Biopellets or GFO

[gatortank]

I have a BRS duel media reactor (not set up right now) and want to know if I should run Biopellets, GFO or both? My nitrates are high and phosphates are very low. I got a pretty bad algae outbreak. No fish in my tank right now....

I was thinking about running both. What are the pros and cons?

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

[FarmerTy]

What are your actual levels for nitrates and phosphates? I wouldn't recommend running biopellets in those reactors, they don't tumble the best in them.

[gatortank]

Nitrates are 80 ppm and Phosphates are 0 ppm.

I had four fish in my tank and went out of town for a little over a week. My teenage son was supposed to watch my tank and take care of it for me. The day after I got back all of my fish died and that is when the algae went crazy. Took me a few days to find all the dead fish. Started sugar dosing my tank about three or four days ago. Nitrates were at 160 ppm prior to sugar.

FYI. Its a 90 gal with a 20 gallon sump. I have a protein skimmer that is working pretty good. It has been running for 4-5 months. Keep in mind I had this tank running for 3-4 years prior, I had a leak and had to break it down.

[FarmerTy]

Nitrates are easily removable via water changes. It appears as though your high nitrates were just a cause of the dead fish in the tank. If that's the case, I'd do a series of water changes to get your nitrate levels back to manageable levels again, @ 5 ppm.

Nitrates are much easier to take care of because the percentage of water removed is equal to the percentage of nitrate level drop in the system. If you change 50% of your water, you'll see a corresponding 50% drop in your nitrate levels.

[Timfish]

I wouldn't worry about phosphates unless they are above .5 mg/l, this is the high end that's found on reefs (average is .13 mg/l). Check my thread here: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/34556-hair-algae-a-case-study/?hl=%2Balgae%2C+%2Bcase+%2Bstudy

Phosphates stayed pretty high even though the algae was disappearing. Nitrates didn't start dissappearing until AFTER tha algae was under control. There's a very complex battle going on between corals and algae. You need to stick with the water changes like Ty said and physically removing nuisance algae. I also would be would be adding easy corals like mushrooms, button polyps and then some of the hardy corals like birdsnest and some of the montis. Corals compete with algae by directly removing nitrogen in all it's forms from the water and in my opinion the best way to sequester and remove nitrogen.

[gatortank]

I am starting the water changes, but was thinking about still running the reactor afterwards. I am thinking my nitrates spiked when I was out of town and after my fish died is when they went through the roof. The only thing my son did bad was to use about a shot glass full of tap water to de thaw some krill.

What media do people suggest? I have carbon and GFO but its not set up in my reactor yet. I know that Biopellets help more with nitrates and GFO for Phosphates.

[FarmerTy]

Those are the exact medias I use in my tank, GFO for phosphates, biopellets for nitrates, and carbon for organics/toxins.

I'd be surprised if high nitrates killed your fish... Perhaps an overdose of food and maybe ammonia poisoning?

Only reason I say that is my fish have all been living in a tub for 6 months now and the nitrates are above 100 ppm and all fish are still alive. I have an achilles and powder blue in there as well as a myriad of angels and they are all fat and healthy.

[Timfish]

I stopped worrying about nitrates a long long time ago. My routine maintenance keeps them low and when I get called to help with a problem tank as the tank improves and nuisance algae starts to disappear I've seen nitrates jump off the scale with minimal or no complaints from corals.