Dumped thousands of pellets in my tank

[ZombieEngineer]

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.

I have a 65 gallon tank with 2 clowns, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 banded shrimp goby, 1 shunk shrimp, various snails and crabs, a bunch of euphyllia, zoas, and some plating yellow scroll coral.

My plan
1. Test ammonia every hour or two excluding sleeping hours.
2. If ammonia is detectable, dose 2 drops of prime per 1 ppm ammonia detected
3. Increase DOS auto water change frpm 10% weekly to 20% daily.
4. Set skimmer to skim wetter

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

 

[KrisReef]

Cant reach them with a siphon hose?
Welcome to Reef2Reef.

 

[BoralBandit]

+1 for the siphon hose, are you able to temporarily move livestock to a bucket/container with a heater? It would buy you enough time to siphon it out... I did this when I re did my aquascape, livestock was out of the tank for about 4 hours with a heater and a nero 3... no issues at all

 

[neo1738]

I would just do frequent water changes, test parameters as discussed but 100 pellets likely won't crash the tank. Will create algae problems in the future.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Cant reach them with a siphon hose?
Welcome to Reef2Reef.

I can reach some of it with a siphon hose and got what I could see. Problem is the pellets are the same size as the sand grains and blend in really well. Lots got into crevices of rocks too where it can't come out.

I would estimate there are probably 100 pellets that I can't see or reach with a siphon/turkey baster.

 

[homer1475]

How big of a tank, and how long has it been setup?

 

[Chrisv.]

100 small pellets? Are you sure it's not more? In a 65 g tank 100 pellets probably won't cause an earth shattering issue.

If you compare the volume of pellets in the tank to an average size firefish, would you say it's more or fewer pellets?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

How big of a tank, and how long has it been setup?

65 gallon. It's been running for 4 years.

 

[homer1475]

Not an issue then. 4 year old tank with a well established biome.

Might spike nitrates once broke down, but no need to freak out. Get out what you can, and let your CUC and fish take care of the rest.

 

[Chrisv.]

65 gallon. It's been running for 4 years.

I really think this is less of a big deal than you fear. Could be wrong.

 

[workhz]

Thinking out loud. If you can’t get to them to siphon can you drop a power head in there to blow them around so they’re in the water column and use a filter sock or something on the drain?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

100 small pellets? Are you sure it's not more? In a 65 g tank 100 pellets probably won't cause an earth shattering issue.

If you compare the volume of pellets in the tank to an average size firefish, would you say it's more or fewer pellets?

This is my best guess on how much I wasn't able to siphon out.

100 small pellets? Are you sure it's not more? In a 65 g tank 100 pellets probably won't cause an earth shattering issue.

If you compare the volume of pellets in the tank to an average size firefish, would you say it's more or fewer pellets?

This is my best guess on how many pellets are left in the tank that I didn't already net/siphon.

 

[Chrisv.]

Do you have hermit crabs and other detritus eaters in the tank?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Thinking out loud. If you can’t get to them to siphon can you drop a power head in there to blow them around so they’re in the water column and use a filter sock or something on the drain?

Did that already. Had the wife hold a net while I pointed my WAV powerhead all over the tank running at 100% pipeline mode.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Do you have hermit crabs and other detritus eaters in the tank?

5 hermits, 5 nassarius, lots of the thin white detritus worms in the rockwork. Fairly substantial bristleworm population.

 

[homer1475]

Since the tank is 4 years old, meaning it's well established, and you have adequate CUC, this again is not an issue.

Nutrients will spike a bit, but you will never see an ammonia spike.

 

[Chrisv.]

5 hermits, 5 nassarius, lots of the thin white detritus worms in the rockwork. Fairly substantial bristleworm population.

Oh I think you're going to be totally fine. The bristle worms will have that gone by tomorrow.

 

[homer1475]

Oh I think you're going to be totally fine. The bristle worms will have that gone by tomorrow.

^^ This!

 

[workhz]

Get ready for multiplying zoas.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Since the tank is 4 years old, meaning it's well established, and you have adequate CUC, this again is not an issue.

Nutrients will spike a bit, but you will never see an ammonia spike.

So far haven't seen ammonia detectable. I proactively dosed 60ml of prime.

My ORP did tank pretty low though. Went down from 389 to 189 in like 4 hours.