Quote:
Originally Posted by mhucasey
I ran the old pellets for over a year and they did a fantastic job as long as you didn't let them degrade to tiny pieces. There was some off-color residue in the skimmate, but fairly minimal. They tumbled very well. I tried another system for a while then re-booted the tank and decided to go back to AIO. The new formulation pellets were almost impossible to tumble in the same reactor and were disintegrating at an alarming rate. After a few weeks everything- pipes, pumps, reactor, skimmer were coated in orange-yellow sludge. Corals were doing poorly, with peeling/burning and STN.
I pulled the pellets, cleaned the equipment, and added poly-filter and went to regular pellets(dr Tim's brand but I would have used DVH if I could have got them). Within days I was seeing an improvement in the corals and no more losses. I would gladly use the old formula AIO if it were offered but I think that DVH made a bad move here.
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Goes to show, different systems sometimes different results. While I'm with you 100% about the orange residue, I have this as well but seemingly not to the extent you had. If anything I find the new (and older) DVH AIO pellets to hold up very well in durability. In my case I also had a long run with DocT's pellets and for me they broke down extremely rapidly and take a look at this sludge it would clog so bad I'd have to completely take down my reactor weekly! I first encountered this sludge with TLF brand and switched to DocTs upon recommendation. Sludge problem persisted. I've been AIO now for approx 1 yr and no more sludge like this. Yes orange grime but it doesn't impact flow like the others.
Look forward to your report lunar
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