Some of my Acro Collection

[coral reeftank]

CRT Golden Eye, this one's really been enjoying the concotion, tons and tons of new growth shoots!

CRT Super Shortie, a rediculous coral

CRT Toxic Lemonade, an even more rediculouser coral

 

[FlowGod]

Has anybody tried using hydrospace products for the bacterial starter? Specifically substrate sauce?

Ingredients of Sub Sauce is:

Sea salts, nutrients, B vitamins, live purple non-sulfur bacteria (Rhodospirillum rubrum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris)

Im thinking of trying this and also adding some calcium ascorbate along with calcium carbonate for my flocculant. Maybe the Vitamin C will be an additional carbon source?

 

[coral reeftank]

Old Habits Die Hard

 

[coral reeftank]

Met up with the guys on Reef Therapy to talk about the concoction!

 

[Reef Psychology]

Has anybody tried using hydrospace products for the bacterial starter? Specifically substrate sauce?

Ingredients of Sub Sauce is:

Sea salts, nutrients, B vitamins, live purple non-sulfur bacteria (Rhodospirillum rubrum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris)

Im thinking of trying this and also adding some calcium ascorbate along with calcium carbonate for my flocculant. Maybe the Vitamin C will be an additional carbon source?

I believe it’s the one that Algae Barn sells. Yep. Can’t really say that it helped, but it certainly didn’t hurt anything. Smells horrible though lol. I used old rock, live sand and MB7 and added 7 fish at the same time and didn’t see any changes in ammonia, nitrites, nitrates or phosphate levels. If I were to start another tank I’d probably skip it and use the money for something else.

 

[coral reeftank]

Frontiers | Delivering Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals: Rotifers as Carriers of Probiotic Bacteria

The use of Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs) to increase the resistance of corals to environmental stress has proven to be effective in laboratory ...

www.frontiersin.org

Some food for thought!

 

[coral reeftank]

Eye Candy for dessert!

CRT Dirty Fanta, 3 years of growing out a nub finally pays off!

TGC Bugatti, this one's always in the fast lane

Grafted TGC Boogeyman, talk about contrast!

 

[runetspike]

Today, the bacteria are fermented separately from the main mixture.
Put RODI water in the microwave for 3 minutes, then salted and added bacteria. I left the starter for 30 minutes.
I added the starter culture to the main mixture, after 12 hours, when added to the tank, the absence of whitishness from zeozym is complete.

 

[wickedxreef]

Eye Candy for dessert!

CRT Dirty Fanta, 3 years of growing out a nub finally pays off!

TGC Bugatti, this one's always in the fast lane

Grafted TGC Boogeyman, talk about contrast!

wow!!! amazing eye candy.

 

[cschumaker]

Met up with the guys on Reef Therapy to talk about the concoction!

Freaking great episode. Reminded me of the old Jake episodes! Currently researching alternatives to zeozym since like your YouTube video said, it’s become scarce lol

 

[Reniva Ma]

So I’ve tried Allan’s concoction and I’ve been obsessed. Obviously there’s some kinks to smooth out so I’ve created a list of observations. Note I’m using the v2 at this point which is exposed to air aeration which has been switched to completely sealed. As well as only 12 hours of incubation which my next batch will be much longer.

Positive effects: immense feeding response out of almost all my acropora, insane mesenterial filament extension and improvement in colour and growth. All the best things!

Negative effects: clear slime bacteria build up and dark bacterial spots on some of the acropora.

Now obviously this is due to contamination or poor bacteria choice. Right now I’m using both microbacter7 and zeobak in my concoction. In my unprofessional opinion I believe it is important for sterilization: cleaning/boiling all equipment, wearing gloves and masks etc… to prevent contamination. The new version as already addressed some of these and Allan has as well on different platforms but I think it’s important as well as if you’re doing proper aeration to do it in a different room from the tank to prevent aerosol transmission. I apologize if these were already touched on and I just didn’t see it but I would love to share my experience and I think this concoction and coral nutrition is the next step forward in reef keeping as a heavily negated topic to the casual hobbyist.

 

[runetspike]

So I’ve tried Allan’s concoction and I’ve been obsessed. Obviously there’s some kinks to smooth out so I’ve created a list of observations. Note I’m using the v2 at this point which is exposed to air aeration which has been switched to completely sealed. As well as only 12 hours of incubation which my next batch will be much longer.

Positive effects: immense feeding response out of almost all my acropora, insane mesenterial filament extension and improvement in colour and growth. All the best things!

Negative effects: clear slime bacteria build up and dark bacterial spots on some of the acropora.

Now obviously this is due to contamination or poor bacteria choice. Right now I’m using both microbacter7 and zeobak in my concoction. In my unprofessional opinion I believe it is important for sterilization: cleaning/boiling all equipment, wearing gloves and masks etc… to prevent contamination. The new version as already addressed some of these and Allan has as well on different platforms but I think it’s important as well as if you’re doing proper aeration to do it in a different room from the tank to prevent aerosol transmission. I apologize if these were already touched on and I just didn’t see it but I would love to share my experience and I think this concoction and coral nutrition is the next step forward in reef keeping as a heavily negated topic to the casual hobbyist.

I didn't see any logic in aeration for 8-12 hours.

 

[runetspike]

it is enough to shake the container with the mixture sometimes.

 

[Reniva Ma]

it is enough to shake the container with the mixture sometimes.

