Microbacter clean + cheato

Lil' RegalReefster · Dec 26, 2020

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)

AviR · Dec 26, 2020

The macrobacter clean will help with nitrates. Doesn’t it say that on the bottle?

dvgyfresh · Dec 26, 2020

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 .

Lil' RegalReefster · Dec 27, 2020

ok, the microbacter clean won't directly stop the cheato from growing though right?

Lil' RegalReefster · Dec 27, 2020

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 · Dec 27, 2020

Nasooow said:
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 · Dec 28, 2020

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.