Boosting sand bed bacteria?
- Thread starter borillion
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They won’t help. Those are for initial cycling, over time the bacteria balance to what the reef supports, not what we dose. The amounts and types shift relative to the frags and imports and rocks used, not bottled items. Save ur money vs those items.
The specific way to increase diversity is simply adding corals and items from some other reef tank, no bottled items are helpful long term
way we saw that in action: people who run dna assessment labs were sampling hundreds of reef tanks not finding bottle bac strains.
way we saw that in action: people who run dna assessment labs were sampling hundreds of reef tanks not finding bottle bac strains.
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terraincognita
Valuable Member
Microbacter 7 was made to do this specifically.
I don’t know if you can target the “sand bed” only since that’s not really how bacteria works, but the overall surface area will be affected including the sand.
Ive mainly only used these in initial cycling. But it did help me beat some Cyano recently
all of these “established” tank bacteria boosters are also very small doses, and I’m not 100% educated on the science behind them.
I don’t know if you can target the “sand bed” only since that’s not really how bacteria works, but the overall surface area will be affected including the sand.
Ive mainly only used these in initial cycling. But it did help me beat some Cyano recently
all of these “established” tank bacteria boosters are also very small doses, and I’m not 100% educated on the science behind them.
u can buy sand activators from Indo Pacific sea farm to help seed your sand. which is basically live Hawaiian sand
: : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : :
Indo-Pacific Sea Farms produces captive-bred marine life for healthier reef aquariums: invertebrates, detritivores, live sand, snail grazers, amphipods, beneficial worms, macro algae, plankton, corals, coral food and beneficial bacteria.
ipsf.com
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borillion
Active Member
About a year ago when I moved, I washed my sand before putting back in with tap water and wonder if that might have effected the " bacterial load" which might partially be contributing to my algae issues. I know you can't really target for something like the sand bed specifically, but rather try and increase the total of tanks bacteria count.
This does look interesting in the smaller life aspect kind of things like pods, etc.
This does look interesting in the smaller life aspect kind of things like pods, etc.
after just a few months of any changes to a sandbed, colony balances are settling out relative to what reefs support. this was seen in aquabiomic's readings across tanks of different ages, his genetic sampling of surface and tank water pelagic bacteria.
the swabs for surfaces, sand and rocks, showed a relatively consistent grouping of bacteria tank to tank. *some did have outliers but none were homogenized areas of bacteria, and one of these tests was on Jon M's 120 gallon system that had been tap rinsed twice over before the actual test. they specifically did a substrate dna sampling of post tap-washed sand here it was I think:
the swabs for surfaces, sand and rocks, showed a relatively consistent grouping of bacteria tank to tank. *some did have outliers but none were homogenized areas of bacteria, and one of these tests was on Jon M's 120 gallon system that had been tap rinsed twice over before the actual test. they specifically did a substrate dna sampling of post tap-washed sand here it was I think:
120 gallon rip clean
I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...
www.reef2reef.com
rip cleaning for sure reduces sandbed meiofauna and likely a lot of bacteria as a physical flushing force/shear, not that tape water is all that antibiotic in nature.
but the rebound potential for bacteria is weeks/days, not months or a year. his tank was already fully matured when we started tap rinsing the bed for the first time, its now up to about five rip cleans lol its the deepest cleaned large tank in reefing I know of.
the filtration control for fish carry was never harmed, we were always careful with his rocks. the sand got the royal workover though. harshness.
algae control is rarely about a one time activity or a lack of something, its most commonly about changes in the tank that require quick response and counter measures. if anything I would rate your cleaned sandbed as less invaded than it would be if you relocated it without the prep rinse in tap.
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borillion
Active Member
page seven here is the bacterial dna report from the post-rip cleaned tank
www.reef2reef.com
and page eight was an icp report! Jon got us the best data post sand-rinsing Ive seen. The insult from tap rinsing did not have lasting effects on this tank. or the others from the sand rinse thread, though this is the only one ive seen tested to this degree.
the rest we've inferred just from happy follow up reporting on 99% of jobs logged.
