Issue with Monti-Caps

[weese3]

Rybren the pellets are 100% your problem..  I was in the same boat as you about a year and a half ago.  My system was ticking right along and I got the brain wave that I wanted to try the new big thing..  Bio Pellets.  Well everything was great until I hit the 6-8 month mark an then it all went down hill.  My monti's started looking IDENTICAL to what yours look like, my birdsnests started to have zero polyp extension that soon led to STN.  I saw very slow STN in some millies and other acros too.

I pulled my pellets all at once.  I also did some major water changes at the same time.

In my rage of the pellets being the problem I left them in the nextreef reactors sitting on he floor in my fishroom and went to bed after pulling them offline.  48 hours later I decided I better clean out the reactors and to my amazement the pellets, water and walls of the reactor were BLACK..  I mean stinky death OMG black sludge in there.  I could only imagine what was going on in there to cause this, but it ended with 2 MR1 reactors being tossed in the garbage because no matter what I did to clean them, they still smelled like death.

There are lots of others with bad experience with pellets all over the other major saltwater forums.

Adam

[JetJumper]

...because no matter what I did to clean them, they still smelled like death.

I know what smell you are talking about.. ITS NASTY!!!  I took my pellets offline when I was moving my sump to a new area and they sat for a week in the container.. eek.. I had to leave the house for a few hours as it was sooo GROSS!

Anywho, I saw something similar with my moniti's when I put the pellets back online in the new sump.. however it settled out and they came back.  I try to clean my pellet reactor ever so often to prevent build up.

[NjOyRiD]

Its been an year and half I've been using bio pellets

I see a prob with smaller monti frags
but my colonies are very nice

[Rybren]

Just a quick update - I lost all of my Monti Caps and most of my Digis.  Once the downhill slide started, I just couldn't seem to stop it.

Sorry Bubbles - that Yellow Cap you gave me had quickly grown into a huge colony and it was my pride and joy.

[asp60]

I Have been running biopellets on all my systems for about two years now and I have nothing to say but great things about them...I think there are one of the greatest things to come out in  in this hobby the past few years. Since i have started using them I have noticed great colours in my corals .. I now always have zero Nitrates & Phosphate.

Not sure whats not to like about them they massively  increase your biological filter  with huge amounts of bacteria and feed you corals bacterial Plankton as well. One key factor in using them tho is too make sure they are all tumbling all the time inside the reactor. I have tried running them in several different types of reactors in the past.... and alltho they cost more I would recommend that you do you an actual biopellet reactor. The difference is the bottom of the reactor is cone shape which makes it ver efficient in tumbling the pellets. I would also say the the recomended amounts they tell you to use are way underrated  I run 3 times the amount they tell you to. When adding them to your system for the first time start with a small amount at first because they will cause a small PH drop and make your water a little cloudy for the firs few days.

Anyhow though I would just share the success I have had with them  maybe this will help out.

[Hookup]

@Ryben,  sucks... hopefully things will continue to improve and you'll again get some monster caps... 

@asp60, Good stuff that you've had success with them... many people have... i think the fear is the number of "my system crashed" or what not stories that are either loosely or directly linked back to adding pellets to their systems.    The crappy thing about the hobby is that its not science...so you never really get to the root of what really happens...

[Rybren]

It is very discouraging.  The tank had been coming along so well too.

[NjOyRiD]

are you gonna try for more caps?

[Rybren]

Yup.  I have a couple of very small pieces that I had put in my pico and frag tanks a few months ago.  I'll eventually move them to the DT.

[cn]

sorry to hear about your loss. I've never used anything else besides dosing cal, alk, mag...I figure if it works why change it.....I have lot of monti digi, cap.... and they are all growing like weed in my tank.

[xenon]

sorry to hear about your loss. I've never used anything else besides dosing cal, alk, mag...I figure if it works why change it.....I have lot of monti digi, cap.... and they are all growing like weed in my tank.

How do you maintain low nitrates/phosphates?

[cn]

How do you maintain low nitrates/phosphates?

To tell you the truth, I have not measured level of nitrate & phosphate for almost 4 years now. I'm running phosphate reactor and cheato in sump. My tank is not the cleanest tank out there but all corals seem doing very well.

[kole18]

Cn the dirty tank you've got the more healthy your corals are same here, i've been running Gfo on & off. But basically a sanbed of carbic seamud & cheatos corals seems very happy. The only thing is my problem those coralline algeas it's all my glass I will scrape it for a week the following week it's back again. But you know my montis it's growing crazy & some acro too. Bio-pellets I've run these for a while it just too much to maintain you've gotta feed your tank well enough to sustain what's these bp to work on your tank. I've seen video clips on YouTube the way they over feed their tank because of BP, arhh too much time for me to do all this kind of work just enough for me to dose a bio cal everyday & change my Gfo media every 2nd month atleast & change water every month too. I hate to say I've lost a few colony of my acro causes of these BP it's ok to try, but having said gotta read the instruction 1st. I've got purple monti cup about 3 layer of cup already just a few hrs it bleached I really missed these monti.

[xenon]

To tell you the truth, I have not measured level of nitrate & phosphate for almost 4 years now. I'm running phosphate reactor and cheato in sump. My tank is not the cleanest tank out there but all corals seem doing very well.

If you remove all phosphates from the water with GFO, how can Cheato even grow?

I do like the idea of using both so that you can maintain stable PH with a reverse photo period.

[kole18]

What seems to noticed is cheato don't grow fast if your running Gfo at same time. But when I offline my Gfo , cheatos grown crazy.

[xenon]

What seems to noticed is cheato don't grow fast if your running Gfo at same time. But when I offline my Gfo , cheatos grown crazy.

Exactly.

That's why I am curious about CN's method.

He must be running a small amount of GFO in order for Cheato to even survive.

[cn]

Exactly.

That's why I am curious about CN's method.

He must be running a small amount of GFO in order for Cheato to even survive.

You 're right. I only run small amount of GFO in the reactor and change it every 3 months; And the cheato doesn't grow fast but that's just perfect for me. I don't want to keep prunning it all the time. This low maintenance method seems working ok for me.