Just dumped hundreds of pellets into my tank.

[zombie]

Took the lid off my AFS wrong and dumped half of a nearly full drum into my tank. I got as much out as I could, but there is still probably 100 small pellets that got lodged under rock in low flow areas that I couldn't remove. Need soma advice on how to keep this from turning into a crash.

My plan
1. Test ammonia every hour or two excluding sleeping hours.
2. If ammonia is detectable, dose 2 drops per gallon of prime per 1 ppm ammonia detected
3. Manual water change 10 gallons per day, vacuuming sand and rock to remove any more pellets I find.


Any other advice? Would this merit pulling all my fish and corals and placing them in a temporary setup?

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[Angelo]

I would vacuum siphon the sand around the hard to reach area first. That'll help get some of the nutrients down. Add some beneficial bacteria to help with the chemistry change. You won't need as big of water changes if you focus on cleaning the sand in my opinion. I would recommend doing sections of your sand over multiple days and test between. That way you don't have a serious shift in parameters.

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[jda123]

How big of a tank? If a larger or more established, then just put some GAC on there and it should be OK. If the fish don't get to them, then they won't break down into ammonia at all, or all at once, and it can take quite some time for the bacteria and microfauna to digest them. A mature tank can ramp up bacteria to handle this, just like a fish dying and never being seen or found.

If the tank is smaller, then it might be Ok too.

In any case, mix up a bunch of saltwater just in case you have to do a change.

 

[zombie]

How big of a tank? If a larger or more established, then just put some GAC on there and it should be OK. If the fish don't get to them, then they won't break down into ammonia at all, or all at once, and it can take quite some time for the bacteria and microfauna to digest them. A mature tank can ramp up bacteria to handle this, just like a fish dying and never being seen or found.

If the tank is smaller, then it might be Ok too.

In any case, mix up a bunch of saltwater just in case you have to do a change.

4 year old 65 gallon. Tested a bunch of times and never detected ammonia. I did a 10g water change yesterday and managed to get a bunch more out of the sand.

Water is a bit cloudy today, but everything seems to me looking okay. No pissed off corals or gasping fish.

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[SynDen]

ya, very unlikely you would ever get any ammonia from that, more likely to see some raised nitrates after a week or so, but thats about it.