Microbacter 7 dosing - any downsides?

[Jasongtr]

Our tank is 18 months old, no signs yet of coralline algae, we have a few red patches in some crevices in the rocks, nothing on the substrate, I'm going to assume it's cyano.

It's by no means serious enough to try chemiclean or would I probably want to.

Seen a few things that say using MB7 would add some decent bacteria to the system which may help, but I've also seen a post where someone said adding MB7 will damage our developing system as its maturing.

Any thoughts?

 

[KStatefan]

What kind of bacteria does it add? Is that a type your tank needs?

What are the upsides to adding it?

 

[NeutronMan]

It dropped my phosphates…I guess the downside is your phosphates going to zero if you’re not careful.

 

[Jasongtr]

What kind of bacteria does it add? Is that a type your tank needs?

Who knows to both of those questions, just looking for a gentle help to rid these red patches and assumed mb7 wouldn't hurt and may help

 

[Jasongtr]

It dropped my phosphates…I guess the downside is your phosphates going to zero if you’re not careful.

My phosphate was 0.08 but then recently my small amounts of algae in the display disappeared and the phosphate went to 0.22, I was previously dosing phosphate to keep it above zero, so I'll carefully watch that knowing I have my doser still set up and ready

 

[Gribbles]

Hi there, do you happen to have some pictures of the affected areas you could show us?

 

[NeutronMan]

Forgot to mention that it didn’t touch my cyano algae.

 

[shakacuz]

no harm with adding it to your tank. it adds biodiversity to the tank, however not as diverse as originally advertised. @telegraham sent in a sample of MB7 for testing and it ended up just having 1 main strand, and very little of the rest.

there is this as well you can read through:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aquabiomics-on-microbacter-7.1033316/
also this for cyano maintenance:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/extreme-water-clarity-and-cyano-eradication-made-easy.916381/

 

[exnisstech]

I dose MB7 and zeobac bi weekly on two tanks. I don't know if it helps but it doesn't hurt. I have no cyano in those tanks and little to no nuisance algae.

 

[KStatefan]

Who knows to both of those questions, just looking for a gentle help to rid these red patches and assumed mb7 wouldn't hurt and may help

Shouldn't we want to know what is in something we add to our tank?

 

[Jasongtr]

Hi there, do you happen to have some pictures of the affected areas you could show us?

 

[Jasongtr]

Forgot to mention that it didn’t touch my cyano algae.

Great

 

[Jasongtr]

Shouldn't we want to know what is in something we add to our tank?

The reason for the thread....

 

[shakacuz]

seems more of a flow issue considering the spots where the cyano is at. adding a gyre or slightly increasing wavepump speed will definitely help, as well as weekly bastering of the rocks to suspend the mulm/detritus into the water column to get filtered out by socks/skimmer

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

Forgot to mention that it didn’t touch my cyano algae.

To this day, the only things that have affected my cyano are:

1. Less white light and lower intensity light
2. More flow - like a lot more
3. Hydrogen peroxide.

 

[Jasongtr]

seems more of a flow issue considering the spots where the cyano is at. adding a gyre or slightly increasing wavepump speed will definitely help, as well as weekly bastering of the rocks to suspend the mulm/detritus into the water column to get filtered out by socks/skimmer

I've got a gyre running at 80% (ramping up to 80%) plus 2x sicce wavemakers, I was blowing the red patches off as it was hard to syphon out where it was

 

[BristleWormHater]

What kind of bacteria does it add? Is that a type your tank needs?

What are the upsides to adding it?

It's a nitritfying bacteria mix.

 

[Jasongtr]

Just increased the flow on the sicce powerheads to 95% on the impulse setting, these however are on the side panels at the back firing at each other so I'm not sure what more that will achieve, can't really up the gyre as my torch will be damaged

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think there can be downsides to adding bacteria to a reef tank, unless it is intended just as food for corals, but outcompeting dinos and maybe cyano for space may be one of the desirable uses.

I don’t think nutrients are going to drop enough to be any sort of issue.

 

[Jasongtr]

I think there can be downsides to adding bacteria to a reef tank, unless it is intended just as food for corals, but outcompeting dinos and maybe cyano for space may be one of the desirable uses.

I don’t think nutrients are going to drop enough to be any sort of issue.

Thanks, I grab a bottle and some live phyto