The Bacterial “Rip Clean” Method

BRS
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When im saying 'theory' I'm meaning anything coming from oceanic studies translating into a reef tank outcome. That's very hard to attain. The theory is that our tanks will do what the ocean does

I feel very very guilty starting page eleven wo a new job linked :)

rn in the nuisance algae forum we just picked up two new rip clean surgical jobs for tracking, I'm spoiled by the pacing of those entrants. we are very confident that they will get the promised outcome. I'm fully confident of it in fact, based on prior logged outcomes. it is an easy sell to them to show them a link of fifty fixed reefs...
 
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www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
beesnreefs said:
Maybe @Lou Ekus can tell us if this is being discontinued.
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This is a very important product for us. It is not being discontinued. You will find it available in many places. All of oyur Tropic MArin Preferred Dealers should have the product available for you. Here is a link tot he Preferred Dealer Store Locator. I hope this helps...
www.tropicmarin-usa.com

Preferred Dealers

Many stores throughout the US carry Tropic Marin products, but our Preferred Dealers carry a larger selection of our line and are also using Tropic Marin in their store systems. Some of the...
www.tropicmarin-usa.com www.tropicmarin-usa.com
 
Lou Ekus said:
This is a very important product for us. It is not being discontinued. You will find it available in many places. All of oyur Tropic MArin Preferred Dealers should have the product available for you. Here is a link tot he Preferred Dealer Store Locator. I hope this helps...
www.tropicmarin-usa.com

Preferred Dealers

Many stores throughout the US carry Tropic Marin products, but our Preferred Dealers carry a larger selection of our line and are also using Tropic Marin in their store systems. Some of the...
www.tropicmarin-usa.com www.tropicmarin-usa.com
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Glad to hear but its really hard to find online thats for sure, would be nice if we could get it on Amazon etc...hint hint...
 
My reef actif is ordered so I will update with pics etc. once it arrives and dosing begins. I'm going to be using it on my 180g mixed reef rather than my reefer 170. My 170 has been completely redone to house sps and I have quite a few frags that are doing well in spite of the nuisance algae so I'm staying the course I have already plotted for that tank for the time being. My 180g is a mixed reef with quite a few large tangs and other fish as well as nems and shrimp. It has plenty of nuisance algae, gha and cyano together at this point. It has been running for several years.
@sixty_reefer should I post everything here once the procedure starts or would you prefer I post in a separate thread and link it here?
 
Deltec
exnisstech said:
My reef actif is ordered so I will update with pics etc. once it arrives and dosing begins. I'm going to be using it on my 180g mixed reef rather than my reefer 170. My 170 has been completely redone to house sps and I have quite a few frags that are doing well in spite of the nuisance algae so I'm staying the course I have already plotted for that tank for the time being. My 180g is a mixed reef with quite a few large tangs and other fish as well as nems and shrimp. It has plenty of nuisance algae, gha and cyano together at this point. It has been running for several years.
@sixty_reefer should I post everything here once the procedure starts or would you prefer I post in a separate thread and link it here?
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I would say keep it here so that everyone can see the results, if possible keep pics of one location of the Cyanobacteria at the same location of the tank to track development. If possible dose it at light out to ensure it’s getting all to the heterotrophic organisms and follow instructions for your system, some folks like to build up the dose to ensure the system gets used to it, at the end of the day is organic carbon and the first few doses may be tricky although I haven ever had any issues. Track nitrates and phosphates for the first two weeks also if possible, would be interesting to see if you notice only little impact on them.
 
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I've also ordered 2 bottles of Actif and plan to start on this ASAP. I'll do my best to keep you and everyone posted on progress here.

FYI, I emailed with @Lou Ekus and spoke to him about Actif v. Bacto-Balance. Lou's words:

"NP BACTO Balance is more of a “standard” carbon dosing product. However, it still utilizes the principle of longer chain polymers being more useful in promoting more desirable organisms. While Reef Actif is more of a “general use” product that can be used in almost any reef aquarium regardless of conditions. These two products also work extremely well together."

Lou said if I can get both, he'd recommend Actif first. That said, he suggested I could try Bacto-Balance if I can't get Actif. Since I was able to get both, I'm going to start with the Actif.

