BRS’s Termination of Prodibio Offerings

[mcgullen]

Hi. I noticed that BRS is terminating all Prodibio offerings. Is this because your recent Biome cycling tests found that their products, in particular BioDigest, is snake oil?

My recent tests show that BioDigest has no clear effect over carbon dosing on ammonia, phosphate or nitrate. I have tried freshwater and saltwater using both freshly made water and changed out tank water. I have tried multiple carbon sources. Nothing can make Prodibio BioDigest show any clear difference over just carbon dosing.

I do have 16s rDNA test results on BioDigest and can see that the vial does contain bacteria. It’s just that the bacteria don’t appear to be doing anything.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Prodibio was discontinue several years ago prior to the biome cycling test. There are a variety of factors that go into making the decision to stop carrying a product and normally it isn't too closely related to the testing that Ryan and the BRS Investigates team makes.

I believe Prodibio has been outcompeted in the line up of bacterial products available today like Dr. Tim's, Microbacter 7, KZ, PNS, etc. for achieving similar results in reducing organic build up and getting tanks started off. We haven't done any testing to confirm contents of each product or done comparisons of things like BioDigest and general carbon dosing here at BRS since we haven't had these products for several years to include in these types of tests.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

In reference to this post, we've received some inquiries about the contents/activity of our live PNS bacteria based products and how they differ from other microbial products, including the Prodibio line (Biodigest, etc.). We've also seen some threads on here that pose similar questions. Hopefully this buyers guide (recently published by BRS) will help to provide sufficient background info for anyone wishing to dig a little deeper into these bacteria.

For those seeking more advanced info about these highly useful bacteria, I strongly recommend searching "purple non-sulfur bacteria" and/or "Rhodopseudomonas palustris" in the in scientific literature (especially in aquaculture tech journals, etc.).