Dosing Vibrant and Microbacter Clean?

[Shadows Reef]

Hello I have a question about if it would be okay to dose vibrant and microbacter clean together
Right now I dose vibrant ever other week and algae still grows luckily I have a few turbo snails and conch’s that do a great job keeping up. I’m curious is the week I don’t dose vibrant if it would be okay to do a dose of microbacter clean to help. Don’t want to over do it with the vibrant, heard great things when you use a little, bad things when you use a lot lol.

Thanks!

 

[Shadows Reef]

Anyone?

 

[JoshO]

You need to look at other aspects of the set up before trying to dose more products to fix the algae issue.
How old is the set up?
What is your current maintenance routine?
What is your lighting routine?
How many fish do you have?
How much do you feed?

 

[eraser2001]

Hi
I used microbacter but switched to vibrant to fight with hair alge and so far so good. I have plant to do use both now like you said.
It takes time to eliminate the alge, so be patient

 

[Shadows Reef]

You need to look at other aspects of the set up before trying to dose more products to fix the algae issue.
How old is the set up?
What is your current maintenance routine?
What is your lighting routine?
How many fish do you have?
How much do you feed?

Just moved recently so this tank is about 3 months old, I started this tank with new rock and did a fishless cycle. I did a 100% water change after cycled
I use Tropic Marin pro and do a 10-15% water change every week
I also have a rollermat fleece filter and run carbon and a skimmer with a CO2 scrubber

Soon I will set up my refugium, I just need to find my power supply for my Prime huge and order some clean chaeto

My tank is on 9 hour photo period with a 1 hour ramp up and down and my par meter says I get about 200 par during peak hours through out the tank which is perfect for most of my LPS Corals.

I feed lightly but multiple times a day
When I feed it's a usually between the medicated caviar from DR. G’s and freeze dried mysis soaked in second, I also does red sea AB+ for my LPS corals I also have frozenLRS reef frenzy but barely use it right now.

I have quite a few fish that I'm getting back from my friend every other week
As of right now I only have a melinarus wrasse, pair of clowns, an angle fish and a red lined tile fise with a few snails and conch’s

 

[Shadows Reef]

Hi
I used microbacter but switched to vibrant to fight with hair alge and so far so good. I have plant to do use both now like you said.
It takes time to eliminate the alge, so be patient

That's great to hear man! Do you use it with a refugium? I will be getting some clean chaeto soon and I've heard things of it melting the chaeto, have you had this issue?

 

[Uncle99]

Stick to the instructions on Vibrant. We don’t know exactly what’s in the bottle except for bacteria.
The process is real slow, took 12 weeks to remove all green in my tank and for 7 weeks, I thought it was not working. Keep an eye on your nutrient levels as the process moves forward.
I would not risk mixing Micro, you can’t speed up the process, but you can easily kill stuff.
Absolutely will kill your Chaeto, and any other green plant stuff

 

[Shadows Reef]

Stick to the instructions on Vibrant. We don’t know exactly what’s in the bottle except for bacteria.
The process is real slow, took 12 weeks to remove all green in my tank and for 7 weeks, I thought it was not working. Keep an eye on your nutrient levels as the process moves forward.
I would not risk mixing Micro, you can’t speed up the process, but you can easily kill stuff.
Absolutely will kill your Chaeto, and any other green plant stuff

Thanks man, fantastic input and beautiful tank!

So don't start my Fuge if I'm going to use vibrant or do and just don use chaeto????

My Nyos said nitrates at .5 and my red sea color wheel say nitrates at .75

My Hanna ULR say phosphates is at .02

It's been pretty steady around those levels, of course they are rising just the algae is growing quickly, EAT SNAILS EAT!

I'm really excited to see how the Purple helix coralline and pink fusion coralline from algae barn turns out. i added it a week after I cycled and last month I started seeing a couple purple spots around the tank(which made me get a few test LPS Coral which are doing great btw),and now that the algae started growing a couple weeks ago I'm worried it will prevent my coralline from growing quickly.

 

[Maxx]

I would not mix the two strains of bacteria.
I would stick with Vibrant and go slow.
I would not start your refugium yet while dosing Vibrant.

Vibrant is a scavenger bacteria, (Like Microbacter Clean) and will go after algae. It will go after the easiest algae first, then will go after your chaeto.

Hold off on the Cheato, keep going with the Vibrant, be patient.

 

[Shadows Reef]

freeze dried mysis soaked in second

Freeze dried mysis soaked in SELCON***
Sorry don't know how to fix a typo on the post

 

[Miller535]

I do not know about specifically Vibrant and Microbacter7, but there are quite a few of people on here who claim to have beat dinos by dosing several different bacteria bottles. I know on Dr. Tim's waste away it specifically says not to dose to different types on the same day. I personally have been dosing Microbacter7, and am going to dose waste away a few times also. I kind of buy into the diversity theory.

 

[Shadows Reef]

I would not mix the two strains of bacteria.
I would stick with Vibrant and go slow.
I would not start your refugium yet while dosing Vibrant.

Vibrant is a scavenger bacteria, (Like Microbacter Clean) and will go after algae. It will go after the easiest algae first, then will go after your chaeto.

Hold off on the Cheato, keep going with the Vibrant, be patient.

Thanks man! I'll definitely hold off on my fuge for now, but if I want to continue using Vibrant would that man no chaeto ever?

Man I need to get a few pod hotels for when I get my pods going then.
Still deciding if I want to culture my own with phyto and F2 or just buy some from algae barn. They have so many to choose from now. . .