*to chart out the patterning in the dna sampled reefs, you'll have to search out other aquabiomics thread posts. I was watching them live time, memorizing patterns from the posts.
another way to see it is using the examples of people who had sand and went bare bottom for sps ease
no lasting harm. that means if we remove sand and do whatever we want to it, same outcome as just yanking it outright. installing back clean calcium carbonate grains doesnt cause any harm, although adding back wiggling bugs sure would help anyone's tank including mine.
I have chosen to forego classic diverse deep sandbed in the name of forcing my tank to live for decades uninvaded. (because when it starts to get invaded I clean vs adjust a parameter, invasion is not an option, its removed, at the expense of bugs in the bed)
if I knew how to keep it hands off, full of teeming life, and never become invaded, I would
everyone who posted in the sand rinse thread originally started off by following the rules: never rinse with tap lol.
something drove them to us, though it is against the rules.
120 gallon rip clean
tough call there, that's paid for biodiversity but Im certain human olfaction is a heckuva ammonia proofer; ill trust anyones nose over api any day of the week. curious: can you get any liquid to test out in a cheap ammonia tester/curious if it does spike up
www.reef2reef.com
and page eight was an icp report! Jon got us the best data post sand-rinsing Ive seen. The insult from tap rinsing did not have lasting effects on this tank. or the others from the sand rinse thread, though this is the only one ive seen tested to this degree.
the rest we've inferred just from happy follow up reporting on 99% of jobs logged.
*to chart out the patterning in the dna sampled reefs, you'll have to search out other aquabiomics thread posts. I was watching them live time, memorizing patterns from the posts.
another way to see it is using the examples of people who had sand and went bare bottom for sps ease
no lasting harm. that means if we remove sand and do whatever we want to it, same outcome as just yanking it outright. installing back clean calcium carbonate grains doesnt cause any harm, although adding back wiggling bugs sure would help anyone's tank including mine.
I have chosen to forego classic diverse deep sandbed in the name of forcing my tank to live for decades uninvaded. (because when it starts to get invaded I clean vs adjust a parameter, invasion is not an option, its removed, at the expense of bugs in the bed)
if I knew how to keep it hands off, full of teeming life, and never become invaded, I would
everyone who posted in the sand rinse thread originally started off by following the rules: never rinse with tap lol.
something drove them to us, though it is against the rules.
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next time when cleaning sand, I would save 1-2 cups of old sand in ziplock bag and add it back to help reseed the cleaned sand. I added IPF's Live Sand activator+ and with their Reefworms diversity pack when tank was a year old and tank looked incredibly clean the first week or 2.About a year ago when I moved, I washed my sand before putting back in with tap water and wonder if that might have effected the " bacterial load" which might partially be contributing to my algae issues. I know you can't really target for something like the sand bed specifically, but rather try and increase the total of tanks bacteria count.
This does look interesting in the smaller life aspect kind of things like pods, etc.
Buy some more live sand so it colonizes the whole sandbed. Addictive Reef Keeping sells cups of live sand to seed.
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borillion
Active Member
Heh, I am not sure I need (want) more worms LOL.
Yea that was my mistake, I neglected to do that. Thats how I started my first sand bed got a cup from the LFS.
Yea that was my mistake, I neglected to do that. Thats how I started my first sand bed got a cup from the LFS.
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borillion
Active Member
Yea, I am looking for smaller amounts to purchase as well as "coral bones" and some crushed coral to add so that there is a bit more particle size variation too. Something like this but a smaller bag if I can possibly get it. I need to find a source of lesser quantities.
Another possibility is this one, but its slightly more iffy.
Another possibility is this one, but its slightly more iffy.
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borillion
Active Member
Yea, I am considering more than just simply seeding at this point. I want to make it a bit coarse to add live stock in a 9 months, I am thinking of a pistol shrimp and goby pair. ** plan ahead ** 
Yeah, but if you want to get less sand just buy this:
