Microbacter purple

collinnelson9

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Good after noon y’all, just saw brightwell just released microbacter purple. I see it will feed your corals while adding beneficial bacteria. Just wondering if anyone got there hands on it and see if there is any long term benefits down the road.
 

BluesClues

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Daily update Nutrients still on a downward trend


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Not much change today sadly
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I don’t think this product works at all I have enough for another full dose 1.5ml per gallon if anyone wants I can do this last dose check the PO4 before and after the dose.
 
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spicymikey

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20250629_215943.png

I don’t think this product works at all I have enough for another full dose 1.5ml per gallon if anyone wants I can do this last dose check the PO4 before and after the dose.
That was my conclusion after testing over the course of 3 weeks with three different dosing amounts. As a final test you should try stopping the use of the product while leaving everything else exactly the same and then see what happens to your phosphates over the next 48 hours. That would give you a good indication of whether it has any positive effect. Small drifting is normal. I suspect if you're careful and keep all the other parameters the same you'll see no difference as I did ( and actually saw phosphates rise when I used significantly higher doses of the product!)

Without knowing exactly what kind of pnsb is in this bottle it is hard to predict the results you might see. But even without that information the recommended dosing amount seems so low that I don't know how it can really work without it being some kind of magic bacteria that can multiply at exponential rates beyond that of a fast growing vibrio or bacillus. For that reason I was always suspicious it might just be a product that was created to take advantage of the excitement generated from the Hydro space pns probio product.

But to be fair, even with the hydrospace product, I cannot control my phosphates cost-effectively without dosing significantly more than Brightwells recipe, while also carbon dosing to accelerate the growth of this bacteria during the day, while also running ozone at night to knock back the faster growing heterotrophs in the water column. So with my established methods and procedures I have been able to use less pns probio and save money but it involves more complexity and know how.

Bottom line; using bacteria to improve the quality of your ecosystem is not easy. If your system is small enough you're better off just doing water changes. Any manufacturer that says just go ahead and drop a capful of this into your tank everyday and your problems will be solved is frankly not being honest.
 
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legionofdoon

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I'm glad I don't use it for nutrient reduction 😂. Love my sulfur reactor! I use it(special blend) just to crowd out dinos which at least in my tank works very well. I wonder if people are seeing an increase in phosphates maybe they are adding phosphate in order to increase nutrients and work against dinos.
 
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spicymikey

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I'm glad I don't use it for nutrient reduction 😂. Love my sulfur reactor! I use it(special blend) just to crowd out dinos which at least in my tank works very well. I wonder if people are seeing an increase in phosphates maybe they are adding phosphate in order to increase nutrients and work against dinos.
Thats great! But aside from the early days of a new tank setup, I've never experienced issues with Dinos, so never tried using PNSB products for this problem. I honestly can't say if Purple M (the topic of this thread) would be effective with Dinos.

But regarding a sulfur reactor. Remember, that's great for controlling Nitrates but it would not be effective for controlling phosphates. If the goal is to manage phosphate levels without using PNSB, then you need to use another method like a GFO reactor, extra water changes, or macroalgae with a refugium. These are the only other options I know to address phosphate directly besides bacterial uptake.
 
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legionofdoon

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Thats great! But aside from the early days of a new tank setup, I've never experienced issues with Dinos, so never tried using PNSB products for this problem. I honestly can't say if Purple M (the topic of this thread) would be effective with Dinos.

But regarding a sulfur reactor. Remember, that's great for controlling Nitrates but it would not be effective for controlling phosphates. If the goal is to manage phosphate levels without using PNSB, then you need to use another method like a GFO reactor, extra water changes, or macroalgae with a refugium. These are the only other options I know to address phosphate directly besides bacterial uptake.
Special blend has been a part of this thread from the beginning of it. My phosphates are taken care of by a turf scrubber and I've had to dose on occasion. I'm running 5 nitrates and 0.0 on my phosphates so dinos love my tank. If I'm not mistaken Purple M was advertised as helping against dinos and red slime. Purple M is supposed to be PNSB by the way.
 
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TheReeferer

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Microbe lift special blend is smelly wow!!! I need to keep it bagged to not smell hints of it. For bacteria the worst smelling the better. Also interesting is this brand makes bacteria for septic tanks also…
 
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metro6775

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Microbe lift special blend is smelly wow!!! I need to keep it bagged to not smell hints of it. For bacteria the worst smelling the better. Also interesting is this brand makes bacteria for septic tanks also…
Everyone in my house knows when I dose it. Even kids in their room with the door shut. It dissipates after awhile. I rubber band plastic wrap over the lid.
 
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spicymikey

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Special blend has been a part of this thread from the beginning of it. My phosphates are taken care of by a turf scrubber and I've had to dose on occasion. I'm running 5 nitrates and 0.0 on my phosphates so dinos love my tank. If I'm not mistaken Purple M was advertised as helping against dinos and red slime. Purple M is supposed to be PNSB by the way.
Sorry, I thought you were suggesting that your sulfur reactor was contributing to phosphate control. My bad. Yeah a Turf scrubber would definitely help solve that problem and is another good option.
 
