Fed too much

[themcnertney]

As the thread states, I fed too much. Not on purpose. I was feeding a new pellet food which is unusual because I have never fed pellets. Anyway, the pellets are very small, I spilled about half of a new container into my overflow column. I can attempt to siphon out later this evening after work if need be but it won't be easy.

Should I concern myself with it?
I have some snails, worms and pods in the overflow, will they eventually consume all the food?
I don't think this will effect my water quality as they fell in my overflow. They water still needs to travel into my 110 sump, through about 36"x15"x15" of cheato, then by my skimmer before it makes its way back to the DT.

Thoughts?

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

The issue isn't the pellets making their way back to your dt, it's the impact they'll have on water quality. I'm not sure if a one time spillage would have a large impact though. I guess it depends on water volume, quantity of food, food ingredients, how fast it breaks down, if it rots, etc.

 

[themcnertney]

My DT is 220, so I'd guess around a little over 300 gallons total volume. Being its in my overflow, there isnt many scavengers that will clean this up with a relative quick time. I guess I better try to siphon this evening.

 

[Bob Escher]

I would agree with you siphoning. In my opinion ( as a one year newbie to salt) I myself would attempt to clean up as much as I can. When I feed I run feed mode shutting everything down (. Fish only) and then I put my Vortechs into nutrient mode which helps send to overflow and into my Filter sock. If not then I syphon it up but again that's what I do I just don't want or need extra nitrates

 

[Josh King]

I would clean whatever you can out of your sump/overflow sucking with a turkey baster and not worry about the rest. I emptied my sump last month which is full of live rock, and cleaned it completely. You should have seen the gunk that came out! Things are looking better now because of it.

 

[themcnertney]

I have some beautiful non photosynthetic octocoral in my overflow which I hope wont be an issue when cleaning out. Its been a couple of years, but I don't think I glued my drain pipe, so I might be able to pull it out to siphon.

 

[themcnertney]

Well I siphoned out most of the food. I used a small 1/2" hose that I zipped tied to a small pvc pipe so that I could control the places I siphoned. Plus to get down to the bottom of the 30" over flow was a challenge. I cleaned it up best I could and will do my regular sch water change today. Ill test for nitrates in a couple of days do see if I had changes in water quality. No damage to my octocoral that I can tell so I am happy.

BTW. After I siphoned out the overflow, my whole tank was a cloudy mess, I had no idea how much detritus had built up down there. My words of advice is to clean this area every so often.