Anyone using Microbacter7? If so ...

[Daniel@R2R]

I realize this info is a little bit old, but I'm wondering if anyone is using this method. The pictures are amazing!​

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Lots of people use it, but aside from speeding up the cycling of a new tank, I am not convinced it is useful.

When one is carbon dosing something like vodka or vinegar, there is generally little need for added bacteria as they will rapidly grow from what is present in the tank, and there's little reason to think the MB7 supplies bacteria that are capable of metabolizing any particular organic you may be dosing anyway.

 

[jackson6745]

Randy, If I understand correctly, MB7 is an enzyme and not live nitrifying bacteria. How do you feel about live bacterial products such as Microbe-lift Nite out II, Tim's, and many other live bacteria additives? Not sure if these bottle bacterias colonize in the aquarium or not. Suggested frequent dosing would make me think this bacteria dies off shortly?

 

[Elegance Coral]

If we assume that MB7, and other products like it, actually contain a meaningful number of living bacteria, can someone explain what the benefit of adding such products would be? What is the benefit of adding bacteria to an established system?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy, If I understand correctly, MB7 is an enzyme and not live nitrifying bacteria. How do you feel about live bacterial products such as Microbe-lift Nite out II, Tim's, and many other live bacteria additives? Not sure if these bottle bacterias colonize in the aquarium or not. Suggested frequent dosing would make me think this bacteria dies off shortly?

MB7 claims to be both live bacteria and enzymes. I don't think the enzymes are providing the effects people observe.

I also do not think that dosing most bacterial preparations, aside from starting a tank, is useful. There are plenty of bacteria already around, and I agree that the dosed bacteria may not survive long term (I don't know).

 

[Electrobes]

Randy, what's your view on other carbon dosing regimens like Prodibio and Zeovit?

 

[Aquaph8]

Randy, what's your view on other carbon dosing regimens like Prodibio and Zeovit?

That's a good question.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Commenting on just the carbon dosing parts of those plans, since they involve a lot of stuff (especially zeovit), I generally think carbon dosing is a good idea for many tanks. It can both reduce nutrients and provide useful bacteria as food for filter feeders (sponges, etc.).

I dose vinegar. Are the proprietary ingredients in these others better (or worse)? I have no idea, but I don't see a reason to think other organics would be better.

FWIW, NOPOX was recently shown to be primarily acetic acid (vinegar) and ethanol (as in vodka). So the commercial methods may not really be doing anything different than the DIY folks.

 

[Electrobes]

Why mix the two, I wonder? Why not just acetic acid or just ethanol?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Not sure why they did, but many people do so. I'm not convinced it is an advantage.

I started using vodka and used it for a while, then got a bit more cyano than I'd prefer so switched to vinegar. I believe I had less cyano after that switch.

 

[HumanMachine]

I have used it a few times to deal with CyanoBacteria that was going out of control in my tank as well as dosing with biopellets. I figure I just do a few drops every other day and it doesn't hurt the pocketbook badly. I'm pretty convinced by the results in my system after utilizing MB7 to deal with cyano so... Maybe that's hearsay but I'll continue to use it.

 

[Reefkeeper12]

If you can dose it daily, but since you supposedly should turn off the skimmer for a couple hours after dosing it, I decided to do it weekly (When I had a skimmer and dosed MB7). It was just a bit tedious to shut off the skimmer everyday plus if you forgot to turn it back on... you paid for it!

I felt that way too until my skimmer pump stopped working and my tank was fine for weeks till it was fixed. Skimmer isn’t as important as people think especially if you have coral in the tank.

 

[Aswswild]

Randy are you just using white vinegar and if so how much would u dose for a 25 gal 2 year old tank. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy are you just using white vinegar and if so how much would u dose for a 25 gal 2 year old tank. Thanks

FWIW, this is a 6 year old thread and I don't even have an aquarium set up now, but I used ordinary distilled white vinegar up to the end when i decided to take it down, and would do so again if I started a new tank.

Here's an article on vinegar dosing that is quite old and very conservative in the dosing. I used far more, but this is a fine place to start.

Reefkeeping Magazine - Vinegar Dosing Methodology for the Marine Aquarium

Reefkeeping ...an online magazine for the marine aquarist.

reefkeeping.com

 

[Aswswild]

FWIW, this is a 6 year old thread and I don't even have an aquarium set up now, but I used ordinary distilled white vinegar up to the end when i decided to take it down, and would do so again if I started a new tank.

Here's an article on vinegar dosing that is quite old and very conservative in the dosing. I used far more, but this is a fine place to start.

Reefkeeping Magazine - Vinegar Dosing Methodology for the Marine Aquarium

Reefkeeping ...an online magazine for the marine aquarist.

reefkeeping.com

Well thanks for the info randy that’s great you are still on here and giving advice. I have been in saltwater for years an always had a tank as well on an off but I only have done old school. Lights ,water,food ,floss,carbon,bio balls lol. So I was wondering if this would be something that I might do as well

 

[SuzanneH]

Do you mix MicroBacter7 with aquarium water first (as directions state) or just slowly add it to your tank? I just slowly poured in a capful into my 32-gallon BioCube. Hope that wasn't a mistake to add it directly into my mixed reef tank. Can I just add it directly to the tank in the future? I really don't want to take out 8 oz of tank water to mix this stuff in, which may set my ATO off.

Thoughts?

 

[brandon429]

Dont use it, cease adding it, no benefit to an existing reef tank. Adding it to an existing reef tank produces no benefit

if the tank is new and needs cycling use cycling bacteria like biospira once, then cease using it after the cycle

 

[SuzanneH]

Dont use it, cease adding it, no benefit to an existing reef tank. Adding it to an existing reef tank produces no benefit

if the tank is new and needs cycling use cycling bacteria like biospira once, then cease using it after the cycle

Thanks, but I have an algae outbreak and MicroBacter7 DOES seem to be helping.

 

[brandon429]

can you post a tank pic so we can assess/correlate pic details to the doser

along with pics, how long has it been added