NP Bio Pellets

[Arsonmfg]

So a few of you have asked about them so I thought I'd give an update...

 

So far I've seen some definite improvements from running the pellets.

 

Late last year there was a painting crew at the school and while they were told specifically to stay away from the tank they obviously didn't listen well... One of them put a ladder or something behind the tank ripping the probes out of the sump and on to the floor. While I was in Florida I was periodicly checking on the tank via the controller and figured the AC was being left on at night because the tank was keeping temps from 75-78. Usually I keep that tank at 77-78 consistently without the use of a chiller.

 

When I came back I went in and checked on the tank, the large emp was dead as well as the 4" Regal that I've been able to feed by hand for the past year and a half amongst a lot of sps that was dead or near dead... Something wasn't right...

 

I finally noticed the temp probe wasn't in it's holder inside the sump, I put the probe back in only to find that the tank was pretty much a hot tub 92 degrees! The whole time I was in Florida the temp probe was reading the room temp and not the tank temp.

 

Anyways... Since this happened there has been N&P problems from all the death that took place in the tank. By problems I mean Nitrates that were too high to measure on any test kits and po4 at .40 no that's not a typo... .40! on Travis' Hanna.

 

After trying lots of things many 80 gallon water changes on a 120 gallon tank nothing was working, I tried the Neo Zeo system only to end up with a huge cyano outbreak. So as a last resort before tearing the tank down cooking the rock and starting the system over I decided to give the pellets a try.

 

They've been in the system for about 3-4 weeks now and almost every bit of Cyano is now gone since the introduction of the pellets. I've done nothing else to the system to be positive on what's making the difference. I've yet to test the po4 on the Hanna but there has been a significant drop in no3 and while it's still high it's back to being measurable so I'm seeing an definite impact on the water quality.

 

I've seen no negative impact on the tank and the bacteria that is colonized on the pellets is a nasty crazy mess but working! Nothing nasty in the tank what so ever like some have experienced with dosing vodka and mb7. All of the bacteria is contained in the reactor.

 

I'll continue to update everyone on the progress with the pellets.

 

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer... If your having problems with high N or P these might be a solution to helping to get you on the right track although if you are having high n&p you need to find the cause of the problem to actually fix it.