Tapering off Vibrant

[SpringFever]

summary: I successfully eliminated bubble algea using vibrant. I slowly ramped up my dose from 2ml per week up to 5ml per week. It's taken three months but the bubble algae is finally gone. I think I'm going to slowly ramp down the dose over the next month or two. I have read that vibrant act kind of like a carbon source, removing nutrients. Does anybody know how big of a nutrient reducing effect 1ml/10gal per week has in a system?

Background: I have a 40b mixed reef. Tank is 1.5 years old with a moderate bioload. 7 fish. Automatically feed frozen food three times daily. Spot feed coral twice weekly. 10% w/c weekly. Rowaphos reactor when needed to keep phos between .03 and .1. Vinegar dose to keep nitrates at 5. (Currently at ~10ml/day.)

Does anybody have any experience tapering off Vibrant? How much impact on nitrate and phosphate should I expect?

Thanks

 

[Pistondog]

summary: I successfully eliminated bubble algea using vibrant. I slowly ramped up my dose from 2ml per week up to 5ml per week. It's taken three months but the bubble algae is finally gone. I think I'm going to slowly ramp down the dose over the next month or two. I have read that vibrant act kind of like a carbon source, removing nutrients. Does anybody know how big of a nutrient reducing effect 1ml/10gal per week has in a system?

Background: I have a 40b mixed reef. Tank is 1.5 years old with a moderate bioload. 7 fish. Automatically feed frozen food three times daily. Spot feed coral twice weekly. 10% w/c weekly. Rowaphos reactor when needed to keep phos between .03 and .1. Vinegar dose to keep nitrates at 5. (Currently at ~10ml/day.)

Does anybody have any experience tapering off Vibrant? How much impact on nitrate and phosphate should I expect?

Thanks

Vibrant is an algae eating bacteria. If it's work is done you can just stop.

 

[rwreef]

I stopped using it with no issues.

 

[SpringFever]

Thanks for the feedback. I had read that the diatom issues some people have using vibrant is because it depletes nutrients. It doesn't sound like y'all had that issue.

 

[mike550]

Thanks for the feedback. I had read that the diatom issues some people have using vibrant is because it depletes nutrients. It doesn't sound like y'all had that issue.

@SpringFever I'm considering dosing Vibrant Reef but am concerned about how it may affect inverts and such. Besides fish and coral what do you have in your tank? I'm most concerned about BTA, shrimp, etc. Thanks in advance

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the feedback. I had read that the diatom issues some people have using vibrant is because it depletes nutrients. It doesn't sound like y'all had that issue.

FWIW, diatoms are not spurred by low nutrients. You may be thinking of dinos.

 

[DoctaReef]

I used vibrant to remove bubble algae last year, which it did wonderfully, but turf algae began to take over my reef once I stopped using it.
Its good stuff, but just be on the lookout for new types of algae that will start blooming now that the bubble algae isn't using up your nutrients, and act accordingly.

 

[SpringFever]

@SpringFever I'm considering dosing Vibrant Reef but am concerned about how it may affect inverts and such. Besides fish and coral what do you have in your tank? I'm most concerned about BTA, shrimp, etc. Thanks in advance

I have a mixed reef with sps, lps and softies. 3 shrimp, snails, urchin, emerald, etc... I have some rock flower nems but no bta. Everything did just fine. No livestock issues from vibrant what so ever.

I do now have a green slime style algae growing. It might be some kind of cyano but I can't tell. I also saw a few baby bubbles starting to grow back. If the emerald doesn't take them out I'll have to restart vibrant.

 

[Duffer]

@SpringFever I'm considering dosing Vibrant Reef but am concerned about how it may affect inverts and such. Besides fish and coral what do you have in your tank? I'm most concerned about BTA, shrimp, etc. Thanks in advance

I have been dosing reef vinrant for 8 weeks now and not one single invert,fish or shrimp have died...I also have coral soft and spa and they have not been effected