To add or not to add biopellets

[relradi888]

I have a 180 gallon mixed reef running a large skimmer, carbon and gfo. I also have about a 10 gallon refugium with a huge chunk of chaeto. My question is about adding biopellets to my system. I believe I have calothrix algae and occasionally some hair algae.

However my nitrates are undetectable (api and Red Sea tests) and my phosphates are lower than .03ppm. I am assuming my nitrates are being absorbed by the algae and why my tests are reading 0.

Would it be a bad idea to add biopellets if I can't actually read my nitrates?

 

[Eienna]

I have a 180 gallon mixed reef running a large skimmer, carbon and gfo. I also have about a 10 gallon refugium with a huge chunk of chaeto. My question is about adding biopellets to my system. I believe I have calothrix algae and occasionally some hair algae.

However my nitrates are undetectable (api and Red Sea tests) and my phosphates are lower than .03ppm. I am assuming my nitrates are being absorbed by the algae and why my tests are reading 0.

Would it be a bad idea to add biopellets if I can't actually read my nitrates?

Not necessarily a "bad" idea, but if the bacteria cannot get enough nitrate they will not grow, so it's a waste of time.

 

[relradi888]

Not necessarily a "bad" idea, but if the bacteria cannot get enough nitrate they will not grow, so it's a waste of time.

so your saying it shouldnt hurt anything even if it does end up being a waste of time?

 

[mcarroll]

I think I would dose a liquid carbon source if I were going to do something...almost sounds more like you're looking for an excuse to run bio-pellets. LOL.

I think a little green algae is a good thing though, BTW....A LITTLE. IME, absence of any green algae leads pretty directly to cyano (or worse).

Rather than risk throwing off what sounds like a pretty decent balance in your tank, why not consider fortifying an existing part of your maintenance routine?

Do water changes more frequently, for one thing....or larger water changes, if that makes more sense. Harvest your chaeto more frequently and/or boost its light and/or flow to increase growth. Also, consider feeding a little less any way you can - eliminate a cube, or cut down on flakes, or just cut the number of feedings, etc.

Another good option is to clean out all your detritus pockets - in the sump, refugium, at the bases of rocks, under return outlets and beneath flow pumps, etc. Even swirl your finger (or something) around in the sand in these spots to see where the deposits under are - it can be particularly bad there.

Any of those would be sufficient to fuel a small algae outbreak like you describe. Depending what you find, you may get an indication to change or increase water flow in the tank as well.

I would not do bio-pellets, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to be done!

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

Thanks matt for all the suggestion and info in your reply. I do practice most of what you are suggesting such as cleaning the sump and sand of detritus as well as my rocks every week or so. Perhaps I will try to up the light for my chaeto. It's just the calothrix never budges. Do u have any suggestions as far as that algae?

 

[mcarroll]

Thanks matt for all the suggestion and info in your reply. I do practice most of what you are suggesting such as cleaning the sump and sand of detritus as well as my rocks every week or so. Perhaps I will try to up the light for my chaeto. It's just the calothrix never budges. Do u have any suggestions as far as that algae?

Photo?

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

I'll post one tomorrow morning

 

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I would add a cleanup crew or bolster your existing one to take care of a little hair algae.

 

[relradi888]

that's the best I can do for photos, they almost look like diatoms but I am sure they are not. They even give off oxygen bubbles

 

[mcarroll]

that's the best I can do for photos, they almost look like diatoms but I am sure they are not. They even give off oxygen bubbles

Hm.

SKIMMER
How is your skimmer working (your opinion) and how often does it get cleaned - particularly the neck and cup? Is it really foul by the time you clean it?

PURE WATER
Also, do you make your own water? What's your source water like and how old are your filter components?

DETRITUS
Make sure you swizzle around in the sand looking for unfound detritus deposits...especially around/under rocks. Do you get much when you blow out the rocks routinely?

ALGAE
How tight to the rocks is it? For example can you wave it off without touching it? Or does it not even budge for a scrub brush or fingernail?

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

Hm.

