Do I need these bio-additives?

[droog]

Hi,

Is there any point to adding biological additives like:

• Bio Degrader
• Prodibio Biodigest

on a regular basis? They seem fairly pointless to me. I don't want to waste money on useless bacteria that already exist in my system. Having said that, I don't mind spending money on them if there is a real tangible benefit to doing so...

My water parameters are reasonably good but I have had some nuisance algae growth during my first year of reefing, hence the question.

Ca: 450
Mg: 1300
Alk: 9.1
SG: 35ppt
Temp: 25.5
Ph: 8.1-8.3

NO3: 5ppm (Elos low range)
PO4: 0.1ppm (hanna URL phosphorous)

I'm carbon dosing, so my feeling is the beneficial bacteria in my system should be all "present and correct". Does that make sense, or is there some reason I should be adding these things on a regular basis?

The only pest algae I have at the moment is lobophora (a brown sheet like encrusting algae that is proving quite difficult to remove). No3 was undetectable to my RedSea Pro test kit but I tried Elos and found there were some in there. Upped the carbon dose and No3 is going down by about 3ppm/week. P04 also elevated at the moment, usually 0.03-0.05ppm. I will be adding a reactor with small amount of GFO for that soon.

In the meantime... bio-additives. Useful weapon in the arsenal or snake oil to lighten my wallet? Thanks for any help/advice/pointers.

-droog

 

[Denbf58]

I am not a big fan of additives but they can be useful to start a tank if you are using base or dry rock to start your tank other wise you can get many different strains of bacteria from the live rock you use

 

[Xavibear]

There is no need for the additives.

 

[Sk8r]

No. I tried one of them. More trouble than help.

 

[twon8]

Only thing I've added in ten years is fish food, kalk in topoff and baking soda, calcium chloride and some form of magnesium, plus water changes

 

[droog]

Thanks guys. Thought I was going mad there for a while. So much snake oil in this hobby...

-droog

 

[doctorwhoreefer]

Check out people's experiences with each product specifically. Try to find a tank that matches yours that's used it.

There is a fair amount of unnecessary things in the hobby, but if you cruise the uk forums, you would get the complete opposite responses. (they have good things over there; zeovit is one of them and people can't call that snake oil) I consider biodigest valid, people have been using it for quite some time along side carbon dosing especially. Can't comment on biodegrader though, looks shady.

 

[JerseyGuy]

I think for the most part less is more in this hobby. Unless your dosing for some specific issue like low magnesium I take a pass on this kind of thing.

 

[droog]

Check out people's experiences with each product specifically. Try to find a tank that matches yours that's used it.

There is a fair amount of unnecessary things in the hobby, but if you cruise the uk forums, you would get the complete opposite responses. (they have good things over there; zeovit is one of them and people can't call that snake oil) I consider biodigest valid, people have been using it for quite some time along side carbon dosing especially. Can't comment on biodegrader though, looks shady.

Prodibio is fairly widely available where I'm based. I can't find any before/after comparisons or time lapse photos that indicate the product would actually help me. In fact there seems to be huge confusion over dosage, usage instructions whether one can (or should) run GFO or carbon, etc.

There are some really nice tanks out there owned by hobbyists that run the product, but those hobbyists have such good husbandry practices anyway it seems likely the husbandry rather than one particular product is responsible for the success. Correlation does not imply causation.

So I'll give both a miss for the time being. It was interesting to look into, though.

-droog

 

[droog]

I think for the most part less is more in this hobby. Unless your dosing for some specific issue like low magnesium I take a pass on this kind of thing.

Thanks. Based on the responses here and my own investigation I'll pass on these products.

I don't thing they are necessarily snake oil I just don't need it. Many ways to be successful...

-droog