Warning: Use Vibrant at your own risk

[blaxsun]

I wonder if UWC hired a "public relations firm" aka troll farm.

I think we've collectively cultivated enough over the years that one really not need employ a PR firm for that anymore.

 

[reefiniteasy]

For people to be okay with this, simply because it worked in their tank is unbelievable. As a teacher I am very worried about people’s reading comprehension skills.

My comment - the thread could have been closed after the warning. Whether right or wrong - its my opinion. Almost every issue here has been discussed over and over and over and over and over.

Close the forum, shut the whole thing down because every issue has been discussed over and over and over and over again. I am blown away by this comment. You sir deserve a badge, we can call it the “the closer.” This comment is the complete antithesis to what this forum is about.

 

[areefer01]

I used it once. It worked.

Can you show before and after pictures?
Can you let all of us know the sort of corals you had in the display at the time of the dosing?

 

[Tuoixuanxanh]

I too had issues with this product... i lost some sps and almost all lost color and more...

Yup same issue. Got dino cyana red slime after use it.

 

[Garf]

Reefing report discussed this on YouTube last night. Won’t let me post a link though.

 

[Dan_P]

Reefing report discussed this on YouTube last night. Won’t let me post a link though.

Any memorable moments?

 

[Garf]

Any memorable moments?

Craig Bingman tends to agree that if @taricha two samples were indeed one of algaefix and one of vibrant they are almost without a doubt the same material. He also suggests not believing any claims made by any company which is not extremely well respected and trusted.

Edit - there was also a suggestion that it needs replicating, just in case of a mess up at the lab, or by @taricha.

 

[GARRIGA]

Edit - there was also a suggestion that it needs replicating, just in case of a mess up at the lab, or by @taricha.

I mentioned that and met strong resistance. Trust but verify. Only way to really know.

 

[Dan_P]

Craig Bingman tends to agree that if @taricha two samples were indeed one of algaefix and one of vibrant they are almost without a doubt the same material. He also suggests not believing any claims made by any company which is not extremely well respected and trusted.

Edit - there was also a suggestion that it needs replicating, just in case of a mess up at the lab, or by @taricha.

Thanks. Yes replication is important. While @taricha has not replicated the NMR, he has done so with other tests.

Bingman’s suggestion about trusting product claims made me smile after my experience with the lack of ammonia removal by a big company’s water treatment. Even big and trusted company’s lay on the BS for their products. Consider that no company provides data to support any product claim, except Hanna. They provide accuracy and precision data for their Checkers. You know what you are getting. All other company’s tests, including ICP’s, who knows, right? And then consider the nonsense peddled by bottled bacteria vendors, excluding the nitrifying bacteria products. Buyer beware.

 

[Lyss]

Re: pr troll farms… I work in pr/public affairs and I guess sure that could be done but it would be very underhanded to put it in mild terms. I’ve never worked on a campaign where something like that was pursued. We get press for clients, and run a lot of advertising, especially social media and digital advertising, video, and even did a documentary film for one client.

 

[WallyTime7]

Their labels look like they were made on a homemade printer, so this makes sense. Good work!

 

[Simon Reefing]

That's one reasonable interpretation of what they have said in some posts. But they have also literally said "no algaecide" and the algaecide that taricha found by NMR is not naturally produced.

Hey Randy! Sorry this is a little off topic but is microbacter7 safe to use? I’m trying to treat a bit of cyano that’s being stubborn but I want to make sure microbacter is safe the tank is in the living room and I don’t want any unwanted chemicals in the air? Thank you!

 

[Cell]

Hey Randy! Sorry this is a little off topic but is microbacter7 safe to use? I’m trying to treat a bit of cyano that’s being stubborn but I want to make sure microbacter is safe for my family? Thank you!

Its safe if you believe what it says on the bottle. Oh the irony.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Its safe if you believe what it says on the bottle. Oh the irony.

Lol that was my only concern was if they were misleading in their formula. I’m wondering if anyone has tested the actual ingredients

 

[DopamineKata]

Guys, just leave the Trolls alone

I've added more people to my ignore list from this single thread than I have from all the threads I've read since joining.

 

[Karen00]

There is a huge difference between putting a product on your site and making videos under the veil of education promoting a product.

bulk reef supply has been built off of this idea of come here for the education and buy the products while you’re here. So yes if they independently make a video they should be doing thorough research into it or use language showing what is still unclear. I’m not one who is upset at them at all. I think they’re just as much victims as anyone else to the lies they just happen to have a platform that allowed the propagation of the lies to easily spread and maybe this will make them slow down a little bit in the future.

