Should I avoid using Vibrant?

[Mark Novack]

Almost everywhere I've looked, people have mentioned that emerald crabs really aren't reef safe and won't hesitate to eat coral

I have 4 crabs, 83 corals and the crabs just detail the rocks. No coral eating.

 

[rwreef]

It was the only thing that eliminated bubble algea in my tank. I recommend it. I had no side effects other than macro algea died off during its use.

 

[Mark Novack]

corals dying. all my macro algae dying.

weirdly enough i was under dosing while using it. the effects happened later down the road all at once

My fear is just that. Its the next two months that are filled with suspence. I look for the updates.

 

[haitian_reefer]

Please avoid vibrant at all cost. My tank has never been the same after using it. Don’t do it!!!

 

[shakacuz]

My fear is just that. Its the next two months that are filled with suspence. I look for the updates.

it took my tank months to recover(and to even grow chaeto again!)

i’m not sure if this correlates with the vibrant use but i did send in an ICP shortly after i stopped dosing and my tank had very high metals.

 

[xCry0x]

The biggest issue I saw was that since it was advertised as bacteria, people frequently advised overdosing it.

I did a 2x recommended dose (which was widely shared as the go to approach) for my bubble algae and didn't think twice since it was bacterial not chemical...

It was the only thing that worked for my bubble algae and completely eradicated it within two weeks. And I had bubble algae everywhere.

The thing that really hurt my tank is that I was aggressively stripping nutrients at the same time to to to starve out the nuisance algae.

THAT is what I believe lead to the negative impacts I saw, personally. This dialogue around if you have algae issues you have nutrient issues had led me to kill a ton of corals over my reef keeping career. I view it kind of like saying you should kill weeds in your garden by watering less -- end up killing the garden before the weeds.

There are some very very lengthy threads about using algaefix in very established SPS tanks without issues.

 

[Smite]

The biggest issue I saw was that since it was advertised as bacteria, people frequently advised overdosing it.

I did a 2x recommended dose (which was widely shared as the go to approach) for my bubble algae and didn't think twice since it was bacterial not chemical...

It was the only thing that worked for my bubble algae and completely eradicated it within two weeks. And I had bubble algae everywhere.

The thing that really hurt my tank is that I was aggressively stripping nutrients at the same time to to to starve out the nuisance algae.

THAT is what I believe lead to the negative impacts I saw, personally. This dialogue around if you have algae issues you have nutrient issues had led me to kill a ton of corals over my reef keeping career. I view it kind of like saying you should kill weeds in your garden by watering less -- end up killing the garden before the weeds.

There are some very very lengthy threads about using algaefix in very established SPS tanks without issues.

I did this as well when it first came out. I had a horrible bubble algae issue in my 100g tank. I dosed vibrant at 2x dose. Once it started working my tank was filled with BA flying everywhere. I placed foam covers on my mp40s and would have to clean them daily. Right then I knew there was no way it was bacteria, had to be an algaecide or some kind. Then I lost a healthy herbivore out of the blue during treatment. Of course I can't say it was for sure the cause but seemed strange enough to me to never use it again.

My tank was in a funk (sps dominant) for some time after treatment. I won't say that was due to the product but something to consider when killing off algae instead of manually removing it (which is actually pretty easy for BA) is you're releasing whatever it grew on back into the system as it dies off.

Here I am 7-8 years later and dealing with it again but luckily my tank is larger and I was able to fit a fox face that is helping. Emeralds are more of a keep it in check once you knock it back type solution in my opinion. Manual removal is easy during water changes. Siphon directly above the areas and pop, peel them out. Scrub the rock down with a brush all while you siphon. This is better because you are removing it form the system and all it grew on.

That's my experience with it. I did double dose it as people were suggesting early on. it worked but I do think there is risk involved with it. Unless I'm dealing with bryopsis, I choose not to treat with chemicals now. Good luck!

 

[Jon!]

Vibrant worked great for me. I had hair algae issues, and it knocked it out totally and it has not recurred. No issues with my mixed reef. Shrooms, euphelia etc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would never use it even if it worked flawlessly. Truth in labeling, or lack thereof.

 

[BurgerFish]

After vibrant all my macro, sps and lps are gone... Only softies survived.

 

[haitian_reefer]

When you hear/see vibrant, walk the other direction. My LFS stopped selling it

 

[muzikalmatt]

I think you should avoid using it, not necessarily because it doesn't work, but because they lied to everyone about what's in it. It's essentially the same as Algaefix at twice the price. The owner came on the forums here and straight up lied to everyone about not knowing what's in it. (How do you not know what's in your own product?) As Randy already stated, I don't care if it works perfectly, you're not getting my money because of your dishonesty.

Frankly, I think they got off easy and more should have come of this. They just kept their heads down and waited for things to blow over and never came back to clarify what the results of their "internal investigation" was despite telling everyone here that they would.

 

[Cthulukelele]

It's an ethical question. It's an algaecide. It'll work as an algaecide. They lied for years (and continue to lie as far as I know) about what it is. Imo just buy a different algaecide like Algaefix.

 

[BurgerFish]

It's strange that nobody sued them. Is there some kind of consumer protection? It's a USA based company?

 

[Cell]

It's strange that nobody sued them. Is there some kind of consumer protection? It's a USA based company?

Unfortunately, I don't think it's very well known outside of this forum that they were falsely advertising the product.

 

[Cell]

I still thinks it's rather confusing that there is still R2R branding/link on the UWC homepage. It makes it seem like R2R is endorsing the company and gives a false sense of security.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I still thinks it's rather confusing that there is still R2R branding/link on the UWC homepage. It makes it seem like R2R is endorsing the company and gives a false sense of security.

Just to clarify, Reef2Reef has no affiliation with UWC at all.