Bacteria: What are your thoughts on adding "bacteria" to your reef tank?

[saltybees]

Started cycle with fritz turbo, use vibrant and fritz zyme 9 with water changes

 

[MSarro27]

Vibrant for reef

 

[brandon429]

@NYBumkin

thank you for responding nice to meet you man

ive seen the hobby evolve this way, to effect that unchanneling:

- bare bottom and high flow

- roller mat catches are common

-sandbed stirring preventatively from the clean condition start, so no or little waste sinks.

-reducing overall surface area (bommie style vs saxby 400lb wall)
(All of us grossly overdo surface area, so removing 3/4 was always an option, it’s less catch points in the system for detritus, surface area is a double edged sword)


-rip cleaners, me and five thousand friends just let our reef pile up then one weekend with a case, of fresh new sand lol, we replace our sandbeds all at once or tap rinse the old one clean, and while taken down the rocks are swished in saltwater. We then set up the same reefs minus all the waste, and let it all pile again one day. The ole procrastinate and catch up, got me thru the nineties



all these are specific to managing particulate waste that directly causes channeling and lowering of biofilter efficiency and directly robs precious filter bac of exposure and flow. My diatribe is to let free bacteria boon by clearing the way.

when that cleanliness is set, the natural bacteria that result from adding frags and rocks and feed will self balance, free o charge. I love free stuff from nature. You then make use of the clean spaces by squirting more diverse feed right into corals mouths, massing them up. cyclic mass, free bacteria the entire time, the tradeoff is export work for clogging filthy waste.

reef tanks will never ever fail to maintain ammonia, don’t get cheated by peace of mind marketing or common misread test errors google has a million examples of

 

[Ruben Sacramento]

I believe bacteria and phyto are two foundation and fundamental parts or the reef that tend to be overlooked and are actually what differentiates a new system from a mature aquarium. In aquaria, diversity is limited by its closed loop design and bacterial populations that are either maintained or devastated by hobbyist practices. Signs of bacterial imbalances are red slime and dyno outbreaks usually caused extremely low to non existent nutrients that cause "good bacteria" populations to diminish and bad bacteria that feed on other elements than nitrogen to thrive.
These are the reasons why on my reefing philosophy/method I use bacterial and phyto dosing the same way I use major and minor element dosing. As a method to maintain stability.
On my 15 months old system running a no water changes method (not Triton or calcium reactor) and without a fuge or algea reactor, I have been able to test this out and noticeably maintain a very stable nitrate level without any "bad bacteria" outbreaks to this date and no coral mortality due to bacterial infections.

 

[inktomi]

I think we can pay a lot more attention to the microbes in our tank than we do today. Some of them can directly impact the health of our corals - imparting greater temperature ranges, reducing chemical stress, etc. I've dosed Prodbio several times, but never have really found it to have a real effect.

That said, I've also used Vodka which only works by increasing the growth of bacteria in our water. Vodka for sure has an effect!

 

[hey_hey_heeyyyyyy!]

I use PNS Yello Sno and PNS Pro Bio that I get from @AlgaeBarn. Not sure of any changes... I've been using it from the start and things are pretty dang stable 6 months in.

 

[Roosterjack]

I use the Aquaforest Pro-Bio S. Too early to say but so far so good.

 

[Emerson]

Yes.

I dose Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Clean weekly (20ml/25 gal). According to the bottle and website, the heterotrophic bacteria in MB Clean are not able to replicate in saltwater like those in MicroBacter 7.
I have also used MB Clean with Brightwell's Razor additive to clear a problem outbreak of red turf algae I couldn't otherwise figure out. On another occasion while dealing with cyano and dinos, I've added MicroBacter7. That and raising PO4 and NO3 to readable ranges helped me completely remove those pests a year and a half ago.
Some may call these snake oils, but a combination of these bacteria products work for me, keeping the pest algae down. I can definitely tell if I skip a week or two of MB Clean.

 

[shwareefer]

I never used to, then I used Vibrant to fight a stubborn turf algae that was entrenched and had gone sexual as well. It stalled the algae but did not kill it, however it nearly wiped out all my ricordea and my torches and hammers lost their colour. All my snails that I have had for years died ( I sadly think they starved). My nutrients went to zeros. I was using the "aggressive" dosage on the bottle and was also perhaps a bit too generous in my measuring.

After realizing what was happening I stopped the Vibrant, started dosing nitrate and M7 and my LPS coloured up quickly but the larger ricordea that survived took several months to recover. I think I will continue with the M7 for a while and maybe forever. I'm not against using Vibrant in the future but I will definitely use reduced dosage.

 

[smallfry]

Vibrant - Reef Safe (Holy cow this stuff is amazing!) Had a GHA outbreak, brown film algae on tank glass that I scraped twice a week, small bubble algae outbreak). After 5 weeks of the weekly recommended dose its all gone. I have a slight white film on my tank glass now, no bubble algae, no GHA. I still have a clean up crew and am now thinking I need to dial this back to biweekly so they still have something to eat.

Dr Tim's Waste Away - one week a month (I dont do Eco-Balance during this week)

Dr Tim's Eco-Balance - their site has a formula that says this is supposed to boost coral color. I do this biweekly.

 

[smallfry]

Vibrant - Reef Safe (Holy cow this stuff is amazing!) Had a GHA outbreak, brown film algae on tank glass that I scraped twice a week, small bubble algae outbreak). After 5 weeks of the weekly recommended dose its all gone. I have a slight white film on my tank glass now, no bubble algae, no GHA. I still have a clean up crew and am now thinking I need to dial this back to biweekly so they still have something to eat.

Dr Tim's Waste Away - one week a month (I dont do Eco-Balance during this week)

Dr Tim's Eco-Balance - their site has a formula that says this is supposed to boost coral color. I do this biweekly.

