Carbon dosers: Do you also dose bacteria?

xenon

xenon

Owner of Canada Corals
I am still fairly new to carbon dosing (few years).

I recently setup a 300g DD that is currently a FOWLR with plans to add corals once nutrients are in check.

I've tried carbon dosing (NO3:PO4-X) with zero results. I then tried NitraGuard Bio-Cube Titanium (3ml/L) and nothing. I used Titanium because at the time I was running GFO and had low phosphates (29ppb) compared to nitrates (50ppm)

Turns out I don't have the correct bacteria in my system to take advantage of these carbon sources.

Anyone else have this issue and start adding bacteria?
 
I dose a few drops of microbactor7 along with 5 ml biofuel from brightwell. I have approx 70 gallons of actual water volume. nitrates always test undetectable using red sea test kit and phosphorus 4-10 ppb. also run gfo.
 
I dose a drop of mb7 daily in my 30 gallon, only because of another reefer that has a great tank and does the same. I have not noticed a difference since I started that, but at the same time I haven't noticed anything negative either.
 
Never added bacteria. Bacteria are present everywhere. Water, live rock and air. Im running a biopellet reactor and nitrates are undetectable with Salifert test kit.
 
Hey

I have carbon dose and love it, I have used straight vodka for a while and this stuff works well to well if your not carful. Now I use prodibio and I see much better results then with vodka. I use biodigest and Bioptim and it seem to be a lot less aggressive on the tank. I have also been thinking about the VSV method as I have read it also works well. There is another thread around here about honey dosing and milk dosing but I have not tried it. The mb7 from what my friends tell me works well but I use prodibio products and it's affective.
 
how were you running the bio cubes..here in SA most guys running them in a mesh bag with a big airstone in the middle, which you just shake off once a week or so

I use carbon dosing woth microbacter7 once a week or so..works well
 
4age said:
how were you running the bio cubes..here in SA most guys running them in a mesh bag with a big airstone in the middle, which you just shake off once a week or so

I use carbon dosing woth microbacter7 once a week or so..works well
Click to expand...

I have 3L of Titanium bio-cubes in a Fauna Marin zeomatic reactor with both pumps on 24/7. The bubbles this sucker produces is incredible.

zeomatic.jpg
 
xenon said:
I am still fairly new to carbon dosing (few years).

I recently setup a 300g DD that is currently a FOWLR with plans to add corals once nutrients are in check.

I've tried carbon dosing (NO3:PO4-X) with zero results. I then tried NitraGuard Bio-Cube Titanium (3ml/L) and nothing. I used Titanium because at the time I was running GFO and had low phosphates (29ppb) compared to nitrates (50ppm)

Turns out I don't have the correct bacteria in my system to take advantage of these carbon sources.

Anyone else have this issue and start adding bacteria?
Click to expand...

well, you possibly can switch to zeovit system which, as it claims, combines bacteria and carbon dosing.
 
M Woodhill said:
well, you possibly can switch to zeovit system which, as it claims, combines bacteria and carbon dosing.
Click to expand...

Yep. Just looking for a cost effective solution.

I decided to dose Bactiv8 by Two Little Fishies. It's bacteria used when biopellts is not working due to the lack of bacteria in a system.

This thread was started to see if anyone else has encountered my issue and what they did to solve it.

I am sure I will figure it out eventually. This whole issue is caused by crap live rock.
 
xenon said:
Yep. Just looking for a cost effective solution.

I decided to dose Bactiv8 by Two Little Fishies. It's bacteria used when biopellts is not working due to the lack of bacteria in a system.

This thread was started to see if anyone else has encountered my issue and what they did to solve it.

I am sure I will figure it out eventually. This whole issue is caused by crap live rock.
Click to expand...

can't judge more because of my very limited experiences outside the zeovit system and my last and only attempt on berlin system ended up basically disastrously

i had success with replacing zs3 with biopellets though. and if you stick to basic 4, zeovit won't cost you more
 
I've had success running just zeo start and zeobac and occasionally sponge power without the zeo reactor with a refugium..I seen an article somewhere that having a diverse bacteria is good for n and p consumption. ..from experience with zeo you have to wait for the proper bacteria to be established for it to start working. .
 
I think you should either do a bunch of large water changes, or stop using GFO for a little while and carbon dose. Bacteria can't remove nitrate quickly if there's not enough phosphate to consume, and you have a lot of nitrate so it will take a long time.
 
Kairus said:
I think you should either do a bunch of large water changes, or stop using GFO for a little while and carbon dose. Bacteria can't remove nitrate quickly if there's not enough phosphate to consume, and you have a lot of nitrate so it will take a long time.
Click to expand...

That is normally true but not when using the Titanium version of the Nitra-Guard bio-cubes.

Its carbohydrate based nitrate remover that does not require any phosphate present to be effective.

Large water changes are a terrible method of managing nutrients in a massive fish tank. It should only be done to fix a chemical imbalance. I would need to change out 200G of water to lower my nitrates from 50ppm to 25ppm and it still won't solve my issue.
 
I tested MB7 on my 180 and 100 Gallon Cubes. It made absolutely no appreciable difference in regards to how quickly or efficiently I was reducing nitrates/phosphates. Although it did look pretty on the shelf.

Carbon is the limiting factor here, not bacteria population.
 
I think the bacteria your talking about r there already just not totally established yet takes awhile for the carbon dosing to kick in for me I've ben dosing vinegar for 3 weeks and barely seeing a change I'm curious as we'll if there something that can help or speed things up?
 
BrentH said:
I think the bacteria your talking about r there already just not totally established yet takes awhile for the carbon dosing to kick in for me I've ben dosing vinegar for 3 weeks and barely seeing a change I'm curious as we'll if there something that can help or speed things up?
Click to expand...

This tank is about 8 months old. I've been struggling for months getting the nitrates under control.

I learned that dosing a standard carbon source was not effective due to the Redfields Ratio. I had no idea that carbon dosing would stop working when the ratio of carbon/nitrogen/phosphorus would be out of balance (C:N:P = 106:16:1).

This made perfect sense because my Phosphates were very low and nitrates we sky high.

Once I get the balance back in check, I will probably go back to the traditional method of carbon dosing. I am not too crazy about the salt creep caused by the bubbles in my sump while using bio-cubes.
 
xenon said:
This tank is about 8 months old. I've been struggling for months getting the nitrates under control.

I learned that dosing a standard carbon source was not effective due to the Redfields Ratio. I had no idea that carbon dosing would stop working when the ratio of carbon/nitrogen/phosphorus would be out of balance (C:N:P = 106:16:1).

This made perfect sense because my Phosphates were very low and nitrates we sky high.

Once I get the balance back in check, I will probably go back to the traditional method of carbon dosing. I am not too crazy about the salt creep caused by the bubbles in my sump while using bio-cubes.
Click to expand...

how is your feedin? some pellets dissolve into tons of nitrate
 
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