SKIMMER
How is your skimmer working (your opinion) and how often does it get cleaned - particularly the neck and cup? Is it really foul by the time you clean it?

PURE WATER
Also, do you make your own water? What's your source water like and how old are your filter components?

DETRITUS
Make sure you swizzle around in the sand looking for unfound detritus deposits...especially around/under rocks. Do you get much when you blow out the rocks routinely?

ALGAE
How tight to the rocks is it? For example can you wave it off without touching it? Or does it not even budge for a scrub brush or fingernail?

-Matt

My skimmer is an aquamaxx em300 which is a pretty lath skimmer.y skim is never too wet and I end up cleaning it once to twice a week (cup and neck) trust me it's pulling out some nasty gunk.

I do have my own 5 stage ro/di unit that makes my water. Last I measured with a tds meter it measures 1. I try to replace the filters on it every 6 months.

I sift my sand and blow off my rocks every week or 2 weeks (depends how busy I am). The sand is usually pretty clean and the rocks are getting cleaner the more I blow out the rocks. I also change my water every week 10 gallons sometimes 20 gallons.

The algae I took a picture of does not seem to budge at all. I've tried scrubbing with a toothbrush and hardly anything came off. I even tried pointing more flow in its direction with no luck.

 

[mcarroll]

That's good that it is working well. Re-tune the skimmer to skim wet - will help in two ways. 1) keeps the skimmer cleaner longer, which keeps skimmer running more efficiently between cleanings. 2) pulls out more crud, including more particulates. Something like green tea or just a little darker is what I shoot for - definitely watery.

What happened that the rocks are full of gunk? (This is probably the main thing driving your algae.) Sounds like the tank may have poor flow? Maybe it crashed at some point in the past? Lots of overfeeding?

If possible, it would be faster (if not easier) to take your rocks out and swish/scrub them in a bucket of water change water.

The fact that the rocks are like this makes me highly suspicious of what's in the sand under the rocks too. (It's usually worse there than in the rocks.)

If I'm doing the math right, you're changing between 5% and 10% of you water weekly. I would do 10% at minimum, when thing are going well. Step it up so you're changing 20% per week at least. If you want to keep the size of the individual changes small (easier and quicker!) then just do around 5% every day for a little while. (If your algae get worse, then at least we'll have a clue where to point a finger.)

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

That's good that it is working well. Re-tune the skimmer to skim wet - will help in two ways. 1) keeps the skimmer cleaner longer, which keeps skimmer running more efficiently between cleanings. 2) pulls out more crud, including more particulates. Something like green tea or just a little darker is what I shoot for - definitely watery.

What happened that the rocks are full of gunk? (This is probably the main thing driving your algae.) Sounds like the tank may have poor flow? Maybe it crashed at some point in the past? Lots of overfeeding?

If possible, it would be faster (if not easier) to take your rocks out and swish/scrub them in a bucket of water change water.

The fact that the rocks are like this makes me highly suspicious of what's in the sand under the rocks too. (It's usually worse there than in the rocks.)

If I'm doing the math right, you're changing between 5% and 10% of you water weekly. I would do 10% at minimum, when thing are going well. Step it up so you're changing 20% per week at least. If you want to keep the size of the individual changes small (easier and quicker!) then just do around 5% every day for a little while. (If your algae get worse, then at least we'll have a clue where to point a finger.)

-Matt

I will try taking some rocks out to clean them, some rocks have always been like that since i got them.
I will also try to increase m water changes.

Also do you know if the nerite snail will eat that type of algae?

 

[mcarroll]

I will try taking some rocks out to clean them, some rocks have always been like that since i got them.
I will also try to increase m water changes.

Also do you know if the nerite snail will eat that type of algae?

ROCKS
If they've always been like that, then that "should" just mean that's a settling zone in your tank's flow pattern. You'd have eventually blown all the detritus out if there weren't new landing in there. What are you using for flow and how is it set up?

SNAILS
I think there's a good argument to be made for having some nerites around regardless, so I'd try at least a few.

