Reef-Roids smell and Diatom bloom

[CRRBear]

Hi Folks,

 

I used reef-roids for the first time last night to feed some corals. I used 1/4

teaspoon as I only have a 32 gallon as opposed to the 1/2 teaspoon per 50 gallon on the instructions. This morning I woke up to a massive diatom bloom in my tank and the water smelled horrible. I have not had diatom issues before this, my tank is fully cycled and stocked with two clown fish. Never had a “bad water smell” issue. Any ideas on cause/prevention/remedy? Has anyone else experienced this after using reef-roids? Appreciate any guideance here.

[ReefGoat]

HOLY SMOKES 1/4 of a teaspoon! That sounds like a lot. I didn't use Reef Roids but used something similar. I used Reef Chili.......I attribute that to some of my problems that I had in my 10 gallon. I think I over did it though so it's my fault but be careful with that stuff. I was only adding like a little pinch of the stuff when I did add it and it still gave me problems i'm pretty damn sure. I can't imagine adding anywhere close to what you added. 

[paneubert]

Diatoms feed on silicates.  Are you sure it was a diatom bloom and not something bacterial?  Also, diatoms usually bloom with adequate light, so appearing overnight when your lights were off would raise my suspicions. 

[Jono]

I'd probably do a water change or five. I bought some ReefRoids but have only used it once and a very small amount. My corals seems to being doing absolutely fine without them. Didn't want to add more nutrients than necessary. 

[CRRBear]

It was your typical brown “dusty” look across my sand and lower portion of my live rock. If it was cyano I would assume it wouldnt have the dusty appearance? My best guess...

[CRRBear]

Yes did a water change today and vacuumed up the “dust”. Tank is clear for now, but still smells horrible. Other parameters like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are 0,0,5. I almost wonder if it was the red reef-roids themselves that settled over everything?

[A Little Blue]

Way tooooo much. 

[patback]

2 minutes ago, CRRBear said:

Yes did a water change today and vacuumed up the “dust”. Tank is clear for now, but still smells horrible. Other parameters like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are 0,0,5. I almost wonder if it was the red reef-roids themselves that settled over everything?

Dumb question, but do you have a skimmer?  Foods like that can cause a skimmer to go crazy, and skim mate smells pretty bad.  

[ReefGoat]

Run yourself some carbon if you have if. That may help with the smell.....I'd do a couple more water changes like Jono suggested. I've read a lot of horror stories about these coral foods making peoples nutrients go crazy. But I've also read people that swear by it and probably wouldn't run a tank without it. I think that the reef chili was one of the reasons the hydroids exploded in population in my tank. 

[paneubert]

I understand the desire for them to sell more product, but I wonder why their directions say to use "way too much" if it really is "way too much".  These are their directions.

 

"For every 100g of tank volume, mix one teaspoon of Reef-Roids with some water from your tank."

[Clown79]

I only use a pinch of reef roids. I literally pinch a bit in my fingers. If over used it does lead to algae outbreaks. 

 

Especially if there is little in the tank to use it.

 

 

Doing a waterchange and adding carbon will help.

 

 

[MrObscura]

I doubt it was the reef roids. 1/4tsp per 25g per directions. 

 

I have a ten and go through 1/4tsp target feeding my corals. I have had no issues. And my tanks only like half stocked, with frags. so I don't know how you'd manage to feed all your corals with less. 

 

It does smell though. 

[A Little Blue]

I wouldn’t use it in newly established tank. Or at very least avoid broadcast feeding method. Target feeding paste like reef-roids is more efficient and less messy. There are vids describing how to go about it. Particles from target feeding will still fill the water column.

 

It’s a lot of food for heavily stocked tank. If you don’t have enough corals and other animals to feed on it, it could lead to disastrous results. Directions are meaningless and misleading. 

[ReefGoat]

 If his tank isn't very old. In my opinion adding 1/4 of a tablespoon of any brand coral food plus feeding your fish is a lot of nutrients being pumped into a fledgling system. Not only that, but if you're going high import with the nutrients you should have a way to high export. Of course once again that's just my opinion which isn't worth much lol. Probably nothing now that I think of it Lmao.      

[FISHnChix]

I use a half a teaspoon of reef roids once a week in my 32 cube .. no biggie 😀.. I feed my fish very little though.. 

[CRRBear]

Thanks for all the input. It's always good to get others experiences and opinions. I am going to do some additional water changes over the coming days (although everything looks good since the last one I just did aside from the smell). Once things have had a chance to settle I may try again at a very very small dose and test the results. 

 

I am running carbon (chemipure elite), and I am using part of my second chamber as a refugium with chaeto so hopefully that will help with some of the excess nutrients. I am not running a skimmer because from everything I have read the skimmers that fit the 32 biocube without mods are fairly useless...am i wrong?

[CRRBear]

3 hours ago, patback said:

Dumb question, but do you have a skimmer?  Foods like that can cause a skimmer to go crazy, and skim mate smells pretty bad.  

I do not.

[CRRBear]

32 minutes ago, Weikel said:

I use a half a teaspoon of reef roids once a week in my 32 cube .. no biggie 😀.. I feed my fish very little though.. 

How much water do you use to mix it? I felt like no matter how much I mixed the solution it still remained very grainy. Should it be more liquid or paste like? I am using a feeding tube to spot feed.

[CRRBear]

1 hour ago, ReefGoat said:

 If his tank isn't very old. In my opinion adding 1/4 of a tablespoon of any brand coral food plus feeding your fish is a lot of nutrients being pumped into a fledgling system. Not only that, but if you're going high import with the nutrients you should have a way to high export. Of course once again that's just my opinion which isn't worth much lol. Probably nothing now that I think of it Lmao.      

When you say high export are you referring to filter feeders or filtration equipment?

[MrObscura]

2 minutes ago, CRRBear said:

When you say high export are you referring to filter feeders or filtration equipment?

A way to remove excess nutrients... i. e. skimmer, refugium, water changes, etc. 

[ReefGoat]

Yes any means of taking the nutrients back out of your system. Instead of just letting it fester and turning your tank into a nutrient factory.

[MrObscura]

I mix it with 5ml of water and stir it into a pasty substance before sucking it into the siringe. Then I spot feed. 

[FISHnChix]

18 minutes ago, CRRBear said:

How much water do you use to mix it? I felt like no matter how much I mixed the solution it still remained very grainy. Should it be more liquid or paste like? I am using a feeding tube to spot feed.

I have a big Turkey baster that i suck up tank water and then squirt that into a measuring cup then mix the roids.  I have about a 5 inch goni that I feed the crap out of and then just kinda blast the other corals with what's left. Wanna say it was made for gonis if I remember right that's why I started it. 

[jmcdaniel0]

I have not used reef rods, but I do use reef chili.  It smells awful.  I had something similar happen, but eventually I found the problem to be bacterial and not nutrient related.    

[jmcdaniel0]

5 minutes ago, Weikel said:

I have a big Turkey baster that i suck up tank water and then squirt that into a measuring cup then mix the roids.  I have about a 5 inch goni that I feed the crap out of and then just kinda blast the other corals with what's left. Wanna say it was made for gonis if I remember right that's why I started it. 

The reef chili I use came with a small scoop and feeding bottle.  Sounds pretty similar.  I would imagine there is not a significant difference between the two.