Does light harm Microbacter7 or reduce its efficacy?

[chapter7]

Debate aside on the usefulness of Microbacter7, I’m considering dosing 3ml daily into my 150 gallon system and would like to pour it into a Simplicity clear acrylic dosing container, which is sitting on a stirrer that would activate before dosing. My question is: does light harm MICROBACTER7 or reduce its efficacy?

The dosing container will be in my sump so it’s not sitting in direct sunlight or much light at all for that matter, but nevertheless, it will receive some indirect light being in clear acrylic. Thanks for chiming in!

 

[Dan_P]

Debate aside on the usefulness of Microbacter7, I’m considering dosing 3ml daily into my 150 gallon system and would like to pour it into a Simplicity clear acrylic dosing container, which is sitting on a stirrer that would activate before dosing. My question is: does light harm MICROBACTER7 or reduce its efficacy?

The dosing container will be in my sump so it’s not sitting in direct sunlight or much light at all for that matter, but nevertheless, it will receive some indirect light being in clear acrylic. Thanks for chiming in!

Great question! Visible light probably does little or no harm to bacteria but UV could, though wavelength, intensity and exposure duration determine how big the effect is. The other question is how long does the bacteria last in the bottle? Can the product become contaminated in the acrylic container.

 

[chapter7]

Great question! Visible light probably does little or no harm to bacteria but UV could, though wavelength, intensity and exposure duration determine how big the effect is. The other question is how long does the bacteria last in the bottle? Can the product become contaminated in the acrylic container.

From Brightwell’s website, it has an unopened two year shelf life from the date of manufacture, but I didn’t see any numbers on an opened bottle, although a google search did pop up one year from Top Shelf Aquatics. Contamination is a good question, hopefully it’s minimal as to be inconsequential?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Not sure how one can assess whether light impacts utility if one is not clear it has utility.

That said, I cannot see indoor light having a negative effect on the bacteria in the bottle, whether they are good or bad.

 

[chapter7]

Not sure how one can assess whether light impacts utility if one is not clear it has utility.

That said, I cannot see indoor light having a negative effect on the bacteria in the bottle, whether they are good or bad.

Thank you Randy, your first point is very true. It’s one I’ve definitely battled with given all of the unknowns.

I was really hoping for a discussion on light’s effect, if any, on bottled bacteria. But to touch lightly on my anecdotal experience from personal observation using Microbacter7, my system is six months old. I dosed Microbacter7 the first four months and decided that I really didn’t need it, so I stopped. In the subsequent month, dinos and diatoms populated my sand bed. I went back to dosing and while it has not eradicated them, it has definitely helped to scale them back to a manageable level. Now, I do understand there are a myriad of variables that can affect any ecosystem, and that correlation is not causation, but I can’t help but to believe dosing Microbacter7 had and has a positive effect on my system.

Having shared all of that, I would LOVE to see more scientific experiments conducted in the bottled bacteria field, beyond the ones BRS attempted. I do not plan on dosing indefinitely, as i believe a mature system can provide for itself. But for now, i do believe it’s helping my system progress towards maturity.