That said, the bubbles make me think it's not going to be too palatable.

ALGAE
Does the patch ever spread or get thicker? Does it show up in other spots in the tank?

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

ROCKS
If they've always been like that, then that "should" just mean that's a settling zone in your tank's flow pattern. You'd have eventually blown all the detritus out if there weren't new landing in there. What are you using for flow and how is it set up?

SNAILS
I think there's a good argument to be made for having some nerites around regardless, so I'd try at least a few.

That said, the bubbles make me think it's not going to be too palatable.

ALGAE
Does the patch ever spread or get thicker? Does it show up in other spots in the tank?

-Matt

The algae has spread to the rocks around it but it doesn't spread too fast.
For flow I have two jebao wp-40's. One blows along the front and the other blows along the back. I also have a koralia powerhead blowing across the top length of the tank and a small chinese powerhead blowing the back bottom leg to of the tank behind the rocks.
I picked up 10 nerites and a few other various snails. I'm also going to try more water changes and blow the rocks 2x a week and see how it goes

 

[mcarroll]

The algae has spread to the rocks around it but it doesn't spread too fast.
For flow I have two jebao wp-40's. One blows along the front and the other blows along the back. I also have a koralia powerhead blowing across the top length of the tank and a small chinese powerhead blowing the back bottom leg to of the tank behind the rocks.
I picked up 10 nerites and a few other various snails. I'm also going to try more water changes and blow the rocks 2x a week and see how it goes

I haven't used the Jebao's - would you say they have a similar short, wide/stubby flow pattern to the korellia? (might be hard to compare if the flow rates are drastically different.) Vortech's also have this type of flow pattern if you've seen the flow from them. With one running by itself, can you feel any flow from it on the other end of the tank?

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

I haven't used the Jebao's - would you say they have a similar short, wide/stubby flow pattern to the korellia? (might be hard to compare if the flow rates are drastically different.) Vortech's also have this type of flow pattern if you've seen the flow from them. With one running by itself, can you feel any flow from it on the other end of the tank?

-Matt

I would say the jebaos shoot more of a narrow stream bc I can feel it on the other side of the tank, compared to vortechs which have for of a wide flow

 

[mcarroll]

I would say the jebaos shoot more of a narrow stream bc I can feel it on the other side of the tank, compared to vortechs which have for of a wide flow

That's good.

Any chance you can post some pics that feature the pump placements? At least one full tank shot along the way too, please, for perspective.

-Matt

 

[relradi888]

The one on the right side is now in the back corner of the tank blowing along the back length. And you can't see the additional powerhead behind the rocks on the bottom on the blowing on the back length of the tank

 

[mcarroll]

Well, the tank looks great overall (to me, from this photo anyway) so first lemme say that doing nothing, or close to nothing, might be a fine option. We're just gonna talk about what you might do if you wanted to take action.

I think your old setup (meet and greet photo) gave your tank a bit of an Achilles heel...if you could get to the bottom layer of rocks and the sand under them, I bet it's thick and nasty with detritus down there. You were prolly doing the best you could with those fat-flow korellias in such a long, skinny tank....just the wrong pump for the job. To right this Achilles heel, I would very strongly consider vacuuming out your whole sand bed over the course of four or five (or more) water changes. The tank will be 100% easier to finish cleaning, plus you'll get a lot of detritus out that you'd otherwise never ever get to. (This is the nutrient reserve that your algae is thriving on.) Once the tank is spic and span you can consider putting in a new sand bed or not.

To maximize the effect of your new pumps, make sure only one is running at a time. Do not aim them at anything, but give them the longest, clearest shot across the tank that you can afford them. Your longest distance is from corner to corner if you can give them that view and they are adjustable enough to aim that way. Aim them level-straight across the tank, or with a very slight upward angle to barely break the water surface. Aim side-to-side however you need to.

I know that advice about the sand bed sounds severe, but it's actually pretty easy (just time consuming) and consider how cheap sand is and consider that it's a real, once-and-for-all solution. Also, remember the first thing I said.

-Matt