Microbacter clean + cheato

Lil' RegalReefster

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
132
Reaction score
39
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi there, my tank is a 120g with 25g sump. Around 4 months since fish were first added (medium to heavy bioload). Nitrates are 10ppm and phosphates are 0.03- 0.1. Recently I have run into a dinoflagellate issues and have been combatting it with excessive water changes ( rock scrubbing and sand sifting) as well as upgrading my 12 gallon refugium to try and outcompete the dinos. To help out the cheato I have installed a kessil H380 set to grow as well as beginning to dose brightwell cheatogro. It has begun to grow much faster and I have noticed a decrease of dinos in the DT. The issue is that the dinos are growing faster than the cheato so I am constantly cleaning my fuge out and washing the dinos off the cheato. It is also growing on the rocks and sand and is covering up the new coraline algae growth. I have read that dosing competitive bacteria (specifically microbacter clean which I happen to have on hand) can help eliminate dinos, however, I am worried it may stop the cheato from growing and since my set up is relatively new, the cheato is helping to stop my nitrates from sky rocketing as well as holding back the dino's. If anyone has experience with microbacter clean or any other competative bacterias could you please let me know whether or not I should dose the bacteria. I am aware my situation is not as bad as the others I've seen out there, but the maintenance is becoming quite exhausting and I could really use some help. Sorry for the long post! Thank you in advance!

(BTW my plan is simply to keep the dinos at bay while my cheato grows in and fills the fuge completely allowing it to out compete the dinos which I believe will work. The cheato is currently 1/3 the size of the fuge and at the current growth rate, it should completely fill it in about 1-2 weeks)
 

Bepis

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Messages
1,354
Reaction score
3,504
Location
LA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The macrobacter clean will help with nitrates. Doesn’t it say that on the bottle?
 

dvgyfresh

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 9, 2020
Messages
4,132
Reaction score
9,830
Location
SoCal
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Without proper identification from microscope , cannot tell you how to get rid of Dino’s, however, in my experience water changes aid in Dino bloom, I would dose microbacter 7 and neo nitrate to help Chaeto and also at the same time increasing diversity in bacteria to combat Dino’s .
 
OP
OP
Lil' RegalReefster

Lil' RegalReefster

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
132
Reaction score
39
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That is the main reason I wanted to double-check and make sure the microbacter clean wouldn't harm the cheato since my fuge is my primary source of nutrient export and didn't want to risk halting its growth. (I saw in the video by BRS about refugium mistakes that competitive bacterias could attack the cheato and stop it from growing, however, they seemed a bit unsure as to exactly what the effects were)
 

MarshallB

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 29, 2019
Messages
438
Reaction score
595
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That is the main reason I wanted to double-check and make sure the microbacter clean wouldn't harm the cheato since my fuge is my primary source of nutrient export and didn't want to risk halting its growth. (I saw in the video by BRS about refugium mistakes that competitive bacterias could attack the cheato and stop it from growing, however, they seemed a bit unsure as to exactly what the effects were)
From my understanding the bacteria out competes everything else in the tank for nutrients. Pretty much starving everything else out. Macro algae is still algae and without nutrients it will eventually starve out and die. I've used vibrant and it was suggested to remove macro algae during treatment. I'm assuming microbacter works the same way.
 

Subsea

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
5,332
Reaction score
7,664
Location
Austin, Tx
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi there, my tank is a 120g with 25g sump. Around 4 months since fish were first added (medium to heavy bioload). Nitrates are 10ppm and phosphates are 0.03- 0.1. Recently I have run into a dinoflagellate issues and have been combatting it with excessive water changes ( rock scrubbing and sand sifting) as well as upgrading my 12 gallon refugium to try and outcompete the dinos. To help out the cheato I have installed a kessil H380 set to grow as well as beginning to dose brightwell cheatogro. It has begun to grow much faster and I have noticed a decrease of dinos in the DT. The issue is that the dinos are growing faster than the cheato so I am constantly cleaning my fuge out and washing the dinos off the cheato. It is also growing on the rocks and sand and is covering up the new coraline algae growth. I have read that dosing competitive bacteria (specifically microbacter clean which I happen to have on hand) can help eliminate dinos, however, I am worried it may stop the cheato from growing and since my set up is relatively new, the cheato is helping to stop my nitrates from sky rocketing as well as holding back the dino's. If anyone has experience with microbacter clean or any other competative bacterias could you please let me know whether or not I should dose the bacteria. I am aware my situation is not as bad as the others I've seen out there, but the maintenance is becoming quite exhausting and I could really use some help. Sorry for the long post! Thank you in advance!

(BTW my plan is simply to keep the dinos at bay while my cheato grows in and fills the fuge completely allowing it to out compete the dinos which I believe will work. The cheato is currently 1/3 the size of the fuge and at the current growth rate, it should completely fill it in about 1-2 weeks)

A friend who has done aquarium set up and maintenance in Austin for 30 years, eliminated a dino problem, which was kept in check with UV sterilization, by adding 10G of water change water from a healthy mature system. I suggest you get a load of copepods into your refugium. I also suggest you get some uncured, diver collected Gulf Live Rock https://gulfliverock.com/premium-deco-live-rock
Into your display tank. Also consider detrivores from


[It should seem that the best way to eradicate nuisance dinoflagellate blooms is to put a stop to the problem that allowed them to arise in the first place—excess nutrients. As mentioned earlier, the safest and surest course of action here is to increase competitive pressure on dinos by increasing the densities of beneficial algal species. The enlightened aquarist can carry out a highly effective multi-pronged attack with the use of high-end live algal products such as Ocean Magik. This product incorporates a blend of several species of algae that actually nourish phytoplanktivorous aquarium animals (such as many corals, clams, sea cucumbers, etc.) as they sequester nutrients such as ammonia, nitrate, phosphate and silicate directly from the aquarium system water.]

[In other words, Ocean Magik does not merely eliminate bad stuff; rather, it turns bad stuff into something very, very good. Perhaps most importantly, it does so in the most benign way possible. And, when the job is done, the flourishing algae is happily consumed by a very wide variety of aquarium creatures such as copepods (which, incidentally, put even more pressure on heterotrophic varieties of dinoflagellates by competing for organic waste products). Problem solved!]
 

Subsea

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
5,332
Reaction score
7,664
Location
Austin, Tx
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I consider phytoplankton as the best possible source of carbon dosing. By dosing live phytoplankton you feed many hungry mouths that contribute to the microbial loop to push carbon up the food chain in the form of larvae that feeds many hungry mouths. MOST importantly, all photosynthetic activity consumes carbon dioxide to produce glucose (sugar/carbon) and oxygen. When lights are out, photosynthetic organisms consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide thus operate your algae filter on reverse light period. If you seed your algae filter with detrivores and remove your sock from your refugium.
 
Back
Top