Thought I’d document my progression with the use of Vibrant. Not trying to say I am in anyway an expert aquarist but there was recently a BRS discussion with the owner of vibrant and I had actually started using it the week before. I’m going to point out observations from my experience and I’m not making claims that vibrant is the cause/reason for my observations good or bad. So if you’re interested in trying to “prove me wrong” trust me I don’t care I just thought I’d share my experience. Onto the tank... I have a 60g cube that has been running for 5 years. Year 1 was a reef, year 2-4 I went fish only (and neglected it more often than I care to admit) and then a year ago went back to reef. I have been battling hair algae as well as intermittent cyano outbreaks. There has also been patches of bubble algae I’m watching. I have been doing weekly water changes of 15g and plucking GHA tufts but it was slowly progressing. Enter vibrant: Every Thursday I add 6mL of vibrant and here have been my experiences.
Week 1: 24 hrs after the initial dose I observed a modest change in color of the GHA, no change in bubble algae or cyano. The water looked as if I had run carbon. There was a definite crisper cleaner look to the water/glass. The overflow area was noticeably cleaner as well. The remainder of the week there was little change outside of a more polished look and I didn’t once need to clean the glass (typically done twice a week). The day before doing dose 2 I did a 15g water change.
Week 2: Not much took place week 2 visually outside of again the water looking polished and never felt the need to clean the glass until day 13. I test several times a week and what I saw was NO3 go from 0 to 10 from day 0 to day 13 and PO4 go from .04 to .07 in the same time frame. I went to pluck the hair algae and today it was much easier to pull and it was starting to come off in strips where as previously it seemed more rooted. Day 13 I did my weekly 15g water change and day 14 I did my next dose.
Week 3: I woke up finding the cyano had definitely taken off with this increase in po4 and no3. In my mind I see this as a sign vibrant is “working” even though I had a cyano bloom. Day 17 the cyano was starting to mat so I bought a protein skimmer, and did a 20g water change in order to export nutrients faster, and siphon off as much of the red from the sand as I could. From day 17 to day 21 the cyano went from a thicker mat on 90% of the sandbed to light coverage on probably 50% of the sandbed. I also witnessed a bloom in pod population. I am seeing pods on the glass all day now. I’m still only cleaning the glass at most once a week. GHA is no longer advancing and the areas I’m picking are staying gone. No change on bubble algae at this point. Today is day 22 and NO3 is at 5ppm and PO4 is at .02 (nyos for no3 and Hanna ULM for po4). I’m doing a 20g change tomorrow, day 23, to get ahead on the cyano and because I’ll be gone for a few days I want to have the tank change free for a few days before I’m gone.
I’ll update this weekly so subsequent posts aren’t as lengthy. Also the pics I added were from day 0 of a patch of bubble algae and the cyano. The rock at the base of the one pic is also my GHA trouble spot.
Week 1: 24 hrs after the initial dose I observed a modest change in color of the GHA, no change in bubble algae or cyano. The water looked as if I had run carbon. There was a definite crisper cleaner look to the water/glass. The overflow area was noticeably cleaner as well. The remainder of the week there was little change outside of a more polished look and I didn’t once need to clean the glass (typically done twice a week). The day before doing dose 2 I did a 15g water change.
Week 2: Not much took place week 2 visually outside of again the water looking polished and never felt the need to clean the glass until day 13. I test several times a week and what I saw was NO3 go from 0 to 10 from day 0 to day 13 and PO4 go from .04 to .07 in the same time frame. I went to pluck the hair algae and today it was much easier to pull and it was starting to come off in strips where as previously it seemed more rooted. Day 13 I did my weekly 15g water change and day 14 I did my next dose.
Week 3: I woke up finding the cyano had definitely taken off with this increase in po4 and no3. In my mind I see this as a sign vibrant is “working” even though I had a cyano bloom. Day 17 the cyano was starting to mat so I bought a protein skimmer, and did a 20g water change in order to export nutrients faster, and siphon off as much of the red from the sand as I could. From day 17 to day 21 the cyano went from a thicker mat on 90% of the sandbed to light coverage on probably 50% of the sandbed. I also witnessed a bloom in pod population. I am seeing pods on the glass all day now. I’m still only cleaning the glass at most once a week. GHA is no longer advancing and the areas I’m picking are staying gone. No change on bubble algae at this point. Today is day 22 and NO3 is at 5ppm and PO4 is at .02 (nyos for no3 and Hanna ULM for po4). I’m doing a 20g change tomorrow, day 23, to get ahead on the cyano and because I’ll be gone for a few days I want to have the tank change free for a few days before I’m gone.
I’ll update this weekly so subsequent posts aren’t as lengthy. Also the pics I added were from day 0 of a patch of bubble algae and the cyano. The rock at the base of the one pic is also my GHA trouble spot.
. though I checked my nitrates today - and they were >100 (never been above 10 before - so obviously working)
