My EcoBak journey (struggle)

[kenfuzed]

Well I've had the EcoBak running for 3 weeks now and haven't seen much change for the better. When I started I took my GFO offline, though it wasn't doing much for my phosphate problem.

History: Tank is a moderately stocked 180 with a 100g sump, of which 40g is a refugium w/Chaeto. Water changes (10%) done weekly. Skimmer is oversized for the tank, a Super Reef Octopus XP3000 cone skimmer. Only other filtration is a WM reactor with 2 cups of carbon running fluidized. No filter socks or mechanical filtration used. Parameters: dKH= 8, Ca= 430. 2-part is dosed via dosing pumps. ATO utilizes dual pumps, 1 for daytime RO/DI addition and the second pushes through a kalk reactor at night to balance any pH drop. PH averages around 8.24 during the day and 8.10 at night. About 2 months ago I started losing sps and discovered nitrates were out of control. Did a full sump cleaning, added more sand to the RDSB in the fuge which in all brought down NO3 from 40 to 30 in a week. Also reduced fish feeding.

Day 1 my PO4 was at 0.12 (Hanna colorimeter) and my NO3 was out of control (above 40). Approx 1 liter of EcoBak added to a BRS-copy reactor (no sponges), run by a MJ1200. Left a 2" gap at the top so that top media would have room to tumble if needed. Reactor effluent is output adjacent to the skimmer intake.

Day 3:
PO4 = 0.17
NO3 = 40

Day 7:
PO4 = 0.13
NO3 = 40
Large Valida colony finished RTNing.

Day 10: Performed 15% water change (no w/c in almost 1-1/2 weeks).

Day 14:
PO4 = 0.11
NO3 = 35
Lost my Miagi and Becker torts to rtn
Appearance of new hair algae patch.

Day 17:
PO4 = 0.13
NO3 = 30
Yellow milli colony hasn't had any PE for a week.
EcoBack media stopped its Tetris-like movement up one side and now appears more packed together. Lightly shaking the reactor gets the media moving for a few minutes.

Day 19:
PO4 = 0.14
NO3 = 25
Lost an orange digitata to rtn.

Day 21:
PO4 = 0.16
NO3 = 25
Green tort half RTN'd

Other than the high NO3 and PO4 the only change to this tank was the salt mix a few months ago. I slowly migrated to using D-D H2Ocean and I suspect that some of the reactions are tied to this (just a theory). After I noticed some acros browning out a few months ago I did multiple water changes over the course of 10 days, after which testing of the Mg gave a reading of 1500! Within a day of each water change I notice diminished PE in my acros. Water is mixed with RO/DI that has been doubled checked to be consistently at zero ppm. BTW there have been no fish deaths or additions of anything to the bio load for 3 months that would contribute to any spike in nutrients. All fish and clams are healthy.

 

[Troylee]

it sounds like pests... have you checked for aefw??? "acro eating flat worms" not the nitrates so much but rtn part of it... thats alot of corals to lose....

 

[shapermike]

Day 1 my PO4 was at 0.12 (Hanna colorimeter) and my NO3 was out of control (above 40). Approx 1 liter of EcoBak added to a BRS-copy reactor (no sponges), run by a MJ1200. Left a 2" gap at the top so that top media would have room to tumble if needed. Reactor effluent is output adjacent to the skimmer intake.

I noted that you are using the "BRS type" reactor. I do beleve you realy need more flow through the reactor. the media needs to tumble a little. I have a big reactor and I have very low nutrient level's and I have been running bio-bak for little more then 45 days and I have noted that the algae is starting to go away and it takes longer to build up on the glass of my display tank. I am using 4 liters of the bio-bak in a large reactor and I am not getting enough flow through my reactor either, but the media is floating and not moving. I talk to WM and he was saying to get the media to move a little more in the reactor. to make things clear my system is well over 1200 total gallons but with all the rock and live stock I am around a true 900 gallons of water in my system


For the corals that are having problems, some thing is being changed a lot, so find out what it is that might be stressing the corals change stuff to fast or parasites. The H2Ocean has a little higher prams then some of the other salts out there. I use H2Ocean and I really like it. I see awesome results using H2Ocean and it might be change too much to fast. It is really hard to tell. best of luck

 

[kenfuzed]

it sounds like pests... have you checked for aefw??? "acro eating flat worms" not the nitrates so much but rtn part of it... thats alot of corals to lose....

No pests have been found other than a few pesky aptaisia but no where near the affected corals. The RTN/STN has occured in both Monti caps, digitatas, and acro which rules out AEFW. I believe high nutrients is the culprit. The spikes in PO4 seem to coincide with the change of salt mixes.

I noted that you are using the "BRS type" reactor. I do beleve you realy need more flow through the reactor. the media needs to tumble a little. I have a big reactor and I have very low nutrient level's and I have been running bio-bak for little more then 45 days and I have noted that the algae is starting to go away and it takes longer to build up on the glass of my display tank. I am using 4 liters of the bio-bak in a large reactor and I am not getting enough flow through my reactor either, but the media is floating and not moving. I talk to WM and he was saying to get the media to move a little more in the reactor. to make things clear my system is well over 1200 total gallons but with all the rock and live stock I am around a true 900 gallons of water in my system


For the corals that are having problems, some thing is being changed a lot, so find out what it is that might be stressing the corals change stuff to fast or parasites. The H2Ocean has a little higher prams then some of the other salts out there. I use H2Ocean and I really like it. I see awesome results using H2Ocean and it might be change too much to fast. It is really hard to tell. best of luck

I have been unable to find any pests and nothing has been added to the tank (coral OR fish) in almost 4 months. The only change was to D-D H2Ocean a few months ago.

