Problems with Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter Start XLM

[brandon429]

We will never know the rates that brightwell accomplishes in a cycle until someone uses seneye to track one out.

given non seneye measurements even Fritz cycles are all over the place and we already know those are instant ammonia control when tan on seneye. The only time Fritz appears to stall is when red sea or api is the ammonia measure, = all reports on this thread are those two kits I bet.

 

[TjB]

I cycled fine with mine. Will post pic. Be sure you didnt over do the quick cycle ammonia, if you did may need a water change.

Hey man, wondering if you could answer a question I have. Im starting a new tank, and was wondering do I wait for the tank to be clear before dosing the microbacter startxlm? Or do I just do it right away before the tank has cleared from the sand

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey man, wondering if you could answer a question I have. Im starting a new tank, and was wondering do I wait for the tank to be clear before dosing the microbacter startxlm? Or do I just do it right away before the tank has cleared from the sand

How cloudy is it?

 

[TjB]

How cloudy is it?

Tank ended up clearing up after a few hours and was totally clear the next day. I ended up dosing with microbacter after it got a little clear

 

[TjB]

Its been 6 days since I started my tank today tested levels again and ammonia is 1.00 ppm havnt seen any nitrite levels, and nitrate is 5.0 ppm maybe even 10 or in-between.

(I test ammonia daily and was testing nitrite levels every other day

 

[JohnWright]

I cycled fine with mine. Will post pic. Be sure you didnt over do the quick cycle ammonia, if you did may need a water change.

Brightwell was a waste of time

 

[utekevin]

I have live sand and used Microbacter XLM. I just recently completed te cycle. Took exactly 1 month for me. In not sure how much life is actually in live sand anyway to be honest. So yea I am now a believer in Microbacter XLM. My ammonia went to 0 in maybe 1.5 weeks and it took longer to see my nitrite at 0. It was stuck on 2ppm for a while.

Hi, I'm now at the 9th day of cycling.
My ammonia is 0.25 nitrite around 1,5-2.
Same live sand.
Have you did a water change in the cycling process? If yes, when?

 

[Jim.Gilbert234]

I am on the mictobactor journey with a Seneye. What a nightmare. Faulty Seneye slide meant I didn’t dose ammonia right. Changed that out on 6th day. Ammonia read 0.03 with Nitrate at 0.50 with no Nitrite. Ammonia peaked at 0.042 day 7. Nitrate at 0.025 and still no nitrites. Morning of day 9 (today) Ammonia showing 0.038. All the while my pH insists at sitting at 8.6 even when I try and drag it down with Soda. Don’t know whether to put the Clowns in with some Dr Tim’s and sack of the Brightwell, it just seems so random. The faulty Seneye didn’t help but I should be reading better numbers by now and I haven’t a clue with the pH is so high.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Tank ended up clearing up after a few hours and was totally clear the next day. I ended up dosing with microbacter after it got a little clear

OK, thanks


Happy reefing. :)

 

[shaynasmith]

I used the same product on my latest tank and my cycle took about 6 weeks to complete (which is the longest cycle I’ve ever done). Not sure if Microbacter actually caused the cycle to be longer, but it definitely didn’t help speed it up.

If you don’t see a drop in your ammonia level, do you just keep dosing the lower amount of microbacter daily until you do? I’m a week in with ammonia at .5, nitrite 0 ppm, and nitrate 10ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you don’t see a drop in your ammonia level, do you just keep dosing the lower amount of microbacter daily until you do? I’m a week in with ammonia at .5, nitrite 0 ppm, and nitrate 10ppm

That may be as low as the kit is going to read.