GHA and Vibrant

[RobertTheNurse]

So I had an issue with some GHA. I dosed Vibrant, and it has since wiped this issue away with a little help from me as well.

I have a 65G and only dosed 3mL every 2 weeks for like 3 doses in total.

My question is. My nitrates have always been around 10 throughout. Today I noticed it went down to 5. I use Salifert. Should I stop dosing Vibrant seeing as though the issue is more or less resolved, or dose like 1.5 mL every 2 weeks or even 1 mL to maintain?

Don't wanna bottom out my nutrients.
My phos is 0 - 0.03 using salifert. Hard to tell with the colours. But thats all I got.

I usually do a 20% water change every 2 weeks, was thinking of doing 10% every 2 weeks and feed a little heavy until I hit 10 for Nitrates.

Before and after photos

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Also now...

 

[Garf]

What algae eaters have you got?

 

[RobertTheNurse]

What algae eaters have you got?

About 8 Astrea...2 turbos 3 margaritas...was gonna buy a conch as well. But I have a few hermits.

 

[Garf]

Can you get banded trochus ? You will benefit from maybe 15 of them also.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Can you get banded trochus ? You will benefit from maybe 15 of them also.

Yeah I think I have one of them too lol...my hermits slaughtered some of my snails. So im just starting to restock them. When the GHA was long and mostly on the turf the snails wouldn't really go after it. I find they good at maintaining the problem before it gets wild.

In the meantime stop Vibrant you think? Or lower the dose more? On the bottle it says for "clean" tanks 1mL per 10G. And I was doing 0.5mL per G.

 

[Garf]

Never used it. I’ve always trusted algae eaters and time. I can’t see a problem in stopping vibrant if you have enough herbivores. May not apply to you but kole tangs are fantastic

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Never used it. I’ve always trusted algae eaters and time. I can’t see a problem in stopping vibrant if you have enough herbivores. May not apply to you but kole tangs are fantastic

My tank too small for a Kole tang no? 65G

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Never used it. I’ve always trusted algae eaters and time. I can’t see a problem in stopping vibrant if you have enough herbivores. May not apply to you but kole tangs are fantastic

Was looking into yellow tang, but my quarentinr tank is only 10G...too small for a yellow tang in quarentine?

 

[Garf]

My tank too small for a Kole tang no? 65G

I’ve got one in a 60. Don’t tell the tang police, although I’m sure they’ve been defunded by now

 

[old salt reefer]

Was looking into yellow tang, but my quarentinr tank is only 10G...too small for a yellow tang in quarentine?

Biota captive breed, no quarantine needed. Buy straight from Biota, no middle man to raise price or introduce disease. Another forum member just post a review yesterday on the one he got says it was the size of a 50 cent piece.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Biota captive breed, no quarantine needed. Buy straight from Biota, no middle man to raise price or introduce disease. Another forum member just post a review yesterday on the one he got says it was the size of a 50 cent piece.

dang im in Canada. They dont ship livestock to Canada i dont think.

 

[Midrats]

I agree with bolstering your snail population. Vibrant worked on Valonia for me but my corals sure hated the stuff. All my Lobos would look like crap for a few days after dosing. I dumped the rest out so I wouldn't be tempted to use it again.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

I agree with bolstering your snail population. Vibrant worked on Valonia for me but my corals sure hated the stuff. All my Lobos would look like crap for a few days after dosing. I dumped the rest out so I wouldn't be tempted to use it again.

Yeah. Well I'm more concerned about messing up my nutrients. My corals are all fine. Will see how these new snails prevail. And ill only do a 10% WC this time instead of the usual 20%? Or just continue but mayne feed the corals and fish more to get nitrate back up?

 

[blasterman]

Vibrant contains vinegar as I recall, so along with the bacteria it also adds fertilizer for those bacteria which is basically carbon dosing. So, this is why your nitrate falls. Did the same for me.

You have a perfect scenario for Vibrant; younger tank without out of control nutrients and a mild algae problem. IMO, if I were setting up a new tank, especially with dry rock I would add vibrant at the end of the cycle just to gets a heads up on the uglies and introduce those finicky post cycle bacteria you want growing ASAP and give them a head start.

Continuing to dose it is just like carbon dosing. Not thrilled about doing that in a younger tank, but I know those that do. Maybe wait and see if algae starts to come back and quick dose before hand.

Smaller tanks have limited options for herbivores. My favorite are turbo snails, but they might actually starve if your tank is too clean. For each fish you add to resolve the problem you add nitrate.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Vibrant contains vinegar as I recall, so along with the bacteria it also adds fertilizer for those bacteria which is basically carbon dosing. So, this is why your nitrate falls. Did the same for me.

You have a perfect scenario for Vibrant; younger tank without out of control nutrients and a mild algae problem. IMO, if I were setting up a new tank, especially with dry rock I would add vibrant at the end of the cycle just to gets a heads up on the uglies and introduce those finicky post cycle bacteria you want growing ASAP and give them a head start.

Continuing to dose it is just like carbon dosing. Not thrilled about doing that in a younger tank, but I know those that do. Maybe wait and see if algae starts to come back and quick dose before hand.

Smaller tanks have limited options for herbivores. My favorite are turbo snails, but they might actually starve if your tank is too clean. For each fish you add to resolve the problem you add nitrate.

Yeah. Id like to find a nice medium. I won't dose next WC. I'll see how the snails do. If I see things get out of control or they can't keep up ill give them a little help. Just don't wanna bottom out and next thing I know I'm battering dinos

 

[Cory]

Imo id stop using vibrant now that the algae is gone. Most likely it will start attacking things you like once algae is gone.

 

[Pistondog]

No need to dose if the gha is under control.
Vibrant is an algae eating bacteria. It will stay in your tank after dosing for 6 weeks or so, longer if it has algae to eat.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Thanks everyone for their input!!