microbacter 7 lower phosphate too much?

[Bitcoin Reefer]

This has been my experience as well, I've tried using MB7 to reduce my phosphates in the past with very little success.

In a 7 gallon pico, would doing a large water change be a good course of action? I've implemented the same strategy before when one or more parameters are out of balance with great success.

There have been certain individuals that have mentioned doing water changes do not lower phosphates. I don't understand how that could be true and thus my the reason for my question.

This is my tank, its about 2 years old.

Bro this tank is beautiful! Post more photos please And yes of course water changes lower phosphate as long as the water you're putting in is clean RODI. I am not sure how much phosphate is in tap water and I'm sure it depends on your city, but ya I would think tap has measurable phosphates. I know my old tap water few cities ago had measurable Nitrates. I could be wrong but from memory it was like 5 nitrates maybe? I could be way off though haha. That was 3 houses ago.

 

[juniorgomez708]

So I just tried mb7 for the first time and I will say I have always kept my nitrates around 30-40ppm and after dosing 250ml all at once my nitrates went down to 5 ppm in less then 12 hours

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So I just tried mb7 for the first time and I will say I have always kept my nitrates around 30-40ppm and after dosing 250ml all at once my nitrates went down to 5 ppm in less then 12 hours

That's either testing error or something other than MB7. Even Brightwell doesn't claim an instant reduction like that.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

So I just tried mb7 for the first time and I will say I have always kept my nitrates around 30-40ppm and after dosing 250ml all at once my nitrates went down to 5 ppm in less then 12 hours

How big is your tank and maybe test it again? It helps but shouldn’t be like that.

 

[juniorgomez708]

How big is your tank and maybe test it again? It helps but shouldn’t be like that.

Forsure not a testing error. I test nitrates with 2 test always. My tank is 210 gallon display. The only thing I will say is I am fight Dino’s at the moment due to using too much gfo. Went from .5 to zero phosphate bc of my gfo. But nitrates were still at 30-35ppm. I test my water every day btw and noticed a day later after dumping mb7 in my tank my nitrates tanked!

 

[Troylee]

Forsure not a testing error. I test nitrates with 2 test always. My tank is 210 gallon display. The only thing I will say is I am fight Dino’s at the moment due to using too much gfo. Went from .5 to zero phosphate bc of my gfo. But nitrates were still at 30-35ppm. I test my water every day btw and noticed a day later after dumping mb7 in my tank my nitrates tanked!

Any other algae in the tank? I dose mb7 daily and it doesn’t change anything honestly lol.. I did have a little spout with hair algae and my no3 and po4 tanked fast! i got the sand dwelling Dino’s that consumed everything i threw at it! I just finally got rid of the hair algae and I’m dosing neonitro and mb7 daily to keep my nitrates up around 20… my po4 is back up to .34 and holding steady.. most likely from heavy feeding trying to get nutrients back up.. Dino’s have faded about 80% away now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Forsure not a testing error. I test nitrates with 2 test always.

Test error is by far the most common cause of "unusual" readings presented here, despite most folks having confidence in their test kits.

I'd just keep watching it. Even if real, 5 ppm nitrate is fine.

IMO, there's not a likely mechanism for ongoing big drops in nutrients, or nutrients too low, from dosing MB7.

 

[juniorgomez708]

Any other algae in the tank? I dose mb7 daily and it doesn’t change anything honestly lol.. I did have a little spout with hair algae and my no3 and po4 tanked fast! i got the sand dwelling Dino’s that consumed everything i threw at it! I just finally got rid of the hair algae and I’m dosing neonitro and mb7 daily to keep my nitrates up around 20… my po4 is back up to .34 and holding steady.. most likely from heavy feeding trying to get nutrients back up.. Dino’s have faded about 80% away now.

No other algae. Just Dino’s and they are about 80% gone as well. I lowered my whites and blues over 50% and to my surprise it has helped tremendously.

 

[juniorgomez708]

Test error is by far the most common cause of "unusual" readings presented here, despite most folks having confidence in their test kits.

I'd just keep watching it. Even if real, 5 ppm nitrate is fine.

IMO, there's not a likely mechanism for ongoing big drops in nutrients, or nutrients too low, from dosing MB7.

I would agree if I weren’t testing the same way every single time. As I mentioned before, I even use another test brand to confirm the ppm. The only 2 things I did differently in my tank is dose mb7 and having Dino’s. But I will eventually get my nitrates back to 30-40 and dose another mb7 bottle and see what happens.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would agree if I weren’t testing the same way every single time. As I mentioned before, I even use another test brand to confirm the ppm. The only 2 things I did differently in my tank is dose mb7 and having Dino’s. But I will eventually get my nitrates back to 30-40 and dose another mb7 bottle and see what happens.