But I'll keep to my every other week vibrant dose and of course test routinely.

Just never used vibrant before and I've always heard wonders & nightmares, thanks for all the input everyone!

 

[JoshO]

Just moved recently so this tank is about 3 months old, I started this tank with new rock and did a fishless cycle. I did a 100% water change after cycled
I use Tropic Marin pro and do a 10-15% water change every week
I also have a rollermat fleece filter and run carbon and a skimmer with a CO2 scrubber

Soon I will set up my refugium, I just need to find my power supply for my Prime huge and order some clean chaeto

My tank is on 9 hour photo period with a 1 hour ramp up and down and my par meter says I get about 200 par during peak hours through out the tank which is perfect for most of my LPS Corals.

I feed lightly but multiple times a day
When I feed it's a usually between the medicated caviar from DR. G’s and freeze dried mysis soaked in second, I also does red sea AB+ for my LPS corals I also have frozenLRS reef frenzy but barely use it right now.

I have quite a few fish that I'm getting back from my friend every other week
As of right now I only have a melinarus wrasse, pair of clowns, an angle fish and a red lined tile fise with a few snails and conch’s

With it only being 3 months it's relatively susceptible to algae. Keep dosing the vibrant as per the instructions. It can take a few months for it to eradicate all signs of algae! If you can maybe cut back on the feeding slightly to try and reduce the amount of waste

 

[Shadows Reef]

I do not know about specifically Vibrant and Microbacter7, but there are quite a few of people on here who claim to have beat dinos by dosing several different bacteria bottles. I know on Dr. Tim's waste away it specifically says not to dose to different types on the same day. I personally have been dosing Microbacter7, and am going to dose waste away a few times also. I kind of buy into the diversity theory.

I believe this is true for different strains of bacteria whether it’s anaerobic or aerobic bacteria. I believe Microbacter clean and vibrant are both anaerobic bacteria or ”dentifying” bacteria.
The only problem with denitrifying bacteria is that it's really hard for them to populate in our reef tanks I believe that's why we have to add it every week or every other week.

Dr Tim’s one and only is fantastic a i’ve used it many times I believe that is aerobic or ”nitrifying” bacteria.

I didn't use it this time as I wanted to try the dry rock fishless cycle kit from brightwell which came with ammonia, microbacter start XLM, and MicroBacter clean(how I got in the dilemma I'm in)

When it came time to use the microbacter clean I instead used vibrant because I believe they are the same just lots of speculation that vibrant is better and I'll like to find out myself.

 

[Uncle99]

I not of the thinking of using both Vibrant and Chaeto at the same time. After Vibrant cleared up my algae up in about 12 weeks, I continued at half the dose because I do not run any fuge, or sump for that matter.
But of course, you do have a choice in your case.

Once you clean up your algae, you can discontinue Vibrant and employ the Chaeto in your fuge.

You can always use the fuge if you want, just no chaeto.

Once you see your algae start to turn less green and mor beige, be sure to repeatedly take it out, it’s rather easy at this point as the algae gets quite weak, and we don’t want that crap in our water.

If you keep up the maintenance, somewhere in the range of 12-15 months of maturity, algae will no longer be an issue for you.

 

[Shadows Reef]

With it only being 3 months it's relatively susceptible to algae. Keep dosing the vibrant as per the instructions. It can take a few months for it to eradicate all signs of algae! If you can maybe cut back on the feeding slightly to try and reduce the amount of waste

thanks, I know, not much I can do about the algae growing, it's in that stage. I just want to make sure I'm dosing it properly and if there would be an advantage to dosing both, but it's seems like just sticking with the vibrant every other week for now is the way to go, thanks again!

I try to cut down on the feeding if it worsen, for now I'll just be patient with the vibrant

 

[JoshO]

thanks, I know, not much I can do about the algae growing, it's in that stage. I just want to make sure I'm dosing it properly and if there would be an advantage to dosing both, but it's seems like just sticking with the vibrant every other week for now is the way to go, thanks again!

I try to cut down on the feeding if it worsen, for now I'll just be patient with the vibrant

If the algae gets worse then it may be worth dosing once a week, but that's only if it gets bad!

 

[Shadows Reef]

I not of the thinking of using both Vibrant and Chaeto at the same time. After Vibrant cleared up my algae up in about 12 weeks, I continued at half the dose because I do not run any fuge, or sump for that matter.
But of course, you do have a choice in your case.

Once you clean up your algae, you can discontinue Vibrant and employ the Chaeto in your fuge.

You can always use the fuge if you want, just no chaeto.

Once you see your algae start to turn less green and mor beige, be sure to repeatedly take it out, it’s rather easy at this point as the algae gets quite weak, and we don’t want that crap in our water.

If you keep up the maintenance, somewhere in the range of 12-15 months of maturity, algae will no longer be an issue for you.

Thanks! I will follow your advise and just stick to the vibrant, If I want to try to new method I need to make site I follow through properly, thanks everyone for helping answer my confusion!

 

[Shadows Reef]

If the algae gets worse then it may be worth dosing once a week, but that's only if it gets bad!

Yeah it's not bad at all i’m just whining cause I'm worried the algae will slow my coralline from growing and white rock is always a little boring.

 

[JoshO]

Yeah it's not bad at all i’m just whining cause I'm worried the algae will slow my coralline from growing and white rock is always a little boring.

Patience is key in this hobby