effects of to MUCH carbon

[dcforester1]

I have been running carbon in my tank for about 2 month now, and I am wondering if thats part of my problem? I didnt run it for about a year, and I am using a two little fishes reactor filled up.

I also had an issue with my bio pellets again. I added a bacteria supplement from
TheraP, Microbe lift and I think it made my bio pellets go nuts. I had a white sludge/slim over everything, and the smell was really bad. I dont know if it reacted with the bio pellets, or what happened, but it wasnt pretty.

Has anyone had any issues with the bio pellets, and what are the down falls of to much carbon in a reef?


TIA Derek

 

[frank180reef]

carbon dosing?

 

[dcforester1]

carbon dosing?

No, just carbon pellets in a reactor. NOT my bio pellets. It is a two part question, that after I posted I thought was little confusing. I should have posted two different threads.

I have been running carbon to clear up the water alittle, and take out any smells.

I am also running bio pellets, and had some kind of weird reaction to something I added to the tank.

 

[Conlius]

Just make sure the carbon isn't tumbling. Tumbling carbon will result in more granulars, which "can" result in head and lateral line errosion in fish. I say "can" losely because it could start an ugly thread about how it isn't fact.

My way of getting around it with 2 little fishies reactor: use the inlet of the 2LF reactor as your outlet. This way, the water travels down through the carbon FIRST and then back up through the small tube...stopping tumbling entirely.

 

[mandrake]

You might have a little too much Granular activated carbon,I run 2 cups of Granular activated carbon in a 2 Little Fishies reactor (a little over half full) for my 120 with 30 sump,probably 100 net gals. of actual water, changed out every month,I think it becomes exhausted quickly, too much might strip beneficial trace elements.The white slime/sludge sounds like definite carbon (not gac) OD. I would siphon out what sludge you can. I dont run pellets, can you slow down your pellet reactor?

 

[dcforester1]

I got all the sludge out of the sump, skimmer, and cleaned all that out. I also cleaned out alot of the lines, to and from it. The lines were so clogged I am thinking of doing them over. I dont know if it was from this, or from awhile back when I first started dripping Kalk, and it kind of made a mess of everything.

 

[JohnK]

Too much GAC at once can cause light shock to corals as the water clarity can improve rapidly.

The only thing I can think of think of that GAC with NP pellets might be that the carbon would make a nice substrate for that bacterial bloom to take up residence.

As for NP pellets, IME they seemed to work to keep nutrient levels low, but at the same time I was constantly battling lots of cyano. I started supplementing the pellet based carbon dosing with vinegar and the cyano rapidly disappeared (just a few days) completely. Then I took the pellets offline completely and upped the vinegar dose some. NP pellets and reactor are now yet another reef related paper weight

 

[reefkeeper2]

The trick with the biopellets is in the amount you use. There is no way for the manufacturer to give an accurate amount for people to add since all tanks and systems are different and the variables in water chemistry will be extreme. People who have high nitrates in their water can get a very exuberant response when the pellets are added. In my case, the nitrates were already low, so I saw almost no response. They have worked great for me, eliminating the need for my nitrate reactor and GFO.

Here is what I have observed about peoples use of the pellets:

Low nitrates, low phosphates + biopellets = little response- use recommended amount
Low nitrates, high phosphates + biopellets = slight response, phosphates come down a little - use recommended amounts
High nitrates, high phosphates + biopellets = exuberant response, cloudy water, slime etc.etc. -cut the dose by at least half
High nitrates, low phosphates + biopellets = slightly less than the response above. -cut dose by half.

I do not know for sure why some people report cyano. I know Liam had it when he used the pellets and he was using much less than the recommended amounts. John K mentions in the above post that he got rid of it when he resumed vodka dosing. It makes sense then that too few pellets could result in not enough carbon to reduce nutrients giving cyano the edge.

I would guess that white sludge and film over everything = too much pellets OR you still have a nitrate level above normal. Also the Thera P might have a carbon source of its own and you overdosed your system with too much carbon. I would stay away from products like that.
As far as the activated carbon goes, I don't know what your initial problem was. Other than providing a nice home for lots of bacteria, I don't think too much carbon can do that much damage to you tank.

 

[frank180reef]

I think I had a similar experience as John FWIW,

they didnt seem to do anything, except give me some cyno.

Like John, they are in the basement, keeping the snow shovel company

 

[cstmpprl]

I upgraded my sump to 100 gal. When I took out my rector with the Bio pellets, I forgot to hook them up to the new sump. A couple weeks later I saw them standing in the corner. Opened the cap and almost passed out. Anyway I have not been using them for about 2 months. I unhappily report that my green algae problem and cyano are back. I started dosing vodka about 1 month ago. I have yet to see an improvement. This post should be from wilfx. I did not realize that I logged in under the wife's name.

 

[frank180reef]

how much vodka do u dose for how much water?

 

[dcforester1]

I dont know if my Bio Pellets are doing anything, but I have Zero Phos, and Zero Trates, so I am not going to stop using them. All of my coraline algae is disappearing, and someone on RC said it because there is nothing to sustaine it????? I dont know if thats the truth, but other have said it could be high Phos, or low Mag, but neither is the case here?

Thanks for the help Derek

 

[wilfx]

how much vodka do u dose for how much water?

I started out with 3ml. Now I am up to 5 daily. I have a 120 with 100 gal sump. With rock I guess around 140 gals?

 

[frank180reef]

I started dosing Jan 3 and I am up to 5 ml and 8 ml of vinegar, I am just starting to get decent skimmer out put.......I have about 300 gallons of water

 

[wilfx]

I dont know if my Bio Pellets are doing anything, but I have Zero Phos, and Zero Trates, so I am not going to stop using them. All of my coraline algae is disappearing, and someone on RC said it because there is nothing to sustaine it????? I dont know if thats the truth, but other have said it could be high Phos, or low Mag, but neither is the case here?

Thanks for the help Derek

Now that am not using the pellets, I know they were working in my tank. I also ran carbon. The intake to the carbon reactor was in the same area as the outlet of the pellet reactor. After a while the carbon reactor had all kinds of goo in it. At the meeting that Randy Farley Holmes did his presentation, I spoke with him later, he said it was normal and that it was the bacteria that the pellets was producing.

 

[AgioNiko]

Paul:
I think you prefer the Bip pellets versus the nitrate reactor, but I just wanted to verify. Are you running phosban in conjunction with the bio pellets

 

[reefkeeper2]

I was at first but not anymore. My sps always had difficulties when I used GFO. Every time I changed the media I would get STN somewhere in the tank.
When I started with the pellets I had both the nitrate reactor and the pellets running. When I turned off the nitrate reactor, the pellets actually seemed to work better. I know there is a ratio of carbon, nitrate and phosphate that bacteria need for optimal growth. I guess that when I turned off the nitrate reactor, more nitrate became available for the pellets and that ratio improved. I no longer need to test for phosphates.

 

[Bobbofin]

Good Experience

In my sump I run a BRS reactor half full of carbon and one third full of SeaChem PhosGuard with a MJ900 pump and a NextReef MR1 reactor with 750ml of Bio-Pellets tumbling from a MJ1200. I change the carbon/PhosGuard reactor monthly. I had slight phosphates and some hair algae but since running this it's all gone away. My tank is pristine, my corals growing like weeds and I'm fragging them.

 

[Sherri]

I have a BRS reactor which has both GFO and Carbon, I change the carbon weekly and the GFO monthly. I also have biopellets. My phos and nitrate have always been zero. My lion tank has a lot of algae in it, the 180g used to but has very little now. I also dose Kent Mag to keep bryopsis down. I have a little cyano here and there but not much. The fuge has caulerpa and cheato in it as well as hair algae. The RDSB is clean -- no cyano. I don't know what does what but the combination works moderately well. I say moderately because the 65g lion tank really does grow algae a lot.