Sounds like a fine experiment.

Happy Reefing.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

it adds bacteria. Whether they do anything useful is a different question. Perhaps they do something useful in some context, but I do not believe phosphate lowering is a general result.

I posted a question and tagged you about MB7 and either you missed the post or just didn't want to reply. So with that out of the way I'd like to share with you that MB7 most certainly does lower nitrate and phosphate.

If you dose that MB7 into a tank like the OP did and we figured out he dosed way to much for his 120. He stated he dosed 20ml I believe. He dosed way to much like I did and crashed my tank. The OP was dosing his tank 7x the dose he should've been using. My wife is no chemist but she was the one that figured out why the tank crashed.

We couldn't keep nitrates or phosphates in the water column no matter what we did while still adding MB7.

Only reason I'm posting this is to save others from disaster using this product. Warning ( do not OD this product ) use it in a very very moderate dose is fine but take caution in doing so and test test and test then stop.

 

[Mattiejay6]

I posted a question and tagged you about MB7 and either you missed the post or just didn't want to reply. So with that out of the way I'd like to share with you that MB7 most certainly does lower nitrate and phosphate.

If you dose that MB7 into a tank like the OP did and we figured out he dosed way to much for his 120. He stated he dosed 20ml I believe. He dosed way to much like I did and crashed my tank. The OP was dosing his tank 7x the dose he should've been using. My wife is no chemist but she was the one that figured out why the tank crashed.

We couldn't keep nitrates or phosphates in the water column no matter what we did while still adding MB7.

Only reason I'm posting this is to save others from disaster using this product. Warning ( do not OD this product ) use it in a very very moderate dose is fine but take caution in doing so and test test and test then stop.

uhm.. do you feel entitled to a response from someone? lol

per the manufactures website directions: To effectively decrease the concentration of available nutrients and waste material in all marine and freshwater aquaria, add 5 ml (1 capful) per 25 US-gallons

so with that being said..he wasn't overdosing... even at the lower dosage he is still pretty good..

There has been alot of testing recently with pretty ineffective results with these bacteria products with out carbon dosing.. not sure what really happened with your tank.. but hard for me to believe this product cause a tank crash..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I posted a question and tagged you about MB7 and either you missed the post or just didn't want to reply. So with that out of the way I'd like to share with you that MB7 most certainly does lower nitrate and phosphate.

If you dose that MB7 into a tank like the OP did and we figured out he dosed way to much for his 120. He stated he dosed 20ml I believe. He dosed way to much like I did and crashed my tank. The OP was dosing his tank 7x the dose he should've been using. My wife is no chemist but she was the one that figured out why the tank crashed.

We couldn't keep nitrates or phosphates in the water column no matter what we did while still adding MB7.

Only reason I'm posting this is to save others from disaster using this product. Warning ( do not OD this product ) use it in a very very moderate dose is fine but take caution in doing so and test test and test then stop.

I do not believe this is a general result, but it might happen in some scenarios. Are you skimming to remove the bacteria?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I do not believe this is a general result, but it might happen in some scenarios. Are you skimming to remove the bacteria?

Yes sir I was skimming. I can let you know if it dropped nitrate and phosphate shortly as I'll be testing for them levels.

We were following brightwells instructions for new tank dosing at 5ml per 25 g of water for the next 2 weeks. Things didn't work out very well unfortunately.

I spoke to Algae Barn to ask a few questions about pods and such and we got talking about what was going on with the system and they told me I basically killed all the good and bad bacteria in the system especially if using that said dose. I don't know tbh but what I do know is it did bottom out the nutrients in a fast and bad way. I'll post back on what just 5ml did over the night to the numbers to validate the new system.

 

[Troylee]

I posted a question and tagged you about MB7 and either you missed the post or just didn't want to reply. So with that out of the way I'd like to share with you that MB7 most certainly does lower nitrate and phosphate.

If you dose that MB7 into a tank like the OP did and we figured out he dosed way to much for his 120. He stated he dosed 20ml I believe. He dosed way to much like I did and crashed my tank. The OP was dosing his tank 7x the dose he should've been using. My wife is no chemist but she was the one that figured out why the tank crashed.

We couldn't keep nitrates or phosphates in the water column no matter what we did while still adding MB7.

Only reason I'm posting this is to save others from disaster using this product. Warning ( do not OD this product ) use it in a very very moderate dose is fine but take caution in doing so and test test and test then stop.

20ml in a 120 isn’t a overdose.. I have dosed more than that into my old 60 gal cube without issues.. I still use it in my 350 on top of zeo bac and bacto balance and love the results I get.. mb7 will drop your no3 especially if you carbon dose with it.. po4 not so much.,