That was the original v2 I was following and that everyone else was doing. I didn’t know that at the time

 

[coral reeftank]

So I’ve tried Allan’s concoction and I’ve been obsessed. Obviously there’s some kinks to smooth out so I’ve created a list of observations. Note I’m using the v2 at this point which is exposed to air aeration which has been switched to completely sealed. As well as only 12 hours of incubation which my next batch will be much longer.

Positive effects: immense feeding response out of almost all my acropora, insane mesenterial filament extension and improvement in colour and growth. All the best things!

Negative effects: clear slime bacteria build up and dark bacterial spots on some of the acropora.

Now obviously this is due to contamination or poor bacteria choice. Right now I’m using both microbacter7 and zeobak in my concoction. In my unprofessional opinion I believe it is important for sterilization: cleaning/boiling all equipment, wearing gloves and masks etc… to prevent contamination. The new version as already addressed some of these and Allan has as well on different platforms but I think it’s important as well as if you’re doing proper aeration to do it in a different room from the tank to prevent aerosol transmission. I apologize if these were already touched on and I just didn’t see it but I would love to share my experience and I think this concoction and coral nutrition is the next step forward in reef keeping as a heavily negated topic to the casual hobbyist.

That’s great to hear! How much are you dosing that you notice bacteria build up in the system and on your corals?
If you notice this, I would lower the dosing. It may be that you’re putting too much and the corals cant eat all of it in time. Room temp will also affect the metabolism of these bacteria. It’s best when initially starting to dose slowly and ramp up over the course of a month just to acclimate your corals and system to the new feeding regimen. It’s also crucial to measure the density of your concoction too. You can get an idea by pointing a bright flashlight through the side of the container and noting how much light penetrates, or you can get an imhoff cone.
Like runetspike mentioned, v1 and v2 are generally the same with the addition of constant aeration. V1 is simpler and requires less attention, V2 can rapidly change due to the increased bacterial growth and aeration.
I would only make as much as you can use reasonably within a 5 day period and store in the fridge in between uses after the initial inoculation period.

V3 addresses these issues and should be shelf stable. V3 is akin to making a fine wine, as I’ve noticed that the longer it ages, the acros respond more vigorously to its introduction.

 

[runetspike]

Allan is right, it is more convenient to update the mixture. The longer it stands, the more we observe the formation of films.

 

[runetspike]

The question is different, KZ zeobak and AF pro bio s bacteria will not die at a temperature of 90С ?

 

[Reniva Ma]

I didn't see any logic in aeration for 8-12 hours.

That’s great to hear! How much are you dosing that you notice bacteria build up in the system and on your corals?
If you notice this, I would lower the dosing. It may be that you’re putting too much and the corals cant eat all of it in time. Room temp will also affect the metabolism of these bacteria. It’s best when initially starting to dose slowly and ramp up over the course of a month just to acclimate your corals and system to the new feeding regimen. It’s also crucial to measure the density of your concoction too. You can get an idea by pointing a bright flashlight through the side of the container and noting how much light penetrates, or you can get an imhoff cone.
Like runetspike mentioned, v1 and v2 are generally the same with the addition of constant aeration. V1 is simpler and requires less attention, V2 can rapidly change due to the increased bacterial growth and aeration.
I would only make as much as you can use reasonably within a 5 day period and store in the fridge in between uses after the initial inoculation period.

V3 addresses these issues and should be shelf stable. V3 is akin to making a fine wine, as I’ve noticed that the longer it ages, the acros respond more vigorously to its introduction.

I didn’t think of that. Thanks for mentioning. Right now I’m using about 1/2 dosage over 3 days. I’ll decrease that to over 5 days and see if that helps. Another positive thing I’ve noticed is that my acros are sliming more even an injured one that fell onto my sand bed and wasn’t noticed for 2-3 days. They smell fresh too. Thanks

 

[Jari]

That’s great to hear! How much are you dosing that you notice bacteria build up in the system and on your corals?
If you notice this, I would lower the dosing. It may be that you’re putting too much and the corals cant eat all of it in time. Room temp will also affect the metabolism of these bacteria. It’s best when initially starting to dose slowly and ramp up over the course of a month just to acclimate your corals and system to the new feeding regimen. It’s also crucial to measure the density of your concoction too. You can get an idea by pointing a bright flashlight through the side of the container and noting how much light penetrates, or you can get an imhoff cone.
Like runetspike mentioned, v1 and v2 are generally the same with the addition of constant aeration. V1 is simpler and requires less attention, V2 can rapidly change due to the increased bacterial growth and aeration.
I would only make as much as you can use reasonably within a 5 day period and store in the fridge in between uses after the initial inoculation period.

V3 addresses these issues and should be shelf stable. V3 is akin to making a fine wine, as I’ve noticed that the longer it ages, the acros respond more vigorously to its introduction.

Allan, I'm curious if you have tried freezing the concoction? This is the Finnish version, AB+ on ice made of bacterial mix. I would see this quite convenient way, for example freezing the concoction in disposable ice cube plastic bags and just throwing a cube or two to tank when needed.

 

[coral reeftank]

I didn’t think of that. Thanks for mentioning. Right now I’m using about 1/2 dosage over 3 days. I’ll decrease that to over 5 days and see if that helps. Another positive thing I’ve noticed is that my acros are sliming more even an injured one that fell onto my sand bed and wasn’t noticed for 2-3 days. They smell fresh too. Thanks

Yes, I’ve definitely noticed slimier acros and smell. Especially out of water, they’re more pungent now lol