Dosing Bacteria in a tank w GHA

U

Urbs

New member
I did a very stupid stupid move on my reef this summer :mad2:. I decided that I could have a bright white sand bed if I carefully vacuumed the surface of it. I knew this had some rick but I still made the careless decision to proceed lol.
Guess what happened next?....

Yep I released a huge amount of phosphates in my tank. A problem that didn't exist before. Because of this I had a huge out break of hair algae and bubble algae spread across sand bed and lower portions of my rock. I mean this crap was on steroids lol. So I did some reading and dove in on correcting my problem.

I increased my GFO amount and changed it out every couple days. I have spent hrs of manual removal. Two weeks ago I added a Sea Hair after being told they can help. All this has helped a lot. I've even had to remove Sps from the rock scape to be able to manually remove GHA.

So I thought dosing bacteria would help me. I still have some GHA on the rocks but it's much much better. I purchased Brightwell MicroBacter7, Prodibio BioDigest, Bioptim, and Zeobak. My plan is to add Prodibio per instructions every 15 days then alternating weeks of MicroBacter7 and Zeobak. Starting out adding .smaller doses than instructions recommend. Week one I added MicroBacter7 twice then the following week I added Biodigest and Bioptim.

I stopped there because I started to see and increase in GHA again. Will adding bacteria feed GHA? Still changing out GFO every couple days ect.
Here I will give you info on tank to help w any questions you may have:

65 gal DSA rimless w 24 gal Trigger systems sump.
I'm figuring 60 gallons of water.
Reef is 90% SPS.
Lighting is a Sfiligoi MH pendent 400 watt w Radium bulb and Hamilton m 135 ballast. Ran for 8 hrs a day.
Bulb is 13" above water surface since it's a 400 watt.
Skimmer Vertex Omega 130
Sump is a refugium w chetao...spelling sucks lol
Running a BRS reactor w Brs GFO and carbon in a bag in sump.

Water parameters are:
Temp 77-80
Cal is 400
Alk is 7.7
No4 says 0 but know phosphates have to be in tank to be feeding GHA and bubble algae.
N03 is 0
Mag. 1350-1400
These are pretty stable parameters. I'm using a Bubble Magnus doser to suppliment alk,cal,mag.
I'm doing weekly water changes of 15-20 gals using Red Sea Pro salt.

Whew this is loooong winded. Again, should I no longer add bacteria suppliments? Really thought they would help fight off my problem.

Thanks
Darin
 
Hi Urbs. I'm not sure I understand how the sand released a huge amount of PO4 into the tank. Was it used sand from another sand bed? If so, that is possible. If it was new sand, then your PO4 is coming from another place like over feeding, detritus, etc.

I think you are working very hard to get rid of the algae. IME, I would keep it simple; water changes with good RO/DI water with TDS of 0, running GFO, cleaning filter socks and pads regularly, increase water flow, replace old bulbs in light, tune skimmer., reduce feedings and additives. These will get you to a low nutrient environment.

Zeobak requires the reactor and Zeolites to work correctly. Simply adding the bacteria is not enough and is probably not going to work. Zeo also recommends removing the GFO. MB7 can work, and some people get good results with it. I have no experience with prodibio, so I can't comment on it. Like many reefers, I have very good success with straight vinegar or vodka dosing to feed the bacteria. It's cheap and easy. I would highly recommend them to feed your bacteria strains once you have them established. Good luck. It will be a slow process. Take your time to avoid stressing the corals and livestock. You'll beat it :)
 
Hey ghostman. Happy Holidays to ya! I felt like I should have researched Zeobak a little more. Appreciate the good info. My skimmer is clean and humming along well. My RO/DI water says it's TDS is 0. If I get anything above this I change filters. I change out my filter socks every 3-4 days. I'm using two MP 10's for flow in the tank so maybe I should add a 40 or couple smaller tunze. Bulb is 5 months old so feel I'm good there.

I'll cut back on my feedings even more. I haven't been feeding my coral directly but I do rotate frozen Reef Crack in w my fish feedings. Think I'm going to cut that back a touch more and turn off pumps and try a direct feeding w the fish. Avoid food spill over to be left uneaten.

