wayyyy more SPS than I do. So you're now "one of them". Deny all you like. You have fuzzy sticks in your tank!!!!!!