For those dosing prodibio bioptim and biodigest

[Patrick Cox]

I have been dosing Bioptim and BioDigest for two months and then two weeks ago I decided I needed to start adding some nutrients to my tank and therefore I added one vial of Reefbooster. Now today, two weeks later, I added another vial. Is Reefbooster the only coral specific food or additive I should use or is it ok and/or suggested to use others like KZ products or Acropower for example or Reef Chile...etc.

Thanks.

 

[jackson6745]

Patrick, I've been using bioptim/biodigest for a couple of years. At first I used reef booster as suggested but it is basically a pollutant. It made my skimmer go crazy for 2 days, and it never really made much of difference in my SPS. If more nutrient is needed, nothing gave me results like adding more fish. I do dose Acropower occasionally, and I notice a slight increase in vibrance from certain SPS.

 

[rovster]

I've been using it now for almost 3 months. Can't say how effective it is because I've changed a few other things. My tank never registered any nitrate but phos was always stubborn. I could never bring it down below 0.03 and it usually hovered around 0.04-0.06. It was 0.07 when I started.

My phos is now pegged at 0 using less than half the GFO I was using. I am also dosing nitrate which is probably helping with phosphate and a myriad of other stuff. I'm back to feeding an obscene amount. I still have crap in the sandbed but overall things look good. I'm due soon to add reef booster but I think I may hold off a bit. None of my corals are pale at all so gonna ride this out a bit longer....

 

[trueblackpercula]

I dose Pappone or what I call liquid Genesis once every 10 days at a dose of 10mls per 100 gallons and it has in it reefbooster.

 

[jackson6745]

rovster, IME, be careful running prodibio with 0 nitrate. I paled corals quite a bit in the past, and had to run low alk levels like a zeo tank would, or I would get stn. The po4 level is probably what's saving you right now. 0 p04 + 0 no3 + Prodibio = Death!

 

[Patrick Cox]

rovster, IME, be careful running prodibio with 0 nitrate. I paled corals quite a bit in the past, and had to run low alk levels like a zeo tank would, or I would get stn. The po4 level is probably what's saving you right now. 0 p04 + 0 no3 + Prodibio = Death!

While I have tested positive PO4, I don't think I have ever tested positive nitrate. How do I increase nitrate slightly?

Thanks

 

[jackson6745]

Patrick, there are threads where guys are dosing sodium nitrate. I think it's just easier to add more fish and monitor po4 levels so they don't get high as well.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Patrick, there are threads where guys are dosing sodium nitrate. I think it's just easier to add more fish and monitor po4 levels so they don't get high as well.

So is fish waste supposed to increase nitrates and phosphates? And then do you use GFO to keep phosphates down?

 

[jackson6745]

So is fish waste supposed to increase nitrates and phosphates? And then do you use GFO to keep phosphates down?

Yep, fish and feeding certainly does increase nitrate and phosphate. In the first 8 months of my tanks life I ran gfo to keep po4 below .07 (usually much lower). Nitrates were 10ppm and po4 was mostly around .03ish. As the tank aged more I noticed nitrate would stay elevated 10-15ppm with po4 usually .05 without GFO use so I stopped.
My nutrient level is a little higher than most feel comfortable with, but with very high light, the corals show great health, color, and growth with this balance.

 

[rovster]

rovster, IME, be careful running prodibio with 0 nitrate. I paled corals quite a bit in the past, and had to run low alk levels like a zeo tank would, or I would get stn. The po4 level is probably what's saving you right now. 0 p04 + 0 no3 + Prodibio = Death!

I probably have some in there although both kits read 0. Colors are pretty rich. None of the corals have that starved look. I do have chaeto wall to wall in fuge so that is likely skewing my numbers. Only thing I'm fighting now is zero polyp extension. Don't know if that is related to anything but it is quite peculiar.

 

[Patrick Cox]

I have been experiencing a lot of what appears to be stringy cyano. It is definitely red so I assume this is what it is. I am also seeing powdery red algae and I turkey baste it off of my rocks every couple of days. Is this from the Bioptim/Biodigest? Is there anything I can do to stop it? The stringy parts are in the higher flow areas and the powdery is in lower flow areas.

Thanks

 

[agreenberg77]

furthering the conversation

furthering the conversation

Feedback on this thread is tremendously helpful. I have to thank you guys, I've been looking and gathering info for some time

I've been using the three supplements every two weeks, one vial each, and now plan to bump up to the two vials for reef booster and bioptim as suggested in the instructions and looking for any other feedback you guys may have. I have a 100 gallon or so (with sump) system, mixed reef, good amount of live rock, and overstocked with fish. I have 15 different types of coral, all that are growing and look fairly good, and water parameters were good until adding the last tang, which I was compelled to do to mix up the tank and stop my purple and yellow from constantly battling. so now i am running nitrates at about 50 with all other parameters being at or close to ideal. but the overstock is keeping my nitrates up, even with 30% changes every two weeks
i have a protein skimmer and i am running a media reactor with purigen and seagel, and i run UV light which i installed months ago to combat ich, which i was able to beat with only one fish fatality

I currently have;

purple tang
yellow tang
blue tang
bristle tooth tang (i know, i know, too many damn tangs, i added this one last and he solved the problem, now no one fights really)
sleeping byno goby
flame angel
fox face
very small neon goby
4 chromis

and a bunch of inverts

any suggestions of keeping nitrates down, or is this an acceptable level if my stuff looks decent. i also read i can do the prodibio more often , i.e. once per week, would that help? for me, ideal conditions and keeping my tank healthy are the most important thing, even at higher expense (i spent 300 dollars to save my blue tang from ich when everyone told me she was dead meat, now she's a beast)

 

[Mike de Leon]

Anyone still use Prodibio?

