Offical Eco-Bak Thread

angrycubano · Oct 8, 2011

I know I need to have balance in bacteria. I found some at PetCo in the Boro.

milkman · Oct 8, 2011

angrycubano said:
does anyone have any Microbe Lift special blend I can buy from them?

I get a great deal on Special Blend at Drs F&S. They have free shipping at $49.

I have been using EcoBak for over a year and add 80ml of Special Blend to my 200 gal system each week.

poolkeeper1 · Oct 8, 2011

I have been running EB for a long time and never used Special Blend, I have used MB7 on occasion as well as Zeo-Bak Microrganism solution but only infrequently. This has had no effect on it's performance other than introducing different strains of bacteria at different times to IMO enhance the diversity of bacteria in the system.
I have also went for months without any addition of any of these and see no difference in it's effectiveness, Take it for what it's worth but i do not think it is needed for it to work! JMHO
Bill

angrycubano · Oct 9, 2011

thanks for the heads up. I just saw where Jon Warner uses it himself and there were comments on cyano outbreaks being due to the lack of bacterial diversity and that's why I bought the Special Blend. If the guy who created the EB uses it himself, and it adds a more complete bacterial colony into my system then I'm all for it.

Milkman, I bought the smaller bottle to see what happens but I'm not sure if I'm going to go that intense in dosing the stuff. I think by the time the EB kicks in I should be good to go. -thanks again

pickupman66 · Oct 9, 2011

I hope that is the case. I have been dosing mb7 and can't tell a thing from it.

Pecked out on my Android tablet with Tapatalk

orthokardia · Oct 10, 2011

has anyone read anything on injecting air into the reactor?? Is the bacterial strains aerobic or anaerobic? Also I am bringing the carbon/probiotic video to the meeting. very good!

poolkeeper1 · Oct 10, 2011

orthokardia said:
has anyone read anything on injecting air into the reactor?? Is the bacterial strains aerobic or anaerobic? Also I am bringing the carbon/probiotic video to the meeting. very good!

Never heard of anyone telling to use air with any brand Pellets, And I believe that the bacteria that consumes the Phosphate/Nitrate are aerobic as the latter would be harmful in your water colum in any amount. This is just my deduction of the two choices and only one makes any sense to me. JMO
Bill

orthokardia · Oct 10, 2011

my sump water got low and the supply pump was drawing a little air......got me thinking which is dangerous

angrycubano · Oct 17, 2011

it's been another week and now my pocillopora has good PE and so does the orange digitata. I have also seen the cyano dramatically reduced to almost none left. I just added my second treatment of the Special Blend so hopefully it will be gone very soon. I do see diatoms getting bad on the sand bed but that is due to my diamond goby being no longer with us. I need to find out what's going on with that since I just put these new bulbs a month ago.

I will report any new findings with my voyage into Ecobak world.

orthokardia · Oct 17, 2011

just an aside, but we should get joe to speak at the swap

Dowtish · Oct 17, 2011

Do you mean Jon? as in Jon Warner?

angrycubano · Nov 7, 2011

Update: so I finally got a dedicated pump (Eco 395) to run my reactor and it's tumbling perfectly. This also allowed me to run the mag 7 return pump staright to my DT instead of having it T off to the reactor. This has increased flow back to my DT which should keep my cyano at check. I've also moved my nano powerhead into my sump to keep detritus suspended so that should help with trates. Hopefully soon I will be able to keep some nice SPS.

RT6 covert extraction specialist OUT!!!

orthokardia · Nov 7, 2011

powerhead in the sump?? that is a new one to me

angrycubano · Nov 7, 2011

orthokardia said:
powerhead in the sump?? that is a new one to me

I figured that's the only way to make sure detritus stays suspended. Besides its a nano.

angrycubano · Nov 7, 2011

orthokardia said:
powerhead in the sump?? that is a new one to me

I figured that's the only way to make sure detritus stays suspended. Besides its a nano.

orthokardia · Nov 8, 2011

sounds like a good idea

Dowtish · Dec 1, 2011

So it has been 2 weeks since adding the new reactor to my system. I have had the pellets running for about 10 months in a canister filter, but now I havent had to clean the glass but one time. I'm thinking since my tank is fishless right now, there are less nutrients, but at the same time, I used to clean the glass daily.