bacteria dosing

Boogieman · Mar 19, 2023

I have a question regarding this . If you can use bacteria to get rid of pests would it be beneficial to have those bacteria in the tank before the pests arrive? I don't necessarily mean coming out of a bottle. But generally is that a effective way to fight those types of pests ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 19, 2023

Boogieman said:
I have a question regarding this . If you can use bacteria to get rid of pests would it be beneficial to have those bacteria in the tank before the pests arrive? I don't necessarily mean coming out of a bottle. But generally is that a effective way to fight those types of pests ?

IMO, in most tanks they are already there, and are not just bacteria. Algae and diatoms also serve the function of taking up space where dinos may want to take over perfectly well, for example. On the bacteria side, adding more on a regular basis might possibly help keep the right strains present if they are amongst what you are dosing, but it might also be like adding 5 gallons of gas to your car every day, without knowing whether it will fit in the tank or not.

Again IMO, I think displacement/outcompetition of dinos is often an effective plan, and that can be accomplished many ways. Adding bacteria may be one of them, but isn't the one I generally recommend anyway. Keeping nutrients higher is one of them.

Cyano has different needs and different ways to deal with it. I'm less convinced bacterial competition will be successful there, but in some scenarios it may be.

brandon429 · Mar 19, 2023

Work threads prevent this endless back and forth. Whoever believes in bottle bac dosing regularly, start a work thread where fifty invaded reef tanks post to that thread, the author uses bottle bac dosing to cure the invasions we get to see the patterned truth by page 25

without that, the endless posting will continue forever. Work threads are how we discern snake oil claims

case#1

The Bacterial “Rip Clean” Method

If your levels of n and p are nearly undetectable it will work against the beneficial bacteria, for it to work you would need to have po4 and no3 elevated at all times (this is due to heterotrophic bacteria not being able to divide and grow if nitrates or phosphates are depleted) also if you...

www.reef2reef.com

#2

Extreme Water Clarity and Cyano Eradication, Made Easy!

Any thoughts on dosing the snow/MB7, waiting the 30-60min and turning the pumps back on, then doing about 30-60min of micro bubble scrubbing? In theory the tiny bubbles would help facilitate the removal of the organics trapped by the coral snow...

www.reef2reef.com

see how hard it is to run a work thread and get grouped results for pass or fail

it's not like the two systems are full of wrecked before pics, then super clean after pics. we have to go on subjective testimony for most of it.

**however
Sunnyx is garnering some patterned strong testimony that's for sure. I began his thread fully skeptical that overdosing/maintaining cycle bacteria in cycled reefs was worth any value. though I'm not sold I have to quit fully discounting it now/going forward/that's a lot of stated positive perceptions. I still want to see thirty pages of stark before and after pics before complete buy in, but at least something exists now to change my mind.

Boogieman · Mar 19, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
IMO, in most tanks they are already there, and are not just bacteria. Algae and diatoms also serve the function of taking up space where dinos may want to take over perfectly well, for example. On the bacteria side, adding more on a regular basis might possibly help keep the right strains present if they are amongst what you are dosing, but it might also be like adding 5 gallons of gas to your car every day, without knowing whether it will fit in the tank or not.

Again IMO, I think displacement/outcompetition of dinos is often an effective plan, and that can be accomplished many ways. Adding bacteria may be one of them, but isn't the one I generally recommend anyway. Keeping nutrients higher is one of them.

Cyano has different needs and different ways to deal with it. I'm less convinced bacterial competition will be successful there, but in some scenarios it may be.

Thank you Randy . Continually trying to learn which is why I love this hobby.