@sixty_reefer so I stay on track with your recommendations (and can share my experience), to deal with cyano (and a little GHA):
  1. How often do you recommend I dose the Actif? TM's instructions are once a week, up to 3x a week max.
  2. How much do you suggest I dose? According to the bottle's instructions or something else?
  3. How soon should I expect to see progress?
 
beesnreefs said:
I've also ordered 2 bottles of Actif and plan to start on this ASAP. I'll do my best to keep you and everyone posted on progress here.

FYI, I emailed with @Lou Ekus and spoke to him about Actif v. Bacto-Balance. Lou's words:

"NP BACTO Balance is more of a “standard” carbon dosing product. However, it still utilizes the principle of longer chain polymers being more useful in promoting more desirable organisms. While Reef Actif is more of a “general use” product that can be used in almost any reef aquarium regardless of conditions. These two products also work extremely well together."

Lou said if I can get both, he'd recommend Actif first. That said, he suggested I could try Bacto-Balance if I can't get Actif. Since I was able to get both, I'm going to start with the Actif.

@sixty_reefer so I stay on track with your recommendations (and can share my experience), to deal with cyano (and a little GHA):
  1. How often do you recommend I dose the Actif? TM's instructions are once a week, up to 3x a week max.
  2. How much do you suggest I dose? According to the bottle's instructions or something else?
  3. How soon should I expect to see progress?
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I’m in the same view as Lou both products used in conjunction would have really good results, actif reducing organic matter and bacto balance reducing nitrates and phosphates wile also dosing nitrogen and phosphorus.

I personally would go with actif only until the GHA and Cyanobacteria is under control and then start bacto balance.

for dosage I do it daily as my system is used to it now, as you only starting now go 3 times a week as recommended, do half dose to see how your system reacts to it and build up to full dose. I would also dose it at lights out if possible to ensure that heterotrophic bacteria is getting all the nutrients.

for results it will depend on how bad the situation is although I would expect visible results in a couple weeks maybe less. Keep a patch of GHA and Cyanobacteria and look for changes take a pic every couple days of that same location.

looking forward to see your outcome.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
I found this on Facebook and it even has a chart for dosing. I was going to just follow this.

In there it says dose 1/4 the first 4 weeks of one dose. Then those the quarter dose three times a week. And then go on to half dose three times a week.

Although that seems really slow I'm going to do a modified version and probably quarter doses for a full week's dose nightly for a week and then go to half full week's dose nightly for the following week and see how things go.
 
Dburr1014 said:
I found this on Facebook and it even has a chart for dosing. I was going to just follow this.

In there it says dose 1/4 the first 4 weeks of one dose. Then those the quarter dose three times a week. And then go on to half dose three times a week.

Although that seems really slow I'm going to do a modified version and probably quarter doses for a full week's dose nightly for a week and then go to half full week's dose nightly for the following week and see how things go.
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That was a really interesting read, thanks for sharing.
 
sixty_reefer said:
I think on the detritus itself it’s difficult to answer if it’s fully inert, marine detritus or mulm it’s composed from organic dead organisms.
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I guess I considered mulm something different in my mind; as the end result of detritus breakdown. I have a mulm layer in my return chamber; it consists mostly of exoskeletons etc. I never considered this as any source of nutrients (ow detectable n,p). This is sort of off topic, sorry to digress; just trying to figure out my use for this..
 
Nutramar Foods
Dburr1014 said:
I found this on Facebook and it even has a chart for dosing. I was going to just follow this.

In there it says dose 1/4 the first 4 weeks of one dose. Then those the quarter dose three times a week. And then go on to half dose three times a week.

Although that seems really slow I'm going to do a modified version and probably quarter doses for a full week's dose nightly for a week and then go to half full week's dose nightly for the following week and see how things go.
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So any coral improvements noted may be down to Trace A and K, not necessarily bio activ?
 
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Outstanding read. I feel that the copper explanation was incomplete.

Please expound.

PS: When I grew ediable seaweed for restaurants in 10K gallon capacity greenhouse system, I sent seaweed off for analysis to a regional agriculture lab for Quality Control & Quality Assurance to restaurant owner/chefs. Of great surprise to me was when copper & zinc showed up 4ppm & 2ppm. All makeup water came from Trinity Aquifer at 800’ deep. Aquifer water and system water showed zero copper & zinc with detection limit at 0.01ppm.