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legionofdoon

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Microbe lift special blend is smelly wow!!! I need to keep it bagged to not smell hints of it. For bacteria the worst smelling the better. Also interesting is this brand makes bacteria for septic tanks also…
They've been in the bacteria business for a long time. They also have stuff for ponds
 
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spicymikey

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Just curious. Take it out of the trash and Shake It Up. What does it look like now after shaking it ? Also what does it smell like ? Purple non sulfuric bacteria can clump and create a lot of decay when it dies. Of course this is just out of curiosity, definitely don't use it and get your money back.

This is brightwell's attempt at getting in the pnsb business. The problem is this type of bacteria does not really go dormant very well and it has a much shorter shelf life. Their statements about shelf life and low amount of dosing do not jive with how this bacteria works so I am real skeptical about what's even in these bottles. As I said in an earlier post I tried it and it really had no better effect than just using regular straight heterotrophic bacteria.
 
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LovinlifeinGuam

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Good after noon y’all, just saw brightwell just released microbacter purple. I see it will feed your corals while adding beneficial bacteria. Just wondering if anyone got there hands on it and see if there is any long term benefits down the road.
If you want to spend your money on something you think might be working, but really aren't sure, this is the product for you!!
 
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bluecheese

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Just curious. Take it out of the trash and Shake It Up. What does it look like now after shaking it ? Also what does it smell like ? Purple non sulfuric bacteria can clump and create a lot of decay when it dies. Of course this is just out of curiosity, definitely don't use it and get your money back.

This is brightwell's attempt at getting in the pnsb business. The problem is this type of bacteria does not really go dormant very well and it has a much shorter shelf life. Their statements about shelf life and low amount of dosing do not jive with how this bacteria works so I am real skeptical about what's even in these bottles. As I said in an earlier post I tried it and it really had no better effect than just using regular straight heterotrophic bacteria.
I shook it up when I first received it. I just made the liquid a milky-green color.

I've been contacted by Brightwell, and everything is all good.
 
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Lousybreed

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I shook it up when I first received it. I just made the liquid a milky-green color.

I've been contacted by Brightwell, and everything is all good.
I do not want to scare anyone here but if this happens to you…..please consider this. I am really leery of bacterial products in our hobby due to the possibility of contamination and worse yet would be that contamination is a pathogen. I do not know if the manufacturers do a full panel batch testing to ensure all product is pathogen free, based on the costs associated with proper testing I worry they do not. Or some do not. I personally do not think the risk is worth the reward for these types of product until manufacturers release full transparency final product testing.

I would treat a bottle like you recieved as a contaminated bottle, put gloves on pack it in a thick plastic bag, seal, repeat for at least another bag. Put in garbage. Ensure it cannot leak while the garbage guy handles your garbage. It’s that risky.

I have 8 yrs experience in the probiotic and cheese culture industry. The same principles apply in those industries as do here for aquarium products. If we had a contaminated batch we could not sewer it until we sterilized the entire batch. We had to call the county we manufactured in to even get approval to do a sterilized dump.

Luca
 
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bluecheese

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I do not want to scare anyone here but if this happens to you…..please consider this. I am really leery of bacterial products in our hobby due to the possibility of contamination and worse yet would be that contamination is a pathogen. I do not know if the manufacturers do a full panel batch testing to ensure all product is pathogen free, based on the costs associated with proper testing I worry they do not. Or some do not. I personally do not think the risk is worth the reward for these types of product until manufacturers release full transparency final product testing.

I would treat a bottle like you recieved as a contaminated bottle, put gloves on pack it in a thick plastic bag, seal, repeat for at least another bag. Put in garbage. Ensure it cannot leak while the garbage guy handles your garbage. It’s that risky.

I have 8 yrs experience in the probiotic and cheese culture industry. The same principles apply in those industries as do here for aquarium products. If we had a contaminated batch we could not sewer it until we sterilized the entire batch. We had to call the county we manufactured in to even get approval to do a sterilized dump.

Luca
So I shouldn't have poured some in my boss's coffee?
 
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mmorrison55

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Seems im rehashing old threads today, and this one was very interesting. I’d be curious what people’s thoughts are now 3 months (or more) later?

why is the recommended dosing of these products so different? Aren’t they all basically just the PNSB and wouldn’t they be dosed similarly?

My thing is that many of us run uv, and some also run ozone, so if you need to disable uv and ozone for 24-48 hours after dosing, how can you dose daily as I think hydrospace recommends. And if daily dosing is required, who can afford it unless you are running a nano tank? I think @spicymikey confirmed he was adding 200 ml per day. Thats almost 2 gallons a month for a product thats $150 a gallon. I think someone else in this thread suggested that hydrospace needed to revisit their dosing instructions. Unless they really mean for their product to be effective requires daily dosing at these levels. But I can’t imagine they would expect a $300 per month outlay to dose their product effectively.

Brightwell seems to recommend weekly dosing (or more if desired), but it seems not many people were praising their version of Pnsb.

Microbelift special blend was almost impossible to find their dosing instructions as their website said to check the label, so that means if I wanted to know how I might have to dose, I have to buy the product 1st. 😁 1/2 joking, but it was way too hard to find their recommended dosing. I finally found a post on a forum with a picture of their label. Can someone please confirm if this is in fact their dosing recommendation




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