Way too much food

J

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So last night I got the Current AquaChef Auto feeder. After setting it all up I thought I had set it on the smallest amount; however I had it set the most amount off food. Obviously this dumped a ton of pellets into the tank. Some of the extra is now sump and some ended up sinking to the sand bed. I know I should expect some water quality issues now, but I expected to start seeing the effects by now. I tested my ammonia nitrites and phosphates when I got home from work but they are all still at zero (as far as I can tell with the color matching). How soon should I expect to see issues from this.

Thanks for any help
 
james-lee

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My wife did that once. i came home to some very upset sofies. Needless to say if you can try to suck up some of the pellets on the sandbed. if any thing you will get some algae growth due to the phosphates. Usually in the next 24-48 hours.
 
El Dude

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Yeah what James said...

It takes a while for the excess to degrade. If you have a clean up crew they might take care of it for you. Get a turkey baster and remove the excess pellets from your sump/DT. I have a dedicated turkey baster I got at the dollar tree...it's an invaluable tool!
 
J

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El Dude said:
Yeah what James said...

It takes a while for the excess to degrade. If you have a clean up crew they might take care of it for you. Get a turkey baster and remove the excess pellets from your sump/DT. I have a dedicated turkey baster I got at the dollar tree...it's an invaluable tool!
Click to expand...
That is a really good idea. I never even thought of using one of those in the sump I will have to get one tomorrow. I was thinking Friday morning I would have time to do a water change since I don't work and I would just vacuum the sand bed and remove the excess pellets from there that way.
 
Reef Bullet

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I hope you have enough saltwater mixed up & aerated, ready for an emergency water change. It would take a while for it to break down completely, but I would think it would start breaking down almost immediately. You might not see any ammonia or nitrite spikes if you have plenty of LR to break them down, but eventually the ammonia will be converted to nitrites, then nitrites into nitrates & you didn't mention anything about testing for nitrates. Are you using a skimmer? If so, that should help. What kind of test kit do you use? Didn't you mention having some problems with sps in another post? Sps does not tolerate nitrates & phosphates well. Do you have a refugium? This will help a lot with the NO3 & PO4. Be prepared for algae growth & even an outbreak of cyanobacteria growth. & most importantly, be prepared to do an emergency water change if things don't look good & don't just hope for the best... Test, test, test!
Hope this helps! We all make stupid mistakes sometimes :)
 
J

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I'm using mostly api test kits and seachem test kits for the phosphate, iodine, and silicate. When I tested the nitate, as far as i could tell, it was about 5 ppm. So a little higher then what it should be. I don't know if this is up or down from the day before but my pocillopoa did have some open polyps when i got home
 
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