Using mb7 for carbon dosing as main ingredients ?

Patx · Mar 19, 2024

Hello,
55g system
10 years old Fidji live rock, always be in use.
1 years CaribSea Arag Alive Special Grade Reef Sand 20 lbs - Live Sand
(1/2 to 1inch all over)
Refugium 15g bare bottom, lv,cheato,xenia,caulerpa,frag.
10% wc/week
Feeding, pellets ~1 gram/ day

I'm reaching a point where my parameter are very stable whit my dosing.
I have a 4 dosing pump. (AFR/BB/MB7/KH2PO4)
AFR for alk and trace.
BB for bacteria and trace.
MB7 for bacteria and reduce NO3.
KH2PO4 for keeping some po4.
I aim wide on the bacteria to leave as little room as possible for the possible Dino & friends. I've been branded by dinos in the past so I'm a little paranoid.

This is where I am.
ALK: 7.9-8.1 by dosing AFR 4ML/day
Po4: 0.03-0.05PPM by dosing 1.2ml bacto-balance/day + kh2po4 for +0.04ppm/day No3: 18-15ppm by dosing 5ml of microbacter7/days .

What i find :
Bacto-balance certainly reduces my po4.
But do not influence my No3.
Dosing 0.6ml or 1.2ml doesn't affect no3 but do play whit my po4.

Mb7 don't do much on po4.

In the past 6 months i was dosing mb7 1/ml/day and VSV to control my No3.
I dont have room in my dosing pump for VSV...
So i stop VSV and increase mb7 to 5ml/day, which is more than the maximum recommended dose.
- is this really a long term problem?
-should i stop mb7 and switch to VSV?

currently the tank is fine, 6 months have passed since i turned on the lights and added fish/coral. mainly zoa and some frags of sps.

any comments or remarks are welcome !
Thanks.

topjimmy · Mar 19, 2024

I think I would stop the MB7 and just carbon dose.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 19, 2024

Agreed. While adding MB7 may be good as a food for corals, its use alone as a nutrient lowering mechanism seems unlikely to be generally useful.

Patx · Mar 19, 2024

I am not against the idea of greatly reducing the MB7 over several days to see how the No3 reacts. but I have the strong impression that they will rise to around +2ppm/day.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 19, 2024

Patx said:
I am not against the idea of greatly reducing the MB7 over several days to see how the No3 reacts. but I have the strong impression that they will rise to around +2ppm/day.

Maybe, but I do not most often see folks report ongoing nitrate reduction when using MB7.

Troylee · Mar 19, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Maybe, but I do not most often see folks report ongoing nitrate reduction when using MB7.

It does work good for that if it’s fed a carbon source… there’s a thread floating around I can’t remember which one but his nitrates were around 100 and he couldn’t get them down with vodka alone so I recommended mb7 and it started coming down.. coincidence idk but I’ve been a mb7, carbon source fan to keep my nutrients in check. It’s worked for years.. and is a great coral food as you mentioned.

Troylee · Mar 19, 2024

Patx said:
Hello,
55g system
10 years old Fidji live rock, always be in use.
1 years CaribSea Arag Alive Special Grade Reef Sand 20 lbs - Live Sand
(1/2 to 1inch all over)
Refugium 15g bare bottom, lv,cheato,xenia,caulerpa,frag.
10% wc/week
Feeding, pellets ~1 gram/ day

I'm reaching a point where my parameter are very stable whit my dosing.
I have a 4 dosing pump. (AFR/BB/MB7/KH2PO4)
AFR for alk and trace.
BB for bacteria and trace.
MB7 for bacteria and reduce NO3.
KH2PO4 for keeping some po4.
I aim wide on the bacteria to leave as little room as possible for the possible Dino & friends. I've been branded by dinos in the past so I'm a little paranoid.

This is where I am.
ALK: 7.9-8.1 by dosing AFR 4ML/day
Po4: 0.03-0.05PPM by dosing 1.2ml bacto-balance/day + kh2po4 for +0.04ppm/day No3: 18-15ppm by dosing 5ml of microbacter7/days .

What i find :
Bacto-balance certainly reduces my po4.
But do not influence my No3.
Dosing 0.6ml or 1.2ml doesn't affect no3 but do play whit my po4.

Mb7 don't do much on po4.

In the past 6 months i was dosing mb7 1/ml/day and VSV to control my No3.
I dont have room in my dosing pump for VSV...
So i stop VSV and increase mb7 to 5ml/day, which is more than the maximum recommended dose.
- is this really a long term problem?
-should i stop mb7 and switch to VSV?

currently the tank is fine, 6 months have passed since i turned on the lights and added fish/coral. mainly zoa and some frags of sps.

any comments or remarks are welcome !
Thanks.

So you’ve been dosing all that with no live stock in the tank or lights? I can only imagine it’s gonna change now with corals as they uptake some of your n03 and p04 to live.. you might be changing your dosing schedule soon.. I only see a diamond bar for fish? It should be fairly easy to keep them down if that’s your thang with less feedings.

Patx · Mar 19, 2024

Troylee said:
So you’ve been dosing all that with no live stock in the tank or lights? I can only imagine it’s gonna change now with corals as they uptake some of your n03 and p04 to live.. you might be changing your dosing schedule soon.. I only see a diamond bar for fish? It should be fairly easy to keep them down if that’s your thang with less feedings.

Nope.
(Working on balance) Dosing this in the tank you see on picture...
Diamond,Clown, hawkfish,blenny,gramma, YELLOW wrass

You can go to my tank thread for more info.
(I did it simple here)

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 19, 2024

Troylee said:
It does work good for that if it’s fed a carbon source… there’s a thread floating around I can’t remember which one but his nitrates were around 100 and he couldn’t get them down with vodka alone so I recommended mb7 and it started coming down.. coincidence idk but I’ve been a mb7, carbon source fan to keep my nutrients in check. It’s worked for years.. and is a great coral food as you mentioned.

I agree that some folks make the claim that adding bacteria helps drop nitrate. I'm skeptical that the observations are always for the reasons claimed, but if a product like MB7 boosts denitrifying bacteria relative to aerobic bacteria consumption of organics, that will accelerate nitrate reduction.