Vibrant and Tropic Marin All-For-Reef KH conundrum

[NickHolmes]

I switched to All-for-Reef a few months back, it was a remarkably easy process and KH was stable at 8.5 for weeks on end. That all changed when I started dosing Vibrant. A week after starting Vibrant, KH dropped to 7. I stopped Vibrant a few weeks before going away in December as I needed to make sure that was the problem and it appears that it was as the KH stabilised soon after. I've dosed Vibrant again this week as I will able to monitor closely but it has done the same thing literally overnight and dropped below 7.

I know All-for-Reef relies on a biological/bacterial process and Vibrant is a bacteria blend... Could these 2 products be clashing? If so, should I persevere in keeping KH stable or should I just stop dosing vibrant?

 

[NickHolmes]

You can't really see from this but I am struggling with some GHA

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Personally I would just stop dosing Vibrant. I have tried it a couple of times but always found that it throws my tank out of balance and stability. I know some people swear by it, but in my case, I swear I will never use it again.

Your tank looks awesome. Perhaps add a bit to your clean up crew to combat the GHA.

Dennis

 

[shakacuz]

i dose A4R daily, and dose vibrant/MB7 weekly. i have not seen a substantial change in parameters (granted, i test weekly, unless i see visible indicators for me to test in the middle of the week)

 

[moz71]

Vibrant seems to have different impacts on different tanks so very hard to get EXACTLY what you need to do! I actually have opposite impact my alk goes up when I dosed vibrant. What I don’t like about this is it seems things corals and coraline stop growing. I would stop dosing vibrant because that will cause even more things to imbalance. Try to treat maybe though spot treatment.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There seems to be debate on what vibrant is and how it works, and in the absence of clear knowledge, it's hard to know what might be happening.

 

[taricha]

I've dosed Vibrant again this week as I will able to monitor closely but it has done the same thing literally overnight and dropped below 7.

what alk test kit?

Next time you stop and start Vibrant again, you could check alk before and like an hour after dosing vibrant to rule out if it is interfering with the alk test itself. (In 1 hour the actual alkalinity would not significantly change.)

 

[NickHolmes]

Thank you all for the feedback. I will stop dosing Vibrant and add a few more herbivores.

@taricha Red Sea Pro and Salifert KH test kits were used. I tested about 10 hours after dosing.

 

[sghera64]

Vibrant might actually contain an algacide.

CAS 31512-74-0 Polixetonium chloride​

If this is true, perhaps the Vibrant was killing your application of bacteria. [LINK].


Uses： 1. Pcac is a cationic polymeric surfactant, which can be used as bactericide, algaecide and water quality improver in aquaculture water. It can control bacteria and fungi in water and effectively inhibit various floating blue-green algae. Regular use in aquaculture water regulation can effectively control a series of problems caused by excessive growth of various bacteria and algae, and has obvious regulatory effect on the deterioration of water quality caused by excessive old water, black odor water and organic matter.