My Vibrant Experience with Pictures

[Jizu Puentes]

Ive read multiple threads on the Vibrant cleaner and Ive also talked to people in my local reefing group. Everyone seemed to have a good experience with it but I still didnt want to try it until it circulated more. What finally convinced me was when i talked to my LFS owner and he told me that he experimented using Vibrant in one part of his systems and another bacteria additive in the other portion. He said that the Vibrant worked much better than the other stuff and was especially good at clearing up dinoflagellates. So finally i was convinced and he gave me three doses worth of Vibrant to try out. I wanted to document my use of it so I can have actual proof of whether or not it works for me. Before the pics ill give a little info on what I can use Vibrant for. I wouldnt say my tank is especially dirty(well my macroalgae tank is) but I do have algae for on the rocks and I currently have a cyano bloom. Usually I have to clean my glass every three days and I also turkey baste my rocks to remove green algae that forms on the surface. My macroalgae tank has bubble algae on some of its rocks and has GHA on a portion of the wall.
Here are some pics before the first dose.
Cyano in the left corner of my 135 display. The highest flowing area mind you

Glass getting dirty

Green algae on rock surface

GHA in 110 macroalgae tank

Bubble algae

Immediately after the dose many of my acros slimed up

Here are pics a week after the first dose and right before the second dose.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

After two doses I have noticed that the cyano on my sandbed has diminished and the film on the glass went from forming every 3 days to every 5. The green algae on the rocks has started to form slower but still forms so I have ordered a bottle to continue dosing.
These pics are a week after the third dose and on the day of the fourth dose.

This area is in my macroalgae tank and is where i drop mushroom clippings to grow. The powerhead went out in this tank and had slow flow for 3 days which resulted in this buildup of algae.

Still have GHA in the 110

Bubble algae in 110 is covered in green slime now? haha

By the way I am dosing 30ml every Wednesday

 

[Waters]

I had very good success in my 105g reef tank, eliminating a small hair algae issue. I didn't have as good of luck in my smaller seahorse/macro tank. It severely knocked back my Dragon's breath and it killed 2 Gorgonians. I expected the macro algae but not the coral.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Thats interesting about the gorgonians. It hasnt messed with my macroalgae much but my ted grape kelp has loss some bubbles.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Update- The cyano is no longer on the sandbed in my 135, its now on the back glass and a little on the rockflower rock lol. I still have the green algae on the rocks in my 110 macroalgae tank but the gha in that tank is gone. Sadly my collospongius aurus has taken a hit and has started to have die off. My experiment documentation will have to stop now since if changed a few things. I just upgraded my skimmer to a SRO3000 and have started dosing Nopox so the results wont clearly be from Vibrant or the other changes

 

[SantaMonica]

Just make sure you export those nutrients that the dying algae is putting into the water.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Oh I am. I just upgraded my skimmer to a SRO-3000 and im cleaning it two times a week.

 

[FFJB]

Any updates

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Any updates

Using the Vibrant in conjunction with Nopox ha's definitely been a good move...with some side effects. I no longer have bubble, hair or any type of slime algae but I also had my large group of red kelp algae die as well as some sponges. Also all of the coralline that covered my back glass has diminished

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Vibrant improved my tank reducing nutrients but each time I add it, biweekly now, cyano blooms. My mushrooms are all much smaller now.

 

[K. Steven]

My bubble algae is almost all gone and the bubbles that remain are loosely attached to the rock. I've only had cyano show up in the return section of the sump. I can clean this easily and doesn't bother me. But, Vibrant has been detrimental to my dragon's breath, as it has slowly withered to nothing, so I disagree with their claim that it has no effect on macroalgae. I've noticed slightly darker skimmate in the collection cup, in addition to an increase in coralline algae growth, though this could be due to switching from Reef Crystals to Fritz RPM. I'm also seeing much faster growth of brown film on the glass, similar to diatoms in color, but slimy in texture.

 

[Crimsonvice]

I recently used Vibrant, and I have had a huge spike in my nitrates and phosphates. It did eliminate my bubble algae problem though. It also killed essentially all my beneficial algae in my fuge. I wish I would have had Nopox on hand, because I also lost 4 pieces of SPS and some of my other coral is taking a hit due to the spike in nitrates. I have been skimming and doing water changes trying to help reduce it.

 

[Neil Fox]

It kills Bryopsis but it really hammered my SPS. I used it to eliminate a small amount of Bryopsis that came in on a frag plug. After the second dose my corals got really pale and I bleached my Anacropora. I didn't notice a spike in N3 or PO4, in fact the opposite. I am done dosing but my glass has been clean for 10 days and the sand is pristine. The corals are slowly coming back but you really need to be careful with this stuff.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Vibrant improved my tank reducing nutrients but each time I add it, biweekly now, cyano blooms. My mushrooms are all much smaller now.

Have you tried reducing the dose? I dose 30ml on a 300 gallon system once a week and haven't seen and soft corals shrink in size. I did have cyano but it started before using vibrant. Last week I finally with a red slime remover treatment to knock it out completely.

My bubble algae is almost all gone and the bubbles that remain are loosely attached to the rock. I've only had cyano show up in the return section of the sump. I can clean this easily and doesn't bother me. But, Vibrant has been detrimental to my dragon's breath, as it has slowly withered to nothing, so I disagree with their claim that it has no effect on macroalgae. I've noticed slightly darker skimmate in the collection cup, in addition to an increase in coralline algae growth, though this could be due to switching from Reef Crystals to Fritz RPM. I'm also seeing much faster growth of brown film on the glass, similar to diatoms in color, but slimy in texture.

Yea it is definitely detrimental to some macro algae since it is removing nutrients from them. It's interesting that ive seen a reduction in coralline growth and my glass went from getting dirty every 3 days to every 5 but you are getting more coralline and film.

I recently used Vibrant, and I have had a huge spike in my nitrates and phosphates. It did eliminate my bubble algae problem though. It also killed essentially all my beneficial algae in my fuge. I wish I would have had Nopox on hand, because I also lost 4 pieces of SPS and some of my other coral is taking a hit due to the spike in nitrates. I have been skimming and doing water changes trying to help reduce it.

Did you have a large amount of algae die off which would cause the spike?

It kills Bryopsis but it really hammered my SPS. I used it to eliminate a small amount of Bryopsis that came in on a frag plug. After the second dose my corals got really pale and I bleached my Anacropora. I didn't notice a spike in N3 or PO4, in fact the opposite. I am done dosing but my glass has been clean for 10 days and the sand is pristine. The corals are slowly coming back but you really need to be careful with this stuff.

The colors of my lps including my hammers were great while using vibrant and nopox but I've noticed this past week that my hammers have faded a bit so I'm lowering the nopox dose to adjust. The only other corals affected were my sps that slimed over after the first dose, after that they have been fine.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Here are some updated pics. I tried to take ones of the areas I posted at the beginning.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

The only coral being affected is this yellow hammer but I am working on obtaining a maintenance dose of nopox now while staying at the 30ml of vibrant.

 

[SantaMonica]

Yea the coralline is interesting because removing slime could help it, but killing algae could hurt it.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Updated tank shot.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Updated tank shot.

Did you notice and invert losses?

 

[brandon429]

a real bravo for Vibrant there, really well done.