AF Life Source

[acabgd]

Has anyone used this with a clam in there tank? I added a 5” maxima and it’s doing great but I’m afraid the life source will clog its inner’s.

My only logic is that there's plenty of sediment and other particles in oceans as well, yet clams don't have an issue. Therefore, at least following this logic, there shouldn't be an issue in our tanks.

 

[CincyReefer07]

Questions for all you guys that have used and/or been using the AF Life Source. I just got a bag and planned on using it this evening in my tank for the first time.

Do you guys figure the dosing amount off of your display tank volume or total system volume??
My display is 310 gallons, total system volume is around 370 gallons.

Do you guys turn off your skimmer, return pumps, remove filters socks, turn off UV or anything for a period of time when you dose it??

Is there a dilution ratio for how much tank water to mix in with the mud prior to dosing into the tank? Does it matter? How much water to mud ratio do you guys use??

My tank is 6 months old now, a mix of about 15 frags (mixed reef) and a BTA.

Was thinking to just dose it into high flow areas directly into my tank unless some of you have found better results dosing into a section of the sump…

Thanks for any help, tips, suggestions you guys!

 

[TrottingReef]

I always calculate anything based on Total system volume. I turn off UV and skimmers. I dose into the flow of my return pump.

 

[EugeneVan]

I dose it once a week into my sump for almost a year. I turn off UV and skimmer for about 3 hrs after dosing. I leave all my power head, return pump on and filter sock in.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Questions for all you guys that have used and/or been using the AF Life Source. I just got a bag and planned on using it this evening in my tank for the first time.

Do you guys figure the dosing amount off of your display tank volume or total system volume??
My display is 310 gallons, total system volume is around 370 gallons.

Do you guys turn off your skimmer, return pumps, remove filters socks, turn off UV or anything for a period of time when you dose it??

Is there a dilution ratio for how much tank water to mix in with the mud prior to dosing into the tank? Does it matter? How much water to mud ratio do you guys use??

My tank is 6 months old now, a mix of about 15 frags (mixed reef) and a BTA.

Was thinking to just dose it into high flow areas directly into my tank unless some of you have found better results dosing into a section of the sump…

Thanks for any help, tips, suggestions you guys!

I use a large pill bottle and add a marble size chunk and shake it well and allow to fully dilute then add to sump slowly

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

I just started using life source a few days ago. I am a believer now. Long story incoming :grinning-face-with-sweat:

I started my tank bare bottom with dry rock (will never do that again). I got caught up in the whole biodiversity trend and decided it would be a good idea to start dosing different bottle bacteria's and force the diversity. 1 year later and it has seemed to have a very negative effect on my tank. With stable parameters and regular icp testing I could not grow coral. They stay alive and have good color, just no growth. This is my 10th year in reefing and have had several successful tanks. This was the biggest crap show tank yet.

My theory is by dosing all these bottle bacterias eventually the most aggressive becomes dominant and I believe it is some kind of strain that my corals did not take a liking too. Looking back at my older tanks and the process it always seemed to take a number of months (sometimes only weeks) until I would see sps color up and grow. I can only think this is due to a specific strain(s) of bacteria that eventually dominate and the tank continues on to maturity. Either that strain is not in your typical bottled bacteria or one of those popular brand bottle bacterias contained some kind of aggressive bacteria only good for denitrifying but not necessarily good for coral consumption(coral have only a diet for specific strains and not others?). THIS OF COURSE IS MY THEORY just from what I have witnessed this past year. I have an hunch which brand might have had the bad bacteria.

Another thing I noticed in my tank is that I always had cloudy water for nearly 8 months. Nothing cleared it up including a reef mat, powerful protein skimmer, and even multiple size uv sterilizers. A search seemed to show I mush have been the only person where a UV sterilizer did not help. Adding a few kilos of biomedia was the only thing that seemed to help until the dosing of AF life source.

So this brings me to AF life source. Several days ago I dose the full amount recommended for my tank. The next day water was crystal clear and every single coral was fluffed. Today I am noticing deeper colors in my stagnant sps and have no doubt they are finally on their way to enjoying life. I tried introducing rubble rock and additional pieces of live rock to my system and nothing worked. It seemed it was just not enough to over come the mess I made. AF life source makes sense in my case. Dosing it at regular intervals to get the most natural biodiversity in the mud to dominate seems to work. Even my fish seem to be a lot happier.

I think some might not see a drastic difference because they may not have the same issues I have and already have a very mature beneficial bacteria population in place. I will for sure keep an eye on the progress and try to update.

 

[RockyMountainReefing]

I just started using life source a few days ago. I am a believer now. Long story incoming :grinning-face-with-sweat:

I started my tank bare bottom with dry rock (will never do that again). I got caught up in the whole biodiversity trend and decided it would be a good idea to start dosing different bottle bacteria's and force the diversity. 1 year later and it has seemed to have a very negative effect on my tank. With stable parameters and regular icp testing I could not grow coral. They stay alive and have good color, just no growth. This is my 10th year in reefing and have had several successful tanks. This was the biggest crap show tank yet.

My theory is by dosing all these bottle bacterias eventually the most aggressive becomes dominant and I believe it is some kind of strain that my corals did not take a liking too. Looking back at my older tanks and the process it always seemed to take a number of months (sometimes only weeks) until I would see sps color up and grow. I can only think this is due to a specific strain(s) of bacteria that eventually dominate and the tank continues on to maturity. Either that strain is not in your typical bottled bacteria or one of those popular brand bottle bacterias contained some kind of aggressive bacteria only good for denitrifying but not necessarily good for coral consumption(coral have only a diet for specific strains and not others?). THIS OF COURSE IS MY THEORY just from what I have witnessed this past year. I have an hunch which brand might have had the bad bacteria.

