I think Im skipping the "ugly stage".... been dosing small amounts of Vibrant

WestonNanos

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Just a thought.... I feel that I am not going to deal with any sort of an "ugly stage"... I know I might get killed for saying this, but I have yet to have any brown / green / cyano algae and my corals are happy and growing.

What do I attribute this to?

Vibrant! I saw a BRS video (cant remember which one) they explained Vibrant to be a different strain of beneficial bacteria that is not found in traditional "starter bacterias" that combat algae, and they hinted that possibly dosing this from the beginning could help dodge that ugly stage. So I did exactly that... I dosed less than half of the recommended dose as a preventative measure with the lights on full blast and next to a window getting a couple ours of direct sunlight and no algae so far.... I have only dosed it 3 times in total on week 2 3 and 4...

Water Changes! After one month of the tank being up, I have started weekly water changes around 35ish%. I think this too is helpful for preventing algae.

BUT!!

I do feel that Vibrant has halted or prevented the growth of any coraline algae in my tank even after dosing the Purple helix from ARC as you can see in my build thread...

Overall , aside from the lack of coraline growth, I think that a very small dose of Vibrant as a preventative could benefit a lot of new reefers and potentially keep reefers from giving up on the hobby within the first year.

I know I am one single anecdotal case, but I would love to here what others think?? Do you think small amounts of Vibrant could help to skip the Ugly Phase? Harmful? My tank has only been running since September , do you think an Ugly stage could still be pending ? Do you think my thread is pointless/stupid let me know! Any input is appreciated!

Later September
pic 6.jpg


Mid November
pic 7.jpg
 

mdb_talon

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I think we have no hard evidence of what vibrant is. Certainly it has some bacteria, but is that the "active" ingredient that eliminates algea? Maybe but my bet is they include an algaecide in there.

Not surprised that dosing vibrant could keep your new tank from developing algae. Certainly not something i would want, bit guess it depends on how you want to run your tank.
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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I think we have no hard evidence of what vibrant is. Certainly it has some bacteria, but is that the "active" ingredient that eliminates algea? Maybe but my bet is they include an algaecide in there.

Not surprised that dosing vibrant could keep your new tank from developing algae. Certainly not something i would want, bit guess it depends on how you want to run your tank.
Thanks for the response, I agree. There is a thread on here that thinks vibrant has fluconozol in it and It would make sense. Before starting my tank i looked through about 1000 build threads and did not want to deal with major outbreaks of algae and did not know if water changes alone could combat it... Just more of a topic of discussion , could this be an acceptable process when starting a tank...
 

mdb_talon

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Just more of a topic of discussion , could this be an acceptable process when starting a tank...

I think acceptable and would be interested in the long term results of constantly using it. I am personally believer that algae/phyto/etc (and the pods etc that feed off them) is all part of a healthy mature tank so not something i would do, but interested to see results of people who go that route.
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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I think acceptable and would be interested in the long term results of constantly using it. I am personally believer that algae/phyto/etc (and the pods etc that feed off them) is all part of a healthy mature tank so not something i would do, but interested to see results of people who go that route.
As far as long term, I have not dosed since October, I plan to dose this weekend after a water change and then not dose again... Im happy with how my tank is progressing, but pods and phyto etc. is forsure a topic that I need to research more in the future!
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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I don't think you're skipping the uglies, just delaying them. You may have backed yourself into a corner with the Vibrant. Either you'll have to keep dosing it throughout the life of the tank, or you'll have an "ugly explosion" once you stop dosing it. Interested in seeing how it plays out, definitely keep us updated!
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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I don’t think you are skipping but rather halting the ugly phase if that makes sense. You are stopping the cycle of algae that will populate the rocks and eventually turn into coraline
Could very well be true! We will see how it progresses as I am tapering off dosing and plan for my last dose to be this weekend. I will keep this thread updated in the future with pics etc.
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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I don't think you're skipping the uglies, just delaying them. You may have backed yourself into a corner with the Vibrant. Either you'll have to keep dosing it throughout the life of the tank, or you'll have an "ugly explosion" once you stop dosing it. Interested in seeing how it plays out, definitely keep us updated!
For sure, will do ! I think this idea of "delaying the ugly stage" is going to become the favorited theory/prediction, we shall see!
 

elorablue

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I didn’t get diatoms until 6 weeks in. I have dosed brightwell microbacter clean once a week since the end of my cycle.
My guess is that you will get diatoms in the next couple of weeks then a thin neon green algae in the rocks then that will slowly turn into coralline a month or so after that. Ha!
I’m going to give myself $5 bucks if I’m right. Lol.
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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For sure, will do ! I think this idea of "delaying the ugly stage" is going to become the favorited theory/prediction, we shall see!
It could be! I could see it going the other way too lol I think having a nice algae free tank to start would be nice, but what happens when you sink $100s into coral for the tank and then you get a bad algae outbreak that kills the corals off? I think that'd make people quit just as fast.
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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It could be! I could see it going the other way too lol I think having a nice algae free tank to start would be nice, but what happens when you sink $100s into coral for the tank and then you get a bad algae outbreak that kills the corals off? I think that'd make people quit just as fast.
Exactly ! What happens??? Thats what makes this hobby exciting for me, its fun to try out new ideas and theories.
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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And honestly, I don't think it's a bad thing that this hobby has a high(ish) failure rate. The hobby isn't for everyone, and we're keeping sensitive animals that have specific care requirements. A lot of which are taken out of the wild. I'd hate to see the reef hobby turn into the freshwater hobby, with everyone having a half filled 55 gallon with 4 goldfish and a 14 inch pleco lol
 
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WestonNanos

WestonNanos

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I didn’t get diatoms until 6 weeks in. I have dosed brightwell microbacter clean once a week since the end of my cycle.
My guess is that you will get diatoms in the next couple of weeks then a thin neon green algae in the rocks then that will slowly turn into coralline a month or so after that. Ha!
I’m going to give myself $5 bucks if I’m right. Lol.
Thanks for the input! I do have like 2 tiny specs on my rocks of that neon green algae, we will see how it goes! $5 well deserved if so!
 

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Interesting. I too have been taking my time and haven't hit the ugly phase yet about 2.5 months from starting up my reef tank. I started with dry rock and bottled bacteria and left my lights off for the first two months while my tank parameters stabilized.

I've dosed some Microbacter Clean occasionally which I believe is a bacteria similar to the one used in Vibrant. Curious to see how my tank tracks with yours.

A98B5FBB-4AE8-476F-8E29-3D5B3A2A46EC.jpeg
 

Tamberav

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The only uglies I get with new dry rock is diatoms and some very weak sauce wispy gha that is hardly visible on the glass that gets ate quickly by snails.

It’s not normal to have fields of gha or cyano or such. So never thought it was worth trying to skip. Especially if it could impede coralline.
 

a.t.t.r

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Thanks for the response, I agree. There is a thread on here that thinks vibrant has fluconozol in it and It would make sense. Before starting my tank i looked through about 1000 build threads and did not want to deal with major outbreaks of algae and did not know if water changes alone could combat it... Just more of a topic of discussion , could this be an acceptable process when starting a tank...
Read the whole thread. Testing has shown it likely contains poly quat the same or similar chemical as algaefix and many pool cleaners. Near 0 evidence for any actual bacteria inside including centrifuge separation yielding no results (iirc). I would stop dosing it whatever it is until there are actual answers besides you are just delaying the ugly phase.
 

afrokobe

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I was able to skip most of the uglies, for now at least, by starting up my refugium pretty early on in my build. I did have to turn down the whites a little bit as I saw diatoms come in fast.
 

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