This is where I totally agree with you. Walmart (etc) isn't actively promoting different products on their site with Walmart produced videos that are simply regurgitating what's on the ingredient list or what they've been given to say by the product manufacturer. To the best of my knowledge most companies just post videos made by the product manufacturer so it's "buyer beware". If I saw a video produced by Walmart promoting a herbal weed control and they went on and on about how wonderful it is and it's all natural for your garden and then someone discovers it's just a full chemical herbicide then I would be letting Walmart know my displeasure and would probably leave a comment on their website under that product. I think any company that is going to actively promote a product with their own videos that detail the product then they better make sure what they are claiming is valid which probably requires independent testing otherwise I assume they can be held liable, along with the product manufacturer, if someone decided to sue. In the case of BRS people are making decisions about their tank based on their videos. I think it also leaves them open to tainting their image getting where people might be less likely to trust them when they do future product videos. I don't think they want their "trusted source" brand eroded. On the other hand if they made a video and at the end flat out said they haven't done any independent testing so they have no idea if the ingredient list is valid so use at your own risk because it might nuke your tank then that probably absolves them to some degree. This applies to any company doing this, not just BRS. It just happens BRS has become the #1 for people to go to in this hobby and they probably produce more product testing videos than any other company in the hobby.

 

[LeBon]

Thanks. Yes replication is important. While @taricha has not replicated the NMR, he has done so with other tests.

Bingman’s suggestion about trusting product claims made me smile after my experience with the lack of ammonia removal by a big company’s water treatment. Even big and trusted company’s lay on the BS for their products. Consider that no company provides data to support any product claim, except Hanna. They provide accuracy and precision data for their Checkers. You know what you are getting. All other company’s tests, including ICP’s, who knows, right? And then consider the nonsense peddled by bottled bacteria vendors, excluding the nitrifying bacteria products. Buyer beware.

Even here it would be nice to know what spei bacterias are used, the fear of being ripped off isn't a god enough excuse, they can patent a specific ratio of they are sure it works.
I'm loathe to use chemicals in my plants animals or my food so and the tanks are certainly no different, nitrifiers yes, but it's still difficult to know which bacteria actually take hold in our own environments so naturally any chemicals that are not specified and don't give a specific bacteria or algae that it affects is simply bunkum, they can categorically do good or bad depending upon on your tanks composition

 

[Dan_P]

Even here it would be nice to know what spei bacterias are used, the fear of being ripped off isn't a god enough excuse, they can patent a specific ratio of they are sure it works.
I'm loathe to use chemicals in my plants animals or my food so and the tanks are certainly no different, nitrifiers yes, but it's still difficult to know which bacteria actually take hold in our own environments so naturally any chemicals that are not specified and don't give a specific bacteria or algae that it affects is simply bunkum, they can categorically do good or bad depending upon on your tanks composition

I am not sure that I need to know anything about the product. What would be nice is if someone is selling “grunge eating bacteria” show me a grunge pile, before and after adding bacteria, or show be a cyanobacteria mat before and after adding bacteria. If I am curious, I can try the experiment myself.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

Whew, I did it. I read the whole thread. Do I get a cookie?

Some spicy discussion in here. This is some pretty decent drama so I think we’re all like “ooooooooooohhhh”

I want to thank Taricha and Randy (and all others) for their contributions to the community here. Ironically, I was just talking to some friends about Vibrant. I’ve been trying it for a few weeks with GHA (first time I’ve ever dosed some “magic” that wasn’t nitrate additives or the like); I explained to them that it’s mainly just bacteria, “look at the bottle!”. How timely for this information to come out. I imagine this is exactly how some retailers are feeling right now too and I do feel for them.

This will be my first and last time dosing a product like this. Back to the natural means that haven’t failed me yet. I sincerely hope I haven’t affected my tank negatively in the long term. Feels pretty bad to have been duped about a product like this (I know people have had mixed success but I figured it was a healthy dose of human error due to the Marine vs Reef version of the product). I really hate being in this spot; I put something in my tank based on my understanding of the label and now I find out it’s some pesticide that I would NEVER put in my tank if I had known.

 

[Cell]

The silence from @UWC is deafening.
I'm surprised and disappointed they haven't even chimed in here with a simple acknowledgement and commitment to resolving this one way or another. Instead they spoke to Randy Holmes-Farley and Ryan Batcheller privately and relied on them to share the message. UWC clearly does not care about its customers and seems more concerned about its liability at this point. They are acting like a company that knows it won't be around much longer, in my opinion.

I was a Vibrant user and advocated its usage many times here on the forum but will likely never support this business, which is local to me, again.

Am I wrong @UWC?