 

[LittleFidel]

Add Seachem "Stability" when I do water changes and or add new live stock.

Same; I also use it when cycling a new tank.

 

[sfin52]

Absolutely. I buy rubble from different lfs for just this reason.

 

[badams.one]

Yes.

I dose Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Clean weekly (20ml/25 gal). According to the bottle and website, the heterotrophic bacteria in MB Clean are not able to replicate in saltwater like those in MicroBacter 7.
I have also used MB Clean with Brightwell's Razor additive to clear a problem outbreak of red turf algae I couldn't otherwise figure out. On another occasion while dealing with cyano and dinos, I've added MicroBacter7. That and raising PO4 and NO3 to readable ranges helped me completely remove those pests a year and a half ago.
Some may call these snake oils, but a combination of these bacteria products work for me, keeping the pest algae down. I can definitely tell if I skip a week or two of MB Clean.

Hey bud, I've been battling cyano for months and have some MB7 I might begin dosing as last ditch effort.. it's really the only thing I haven't tried. I assume you dosed based on the instructions, but am curious on how much you actually dosed.

 

[Reefvision]

I use PNS Yello Sno and PNS Pro Bio that I get from @AlgaeBarn. Not sure of any changes... I've been using it from the start and things are pretty dang stable 6 months in.

Also giving this PNS bacteria a go ; so far only a few weeks in and no “ game changer “ results with fight with cyano on bed mostly and some rock/glass areas. I will keep with this for awhile before deciding if it is ok for my reef tank(240g)system) .

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. Do you add any type of bacteria to your reef tank and if so what and why?

yes- Fritz 9 and bacter 7 once a month to assure cultures are active and digest ammonia and nitrate

2. What changes have you noticed in your reef tank from these additions?

lack of diatoms, algae and clear tank

 

[LittleFidel]

ive seen the hobby evolve this way, to effect that unchanneling:

- bare bottom and high flow

- roller mat catches are common

-sandbed stirring preventatively from the clean condition start, so no or little waste sinks.

-reducing overall surface area (bommie style vs saxby 400lb wall)
(All of us grossly overdo surface area, so removing 3/4 was always an option, it’s less catch points in the system for detritus, surface area is a double edged sword)


-rip cleaners, me and five thousand friends just let our reef pile up then one weekend with a case, of fresh new sand lol, we replace our sandbeds all at once or tap rinse the old one clean, and while taken down the rocks are swished in saltwater. We then set up the same reefs minus all the waste, and let it all pile again one day. The ole procrastinate and catch up, got me thru the nineties



all these are specific to managing particulate waste that directly causes channeling and lowering of biofilter efficiency and directly robs precious filter bac of exposure and flow. My diatribe is to let free bacteria boon by clearing the way.

when that cleanliness is set, the natural bacteria that result from adding frags and rocks and feed will self balance, free o charge. I love free stuff from nature. You then make use of the clean spaces by squirting more diverse feed right into corals mouths, massing them up. cyclic mass, free bacteria the entire time, the tradeoff is export work for clogging filthy waste.

reef tanks will never ever fail to maintain ammonia, don’t get cheated by peace of mind marketing or common misread test errors google has a million examples of

I rely on bare bottoms, high flow, and rip cleaning the rock work in order to promote healthy bacterial growth. In your opinion Brandon, what are the best ways to keep tanks clean so we can avoid the “procrastinate and catch up” strategy you mentioned?

 

[brandon429]

I truly can’t think of better than bare bottom or remote sandbeds that do not sit directly under fish excretion

those arrangements are designed to minimize waste impaction vs the old way where everyone raced to see who could hands off store up all waste the longest before a crash.

throughput vs storage, and less surface area (catchpoints) is where the hobby is trending. Markedly away from max surface area redundancy days...trickles, bioballs, piling aerobic surface area in sumps. Not harmful, just redundant like having three steering wheels vs one that works just fine.

river and lake management companies use oxidizers and dosers to break down stratification in lake beds (along with air stones the size of a 55 gallon drum, a physical change always accompanies) reducing bacteria are legit but I dont know how much of a difference it makes in reefing, tbd

I can’t fault vibrant for self earning its place among dosers, it passed work thread testing in bulk thousands, save for a few hits and misses like anything. It’s legit imo, best valonia cure reefing has seen. What the hobby needs is a dinos competitor in a bottle bac exceeds 30% efficacy in work threads.

we know bacterial floc is coral food in nature so any company selling nutrition approaches might have legit offers, can’t fault anyone experimenting there.

it’s most fun to point out the export factor though, we leave that out as a hobby, maintaining opened pores vs impacted ones


Physically removing invaders boosts natural bacteria: a giant tuft of hair algae is wicking in feed particles and competing heterotrophic bacteria for on site work, acid production, while plugging rock surface area and natural bacteria -exposure to wastewater-

when we burn off or remove mass algae by hand we restore surface area and contact with our free and awesome bacteria. Ergo, don’t entertain the uglies and your system works better.


your live rock surface area is figuratively this letter microscopically ———> W

the filter bac line the two v shapes inside and out, for max surface area exposure to wastewater.
filling in the gaps with additives, slow water movement blooms, clogging, or a huge mat of cyano changes the presentation to —-> O

and all the surface area is gone. external contact only, loss of 90% surface area by simple matting.

keeping the “W” clean vs packed in with additives is more surface area, so it is a better filter using free bac. No amount of cleaning or water flow can unseat the workhorses from the W/live rock

 

[Rubberfrog]

New tank only. I save the fairy dust for special occasions.

 

[MnFish1]

Sooooo .... is that a yes or a no! I lost my decoder ring so not really sure LOL.

Not to speak for Brandon - I think he means its a waste of money...? Except for starting a tank