 

[Patrick Cox]

Anyone still use Prodibio?

Hi Mike. I am glad you posted to this thread as it reminded me that the last time I dosed this product, I ended up with cyano. That was two years ago in my 75G tank. In 2016 I started a 100G tank and about 4 months ago I decided to start dosing Prodibio in this tank because I needed to feed more to keep my fish healthy and now again I have cyano. I guess this is just a by product of Prodibio. I am thinking I will stop again or maybe try larger water changes for awhile. I am currently changing 8 gallons weekly on about 90 Gallons of net water volume so a little less than 10%.

Thanks.

 

[Mike de Leon]

Hi Mike. I am glad you posted to this thread as it reminded me that the last time I dosed this product, I ended up with cyano. That was two years ago in my 75G tank. In 2016 I started a 100G tank and about 4 months ago I decided to start dosing Prodibio in this tank because I needed to feed more to keep my fish healthy and now again I have cyano. I guess this is just a by product of Prodibio. I am thinking I will stop again or maybe try larger water changes for awhile. I am currently changing 8 gallons weekly on about 90 Gallons of net water volume so a little less than 10%.

Thanks.

I actually started with trying to remove cyano. I have the green kind. It was an outbreak. Covered everything in the tank due to overfeeding my Achilles.

I found a post by another person where he first dosed bioclean then a couple days later, chemiclean. He apparently had great results and pretty well cleaned the tank. So I did the same. After 48 hours the cyano died off completely.
However, everything else seemed cleaner as well. Very evident on the sandbed.
It's so white right now. PE on SPS too is unreal.

 

[Patrick Cox]

I actually started with trying to remove cyano. I have the green kind. It was an outbreak. Covered everything in the tank due to overfeeding my Achilles.

I found a post by another person where he first dosed bioclean then a couple days later, chemiclean. He apparently had great results and pretty well cleaned the tank. So I did the same. After 48 hours the cyano died off completely.
However, everything else seemed cleaner as well. Very evident on the sandbed.
It's so white right now. PE on SPS too is unreal.

OK, I will give it a try. Thanks.

 

[reefmutt]

I have been using Bioptim for around 9 months I think. I started with biodigest and Bioptim but found it had little effect on nutrient levels so I stopped the biodigest and have been using AF bacteria because I have it in the fridge..
however, I think the Bioptim is largely responsible for making many of my ailing sps corals come around to better health and also putting my cheato into overdrive which in turn pulled my n from around 50 ppm to under 2. Phosphates have also dropped but not as significantly. Since using Bioptim, my tank has never really been healthier..
I am sold on it and will keep using it long term.
I have been using Reef booster a couple times per week -since nutrients came down I can’t say whether it has really benefitted anything directly..
Since starting Prodibio and adding cheato, I have not had any cyano outbreaks until I dosed fluconazole for bryopsis.. but after about a month of the small cyano outbreak only in my frag tank, I dosed rsr and have a clean tank for the moment.
In the last month or so, since dosing for bryopsis and cyano, I haven’t tested nutrients but by the looks of things, I don’t think they are too bad..
I think the Bioptim has a crucial mix of ingredients for good coral and zoox health- and cheato health..
I find that the cyano killing products like chemi clean or red slime remover and virtually 100% effective at killing cyano and do seem to have some short term algea reducing effects that benefit the system.
The fluconazole also kills several forms of algea (but not cyano) and even knocked back my cheato, but I feel that the Bioptim additions have helped my cheato come back very well.

 

[Mike de Leon]

Wow Matt , thanks for input. It s all I need. Did you follow their dosing recommendation? I am thinking of lowering the dose.

 

[reefmutt]

I have 350 gallons, so 1330 liters.
I’ve been adding a vial every Saturday and Wednesday.
Just in the past week, I’ve started adding an extra vial on Saturdays because the tank is getting quite packed... I’ll see what, if anything, this changes..
Reef booster I have kept the same..
In terms of coral and cheato health, I am very happy with the product. Nitrate reduction- not so much..
Fyi, I also add flourine and iodine separately. Af products..

 

[Mike de Leon]

I have 350 gallons, so 1330 liters.
I've been adding a vial every Saturday and Wednesday.
Just in the past week, I've started adding an extra vial on Saturdays because the tank is getting quite packed... I'll see what, if anything, this changes..
Reef booster I have kept the same..
In terms of coral and cheato health, I am very happy with the product. Nitrate reduction- not so much..
Fyi, I also add flourine and iodine separately. Af products..

Thanks Matt. I guess I have to really see how it works for my system then adjust accordingly. Cheers