As for the reactor I think I'll try to change to a larger mesh screen to get better flow. The mesh I had was sort of fine and I can't tell if it is clogging in the bottom, but flow has gone down since originally connecting to my system.

 

[gilmour01]

i would try a different style reactor. i have ecobak running on both of my reef tanks. on one tank i have it in a next reef reactor, and on the other i have it in a BRS reactor. the next reef reactor allows the media to tumble more and i get better results on that system. i cant seem to get the media to tumble well in the BRS reactor, and i end up with more channeling. i'm actually going to switch to a new reactor on that system tomorrow.

 

[shapermike]

What salt did you use before d&d? I have herd when people change salt that because the higher levels in the d&d salt it does affect the corals a little at first try doing smaller water changes and I dont know if you do this but I let the salt mix for 24 to 48 house before using. My coral farm eats up the alk fast so a little higher ake in the water change get diluted fast in my system. I dose around 200 to 400 mils of alk a day. I hope this helps

 

[shapermike]

i would try a different style reactor. i have ecobak running on both of my reef tanks. on one tank i have it in a next reef reactor, and on the other i have it in a BRS reactor. the next reef reactor allows the media to tumble more and i get better results on that system. i cant seem to get the media to tumble well in the BRS reactor, and i end up with more channeling. i'm actually going to switch to a new reactor on that system tomorrow.

I that is what WM was saying. I am glad you posted this now I have to get more presser through my reactor.

 

[kenfuzed]

I have the old WM reactor so maybe I should remove the GAC from that reactor and swap with the BRS style reactor. Would still using a MJ1200 be strong enough on the WM reactor? Currently I have a MJ900 on that reactor for the GAC but doesn't tumble anything.

 

[gilmour01]

i have a mj1200 on my nextreef MR1 and it works great.

 

[uchin]

I run vertex vesion on the dual brs reactor and had to go with a larger pump than the mj 1200. Maybe I missed it but is the output from your media going into the skimmer chamber?.
Off topic, im also going to run two dosing pumps so one can t off kalk at night.

 

[kenfuzed]

Right, the output of the reactor is 1" away from the skimmer pump intake. So the majority of media effluent should be getting drawn into the skimmer.

Regarding that 2-part and ATO, I have 2 pumps sending top off water to the sump. One goes direct while the other passes through a kalk reactor. The pump for the kalk is plugged into a dawn/dusk sensor that you use for a porch light, and that sensor sits near the lights on my tank. Once the tank lights go out it trips the light sensor which allows the 2nd ATO pump to come on (when signaled by the float switch). Therefore during the day only pure RO/DI gets topped off, at night both pumps run sending a small amount of kalk to the sump. The dosing pumps run once every half hour for one minute each.

 

[solitude127]

Since your params where somewhat high, did you have a bacteria bloom (cloudiness) when you first put the pellets online?

 

[kenfuzed]

Nope, nothing that I ever noticed. About a week ago the water became very clear similar to when I used to run ozone (long time ago). Also as mentioned I did experience a sudden outbreak of hair algae on a couple of rocks.

The lights just came on a little while ago and while studying the tank it appears that my very large yellow milli colony is in distress. No polyp extension at all and the color is faded to an eggshell color like its bleached. Same for several other acros, no tissue loss, just bleached. All the lokanis, birdsnest, and monti caps are looking good but these other sps are fading away by the day. I'm thinking its the high nitrates and phos taking its toll and not the pellets since the pellets were added after all this was already going on.

 

[uchin]

How much you media you running. might to take some out. Did yours clump together?

 

[kenfuzed]

It was actually channeling so this afternoon I took it all out and put in a larger mesh screen from a craft store. It is moving again but not consistently throughout the reactor, very gradually tumbling up one side. The reactor is just over 3/4 full.

 

[uchin]

Youtube to see how much tumble people are getting.

 

[Jon Warner]

Hi guys...

The actual "seeding time" is 3-4 weeks. The only people who see earlier results are people who had a bit of a bloom because the bloom itself will rapidly lower NO3/PO4. I've seen many people debate the "do I pull the GFO' question... some have quit GFO "cold turkey" and been fine and some have seen a rebound in PO4 before the ecoBAK "kicks in"... The ecoBAK works best in a tumbling reactor, it works at a slightly lower efficiency in other reactors or canister filters and works at it's lowest efficiency in a mesh bag.

A "gentle tumble" is what you're looking for. Channeling reduces the efficiency of the mass of pellets... excessive flow can generate a bloom in higher nutrient tanks... But in time... it will kick in.

 

[Mr E Wrasse]

I would say that the BRS reactor is not ideal. I have the larger 2 little fishies reactor and it works great with 1L of ecobak. Do you have deep sand beds in your tank? Some folks don't realize how much of a detritus trap sand can be if it's not properly cleaned

 

[ReeferRob]

Is anyone still dosing Prodibio or MB7/Vodka?

 

[Bigevill1]

I was adding MB7, but I have since stopped.