Gracilaria Parvispora (Red Ogo seaweed), Dry Analysis

N @. 2.59%
P @. 0.082%
K @. 14.54%
Ca @. 0.555%
Mg@. 1.163%
S @. 4.81%
Zn @. 139ppm
Fe @. 107ppm
Mn @. 20ppm
Cu @. 7ppm
 
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Subsea said:
Outstanding read. I feel that the copper explanation was incomplete.

Please expound.
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Sounded like "may contain a little copper, don't worry" , versus "other methods contain copper ,worry"
Either way, with briopsis and cyano seemingly spurred on, I think bioactive is not even touted as a problem algae cure.
Oddly I started vinegar in kalk and Trace A and K a few weeks ago. Now my urchin and fox face eat briopsis off my overflow teeth and other fish keep it mowed down, whereas before they wouldn't touch it, very odd coincidence.
 
Chewy.com
Garf said:
Sounded like "may contain a little copper, don't worry" , versus "other methods contain copper ,worry"
Either way, with briopsis and cyano seemingly spurred on, I think bioactive is not even touted as a problem algae cure.
Oddly I started vinegar in kalk and Trace A and K a few weeks ago. Now my urchin and fox face eat briopsis off my overflow teeth and other fish keep it mowed down, whereas before they wouldn't touch it, very odd coincidence.
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@Lou Ekus
Can you expound about the copper as I just posted dry analysis of seaweed grown with zero copper in the water, yet seaweed dry analysis showed 7ppm copper and 139ppm zinc.,

“As a biopolymer mixture of natural orgin, it can contain traces of copper.”

As I interpret this, either the seaweed absorbed copper from the water or seaweed produced it using enzymes in their body mass or the extraction process produced the copper.

PS: When I had native pecan trees, soil analysis indicated low on zinc, a heavy metal. When I added chelated zinc in the Spring, in the Fall branches broke from the weight of the Pecan harvest. Previous to that year, pecan production happened every other year. So, trace minerals as enzymes produced a bountiful harvest. I am very intrigued with the orgin of copper.
 
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Subsea said:
@Lou Ekus
Can you expound about the copper as I just posted dry analysis of seaweed grown with zero copper in the water, yet seaweed dry analysis showed 7ppm copper and 139ppm zinc.,

“As a biopolymer mixture of natural orgin, it can contain traces of copper.”

As I interpret this, either the seaweed absorbed copper from the water or seaweed produced it using enzymes in their body mass or the extraction process produced the copper.

PS: When I had native pecan trees, soil analysis indicated low on zinc, a heavy metal. When I added chelated zinc in the Spring, in the Fall branches broke from the weight of the Pecan harvest. Previous to that year, pecan production happened every other year. So, trace minerals as enzymes produced a bountiful harvest. I am very intrigued with the orgin of copper.
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To be fair I think it was me that mentioned algae, just seeing biopolymers in the text.
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Garf said:
To be fair I think it was me that mentioned algae, just seeing biopolymers in the text.
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Garf said:
To be fair I think it was me that mentioned algae, just seeing biopolymers in the text.
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To be blunt, the FB article danced thru the tulips with several copper explanations. I remember a saying in management, “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, then baffle them with your BS”.

PS: I understand a Patton and proprietary information from the manufacture. I only seek information & knowledge so we can all attain wisdom on why things work in our reef tanks.
 
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Garf,
I feel that copper at 7ppm showing up in Red Ogo biomass in 10K gallon greenhouse growout system when zero copper (lower detection limit of 0.01ppm) was in makeup groundwater is an important clue to this complicated riddle of biochemistry.

During Texas summer, I evaporated over 100G every day to keep water temperature below 80 degrees.

Thermodynamics 101
When 1 lb of water evaporates 1000 BTU of heat energy are absorbed during the phase change of water to vapor. Salt water weighs 8.35 lbs per gallon:

Therefore, the average heat gain in a 20’ by 40’ greenhouse during summer in Austin, Texas is

100G times 8.34 lbs/G times 1000BTU per pound of water EQUALS

834,000 BTU per day.

An average size oak tree evaporates 100G/D. Beside evaporative cooling and oxygen production, trees sequester carbon from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In addition to organic carbon in wood, there are a great variety of living carbon in the soil: viruses , fungi and bacteria sequester carbon in the soil.
 
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BRS

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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