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I think the naysayers of what aquabiomics is doing, either don't understand the technology and what it can and cannot do or have unrealistic expectations of how complex biology is and don't want to hear nuanced answers to the issues they seek to resolve.
I apologize if I misled anyone to think this technology at a "species" level can help hobbyists in any way other than what you are describing here. I think at the species level, the utility is exactly what you say to identify known pathogens of corals and fish. BUT this also requires nuance with interpretation as just because you have a known coral pathogen present in the tank, does not mean it is the cause of your sick/dying pets. This technology is sequencing genomic material, not culturing these microbiota or doing any assessment of viability so we can really only say for sure that the DNA of this organism was found in your tank (although you can make reasonable assumptions based on relative abundance of DNA plus/minus using some clinical/scientific judgement on the plausibility that its not just DNA contamination). Now in a clinical sense we can use the information that a pathogen was detected with the fact that our corals or fish are displaying characteristics consistent with the disease caused by the pathogen and make an educated guess that there is a causative relationship here.Curious what "issues" you think knowing the species of bacteria present in a reef tank can be used to resolve?
I count myself as a naysayer if the purpose is anything other than curiosity of what bacteria are present in any given reef tank, or perhaps diagnosing a specific bacterial pathogen that is causing sick corals or fish.
This I 100% agree with but would add that I think it is "too early to be useful to most ordinary reefers...as a first (or even second, third, fourth) tool in the toolbox when troubleshooting issues". Similar to 23andMe I think aquabiomics shares a responsibility to help the consumer understand their results and if they don't have the capacity to do one-on-one consultations with everyone then it should be clear to the consumer what their results mean and don't mean and what to do with abnormal results of unknown significance. As recommended for most direct-to-consumer tests, the consumer should follow-up on any abnormal values with someone qualified to interpret the data.The technology is too early to be useful to most ordinary reefers, IMO.
I think that is a little extreme, I know you have passionate opinions in this forum especially relative to bacteria and claims some companies make but I don't think this is a fair assessment of the company. I would be interested to hear your evidence why they are one of the "top 4 ripoffs in reefing". I also do not know "DNA" as being a buzzword, I will say that "microbiome" is more widely abused buzzword but I am not aware of any marketing of aquabiomics using these kinds of buzzwords to "scam" consumers.aquabiomics testing is in the top 4 ripoffs in reefing
the public has been tricked by a buzzword "DNA" and assigns validity to anything Eli claims even though the sampling has zero usefulness in reefing. anything associated with that test for cost is a sheer fleecing ripoff.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "small representative area" and "means nothing regarding disease". If you have evidence to support these claims please share, if not you are doing the exact thing you claim to hate about what these companies do.sampling such a small representative area means nothing regarding disease, bacterial clades shown/missing etc. it's just buzzword sales and reefers want to send him their money, just like they want to buy 5 bottles of bacteria per cycle because Dr Tim said nitrite matters.
Have you tried biomics testing and or experiments with MB7? i just started a thread very similiar to this one. I find this fascinating. See here. click this link if you want to see. bascially im just asking if anyone has tested verifiable results on any bottled bacterias as i am trying to determine which to spend my money on, in order to increase a healthy biome. which is the superior bottled bacteria in either diversity, or in ability to keep a healthy biome and reduced nturients.I tried the saltwater setup with 0.1g of sodium acetate per gallon. Both tank showed lowered nitrate. So it is impossible to tell if it's BioDigest doing the work.