Question on a couple products....

Gwitness · Oct 6, 2014

I am still fighting some cyano issues in my tank.....Just set up a refugium area in my sump, not sure it is big enough to help out a lot, but something is better than nothing I guess. Anyways, I was curious if anyone has had any experiences with dosing there tanks with Prodibio Bio Digest or Brightwell Microbacter7??? Not sure if these could help my situation out or not....I'm not really trying to keep an ULNS, just trying to run a mixed reef as good as I can, with nutrients UNDER CONTROL!

SantaMonica · Oct 6, 2014

I think most folks would say to first do non-chemical fixes, with my favorite being biological fixes.

Gwitness · Oct 6, 2014

I'm not trying to get into all the phosguard or phosban stuff... Bio pellets etc. It's not bad but just want to get it Completely under control and I see a lot of people dose the bacteria all the time for there tanks.. Not just when there is an issue...

Gwitness · Oct 6, 2014

I've just been hesitant to try that stuff... Makes me nervous haha

SantaMonica · Oct 7, 2014

Did you try the basic trick of pointing a power head over the cyano area? This helps remove food particles from settling.

Gwitness · Oct 7, 2014

Yeah that's the weird thing I have mp40s and 2 jebao rw 15s...it grows in some of the highest flow areas... I have had threads on that already but just curious about these 2 products that people use

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 7, 2014

The two products you listed are bacteria.

I think they are unlikely to help, if you are not dosing organic carbon, but they are also unlikely to hurt aside from the small amount of nutrients that get added.

So it is a fine experiment to try and see if they will benefit the tank. It is at least possible that there may be bacteria in them that can outcompete the cyano in terms of consuming organics. If you were dosing organic carbon, this would be somewhat more likely. The bacteria you would add are not photosynthetic, so at best you will be removing the consumption of organics that the cyano is getting, but it can likely live with less than purely heterotrophic bacteria (organic eating) that are in those products since the cyano has otehr ways of getting energy (e.g., photosynthesis).

Gwitness · Oct 7, 2014

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The two products you listed are bacteria.

I think they are unlikely to help, if you are not dosing organic carbon, but they are also unlikely to hurt aside from the small amount of nutrients that get added.

So it is a fine experiment to try and see if they will benefit the tank. It is at least possible that there may be bacteria in them that can outcompete the cyano in terms of consuming organics. If you were dosing organic carbon, this would be somewhat more likely. The bacteria you would add are not photosynthetic, so at best you will be removing the consumption of organics that the cyano is getting, but it can likely live with less than purely heterotrophic bacteria (organic eating) that are in those products since the cyano has otehr ways of getting energy (e.g., photosynthesis).

Okay awesome... I will definitely it give it a shot.... Anything that could help I'm good with!!