To my sand problem you mentioned....It is sand that I started tank w 2 yrs ago. I believe I got myself into trouble when siphoning substrate I released phosphate that was trapped beneath the surface. When trying to stop flow to bucket and release sand from siphon tube I think this is how I created my initial problem.
 
Happy Holidays Urbs and everyone on RC. Bacteria can help reduce algae. By encouraging the growth of bacteria, they use NO3 and PO4 as building blocks in their growth, they are then removed through aggressive protein skimming. There are plenty of bacteria in your tank already, but dosing MB7 might add some different strains. You do need to feed the bacteria a sugar source such as vinegar, vodka, or even sugar. All have pros and cons. You are trying to have the bacteria outcompete the algae for the nutrients. Adding MB7 is good. Keep them fed with vodka or vinegar dosing. It takes about a month to see results. In the meantime, clean the tank manually, keep that skimmer humming, and keep up your good cleaning regiment.
BTW, I do vacuum my sand. It gets rid of detritus. Sand is a great sinkhole for PO4, and can be replaced one in a while. I replace 1/4 of my sand every year.
 
ghostman said:
Happy Holidays Urbs and everyone on RC. Bacteria can help reduce algae. By encouraging the growth of bacteria, they use NO3 and PO4 as building blocks in their growth, they are then removed through aggressive protein skimming. There are plenty of bacteria in your tank already, but dosing MB7 might add some different strains. You do need to feed the bacteria a sugar source such as vinegar, vodka, or even sugar. All have pros and cons. You are trying to have the bacteria outcompete the algae for the nutrients. Adding MB7 is good. Keep them fed with vodka or vinegar dosing. It takes about a month to see results. In the meantime, clean the tank manually, keep that skimmer humming, and keep up your good cleaning regiment.
BTW, I do vacuum my sand. It gets rid of detritus. Sand is a great sinkhole for PO4, and can be replaced one in a while. I replace 1/4 of my sand every year.
Click to expand...

Thank you ghostman. I'm going to do some research on vodka,vinegar dosing. I've seen in post where people are doing this but I don't understand the process. Have you ever gone bare bottom?
 
No, I haven't. I don't like the look. I think it would be great for my nutrient levels though. I know people with bare bottom tanks, and envy the flow they can use. I just like the look of a little sand, and don't mind vacuuming or replacing the sand every once in a while.
 
I'm with you there on the looks. Okay, if you don't mind explain to me how you remove your sand. My bed is 1 to 1-3/4 in places. Wouldn't mind going lower in depth. I also want to add more flow. Maybe a MP 40 w my two mp 10's and the return flow.

I will continue to add bacteria. Give it time as you suggest. I'm going to look into dosing vodka vinager ect as you suggest. Just don't know where to start w it. Doesn't seem like there is a strong rule of thumb out there. I see too many beautiful reefs that run a very simple straight forward approach to think I need some elabrit system.
 
Not that adding vodka make it elabrit lol just don't want to get caught up into adding then adding ect chasing problems. You've been a big help ghost man thank you for your replys.
 
Not a problem. There are a lot of vodka/vinegar threads on the chemistry forum. There are some very basic rules of adding them. I prefer to dose vinegar as there is less chance of getting red cyano in the tank. It seems to be the least expensive method, but also gives some of the best results. I've tried zeo in the past, and liked it. It had a very small margin for error though, and the additives really add up in $$$.
 
I am thinking of dosing Dr. Tim's to knock out a resilient crop of cyanobacteria. I am following this thread to see how things work out for you.
 
You are following a good plan. I would like to just add one caution. It has been my experience that bacteria often consumes more nitrate than phosphate and this can cause processes to be nitrate limited when it gets too low for everything to work properly. In this situation some peoples phosphate readings actually go up. If you search for dosing nitrates or nitrate limitation you can see how this has happened to others.

This isn't worth reading if you don't have the problem. Just know that there is that possibility.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2210947&highlight=nitrate+limited&page=28

I do not suggest that you start dosing anything that you are not already doing but just be mindful of any potential imbalances that might develop.
 
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