Melves reef on youtube raves about this stuff. Ive never messed with it myself. The alk consumption drop could be caused by the bacteria releasing alk that was trapped in the detritus from precipitation or absorption. Could slso be the rock is leaching alk back out in a buffering action now that the bacteria is cleaning it up. Another big possibility is the change in parameters has caused the coral to stop growing temporarily while it adapts. My guess is there was alk precipitation occuring, since he was dosing 50ml a day on such a small tank and little stoney coral collection.
Did you ever get a satisfactory response to you original question? I recently started using this product and I have noticed the same thing. Like you, I have always questioned my consumption based on such a small bio load but attributed it to my coralline growth. I also believe that starting to dose two part to early (newbie mistake) helped create the imbalance. Once I was better informed I stopped dosing and tried to reset, calculate true consumption multiple times and eventually reset to a lower dosage ( I still thought my consumption was high) but never as low as my current consumption rate. I am still getting good polyp extension and the coloration on those that corals did not have issues prior to my using reef enhance still look good. Some of my corals have issues from me going nuclear trying to beat Dino’s but most of them appear to be recovering.
its a de-nitrifying bacteria, the same type that is in Dr Tims Waste away, or seachems pristine. its all different ways of adding bateria that breaks down detritus. I just prefer Dr Tims is all. its not harming anything. This guy uses it and has never had to do a water change. But it will lower nitrates naturally and slowly so not ideal if you have dinos unless your dosing nitrates or your nitrates are high naturally.
stupid question, but are these magnifications strong enough to see bacteria? i genuinely dont know. if they are, it doesnt look like there is bacteria in this slide? looks just like crystalline structures.I've tried looking at the Live Rock Enhance mixed in saltwater solution under the microscope just because I can. The container says it contains bacteria, enzymes, and etc.
It's not like I'd know what I'm looking at but it'd be cool if someone here did.
I mixed it in freshly mixed saltwater (not the tank water) and the mixed solution was left for only about a minute before looking at it. Maybe I should have left the mix for a bit longer. I don't know.
edit: got the number of the magnifications wrong, fixed them now.
25x 10 = 250
25x 40 = 1000