Another thing I noticed in my tank is that I always had cloudy water for nearly 8 months. Nothing cleared it up including a reef mat, powerful protein skimmer, and even multiple size uv sterilizers. A search seemed to show I mush have been the only person where a UV sterilizer did not help. Adding a few kilos of biomedia was the only thing that seemed to help until the dosing of AF life source.

So this brings me to AF life source. Several days ago I dose the full amount recommended for my tank. The next day water was crystal clear and every single coral was fluffed. Today I am noticing deeper colors in my stagnant sps and have no doubt they are finally on their way to enjoying life. I tried introducing rubble rock and additional pieces of live rock to my system and nothing worked. It seemed it was just not enough to over come the mess I made. AF life source makes sense in my case. Dosing it at regular intervals to get the most natural biodiversity in the mud to dominate seems to work. Even my fish seem to be a lot happier.

I think some might not see a drastic difference because they may not have the same issues I have and already have a very mature beneficial bacteria population in place. I will for sure keep an eye on the progress and try to update.

Any update on this?

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Any update on this?

So far so good. My montis are coloring up nicely. What I have really noticed is my bubble gum digitata starting to take off. It is getting all the neon greenish yellow at the tips along with noticeable white tip growth. It was previously just all orange. The tips look like teeth lol. I just placed some tester acros in the tank yesterday to see how those will do.

Most every lps coral is having less days of where they would just be a little closed.

I have dosed it about 3 times now and every time the next day the water is crystal clear and coral are jamming out. It almost makes me want to dose it everyday but I know better.

I love this stuff.

 

[RockyMountainReefing]

So far so good. My montis are coloring up nicely. What I have really noticed is my bubble gum digitata starting to take off. It is getting all the neon greenish yellow at the tips along with noticeable white tip growth. It was previously just all orange. The tips look like teeth lol. I just placed some tester acros in the tank yesterday to see how those will do.

Most every lps coral is having less days of where they would just be a little closed.

I have dosed it about 3 times now and every time the next day the water is crystal clear and coral are jamming out. It almost makes me want to dose it everyday but I know better.

I love this stuff.

Wow impressive. I’m doing bare bottom. Dry rock that was cooked for a year and live rock rubble. I think I will try this to help seed Biome

 

[RockyMountainReefing]

Wow impressive. I’m doing bare bottom. Dry rock that was cooked for a year and live rock rubble. I think I will try this to help seed Biome

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Unless there is a specific reason you need bare bottom such as high flow for acros, I would do sand. I don't think I will ever go bare bottom again even if I set up a small frag tank. The bottom gets nasty looking and scraping it is way harder than scraping the side glass. From this last tank I think its just not worth the hassle and limits surface area for the potential biodiversity.

 

[EugeneVan]

Unless there is a specific reason you need bare bottom such as high flow for acros, I would do sand. I don't think I will ever go bare bottom again even if I set up a small frag tank. The bottom gets nasty looking and scraping it is way harder than scraping the side glass. From this last tank I think its just not worth the hassle and limits surface area for the potential biodiversity.

I run bare bottom tank with GSP to cover the bottom. I think it look nice ;) but watch out for the GSP, once it start growing, it will grow like weed.

 

[chicago]

bring this back up. fighting a dino outbreak after using chemiclean to get rise of cyno. Do we think adding the AF mid helps reduce dino's? or will it compound the issue. thank you

 

[RC_Reefer]

bring this back up. fighting a dino outbreak after using chemiclean to get rise of cyno. Do we think adding the AF mid helps reduce dino's? or will it compound the issue. thank you

You need to know what type of Dinos you have before you make a move.
Go to this FB group for help
Mack's Reef Dinoflagellates support group.
You'll need an inexpensive microscope to ID the Dinos.
I battled Dinos for a long time and they almost broke me.

 

[chicago]

thanks for the post.. I will check out the FB group.. Have been doing this 30 plus years.. and never had to fight Dino's . pretty sure as I did do a look under a microscope. Not sure of the kind though.. started out stringy like and not they are a brown covering the sps and more.. easily blown off with a turkey baster..

As for the AF Mud.. Interestingly I took a spoon full of it in a 1000 ml beaker spinning for 12 hours..
for laughs I put a magnet inside to see if any thing attached.. and an amount of black like sand attached and was picked up by the magnet..

 

[chicago]

sorry here are pics of the particles - from one scope of the mud.. as you see definitely attracted to the magnet.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I had a similar magnetic observation when I used this product last bit over 2 years ago. Concerned with what would happen to my pumps which are huge magnets. My sump is still a mess of the mud which i told myself I would clean for awhile now. Haven't used it since my 2 bag experiment and don't see myself doing so simply from the mess in my sump.

 

[chicago]

wow... I never thought about the fact that I too.. have two iwaki large pumps in the basement pushing water up to the first floor..

 

[Saltyanimals]

Several people on this thread have stated as being regular users without any issues. Maybe I'm just cautious since the stuff physically has no where to go and I dosed 2 bags total into my sump. Before the final sponge filter baffle to the return pump so maybe that has saved my pump. Skimming won't remove it since most of it is still there after 2 years. I'll end up vacuuming if I ever get around to it.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Finally made the time to clean out the sump and scooped out the stuff. 2 bags worth that stayed soft at the bottom, but really not going to get all of it out that easily. Will take a couple more rounds of sump clean up with a 36inch sump. Good amount for sure and yes there was caking of the stuff on my pump magnets. At least for the MJs in the sump that powers my reactors. Lucky I have baffles before the final section where the return pump lives. Did the stuff work? Not sure.. was it worth it? No I wouldn't do it again.