MB7 + BioFuel (or Vodka) - Show Thread

[kevo23]

ive been dosing vodka and mb7 for a couple months now, my tank is 55 gallons, have a 20 gallon sump. Right know im dosing 4 drops of MB7 daily and 1.2 mls of vodka daliy. I dose half in morning, half at night. Also dosing Brightwells reef code A and B, koral color, iodion, coral amino. When i first started dosing i got up to about 2.4 mls of vodka, and noticed red monti cap starting to bleach so cut down to 1ml for a week then went to 1.2 since then the monti cap is looking a lot better. I took filter sock out a couple of weeks ago, dont know if it is related but things have really started to look better since then.

Pic from a couple of months ago right before i starte dosing,picked up a bunch of frags right before i started dosing
<a href="http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/?action=view&current=DSC01630.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/DSC01630.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Current pic
<a href="http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/?action=view&current=DSC01983.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/DSC01983.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/?action=view&current=DSC01987.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/burtman23/DSC01987.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> will update in a couple months

 

[xsboost]

Guys, is it possibly because nutirents are much lower now and you need to add some aminos for your corals?

Just an update from me. I was using MB7 + RBF and the results were crap. I switched to MB7 + the new Red Sea NO3-PO4X and wow, NO3 has finally dropped to almost zero and PO4 was zero last night for the first time ever. This took less than 2 weeks!! The stuff smells like nail polish remover and best of all....it actually comes with a precise table of directions on how much to use, which takes the guess work out of RBF and vodka. Coral PE has improved and shortly I can look at tweaking colours with aminos, etc

 

[JG1]

Guys, is it possibly because nutirents are much lower now and you need to add some aminos for your corals?

Just an update from me. I was using MB7 + RBF and the results were crap. I switched to MB7 + the new Red Sea NO3-PO4X and wow, NO3 has finally dropped to almost zero and PO4 was zero last night for the first time ever. This took less than 2 weeks!! The stuff smells like nail polish remover and best of all....it actually comes with a precise table of directions on how much to use, which takes the guess work out of RBF and vodka. Coral PE has improved and shortly I can look at tweaking colours with aminos, etc

What's RBF?

 

[kevo23]

Brightwells Reef Biofeul

 

[xsboost]

Kevo, tank looks good mate, but where is your coralline? I have that stuff in the vinyl tubes running to my chiller, all over the back pane, absolutely everywhere!

 

[kevo23]

I only started with one piece of live rock a little less than a year ago the rest was just dry stuff, my vortech is starting to get really covered though and the past month or so its really started to cover my rocks.

 

[urbaneks]

What are people using as their dropper for dosing the MB7? Depending on the dropper, the amount dosed can vary greatly. The directions call for 1 drop/50 gallons per day. If I use the two dropers I have that varies between .2ml and .5ml. Over the course of a week this makes a large difference.

 

[xsboost]

I use 1 drop per 25gal based on other peoples experiences with trial and error and use the dodgy black shampoo bottle it comes in to drip out. I figured it doesn't much matter if it's sometimes 3 or 7 drops.

 

[anthony27]

I to find themb7 and reef bio fule along with dosing elements in the tank give me great growth and sps color pop

 

[Treed]

I think this would be a good place to ask....I just picked up some BioFuel yesterday and was told not to get the MB7...So by how it sounds I need to go back and get some. But my main question is, Would it hurt to also dose vinegar? If so how do you go about doing that. I havent been able to find a answer on that. I have some major cyno growing and im trying to start regualr weekly water changes. My goal from starting this is to get more color. The PE is good for most of the corals but some just lack color. I have started dosing Brightwells Amino's and feeding some oyster eggs and phyto for my calms. Any imput for be great! Thanks

 

[xsboost]

I think this would be a good place to ask....I just picked up some BioFuel yesterday and was told not to get the MB7...So by how it sounds I need to go back and get some. But my main question is, Would it hurt to also dose vinegar? If so how do you go about doing that. I havent been able to find a answer on that. I have some major cyno growing and im trying to start regualr weekly water changes. My goal from starting this is to get more color. The PE is good for most of the corals but some just lack color. I have started dosing Brightwells Amino's and feeding some oyster eggs and phyto for my calms. Any imput for be great! Thanks

This is where it gets very confusing and unfortunately the instructions on the brightwell bottles fall short as they are quite vague.

Amino's will fuel cyano, so you should ideally stop all supplemental dosing. The BW Coral Amino dosages also seem outrageously high. What are your nitrates and phosphates? If they aren't very close to zero, you should pull them down before you start to try tweak colours and using amino's etc.

You will benefit greatly from the addition of MB7 as it is the core of the system. You seed your tank for 2 weeks with it, then start BF. To be honest though, you really only need to use BF when the MB7 stops pulling your nitrates and phosphates down as the BF is a carbon source and generally when the MB7 stops working, this means carbon is your limiting factor - hence you then start adding BF. I also found BF will fuel cyano, so it is a double edged sword.

I have since used zeobak+coral snow which got rid of my red cyano, along with weekly water changes and vacuuming the sand of crud. I now have green cyano slime :headwalls: but have finally got my NO3 and PO4 down to zero using Red Sea NO3-PO4-X which is like Brightwell's BF, but has more precise instructions and smells like nail polish remover & vinegar, so I'd say it is more complex than BF. I also add a lot more of it than BF. To be honest, BF did nothing for me, but I may not have been dosing enough as it was just making my cyano worse when I did.

If you want to try vinegar, you might be better using the vodka, sugar, vinager recipe. I've heard vinegar helps with cyano. Or try red sea stuff?

I have 165gal and have been using 3-6 drops of MB7 per day and approx 14ml of NO3-PO4-X per day but since my NO3 and PO4 dropped to almost zero, I now have to add approx 6ml per day and will slowly drop it back further.

 

[Treed]

Im getting rdy to get a hanna PO and NO tester. I was using a seachem test kit but it was impossible to read. I think its cyno but im not 100% sure....It kinda looks like cotton and its a pain to get off the rocks. Im hoping the water changes will start helping along with some kind of carbon dosing. I do have a good skimmer(reefdynamics) so thats a plus. My tank is a 180 gallon with a preaty good fish load.

 

[urbaneks]

Im getting rdy to get a hanna PO and NO tester. I was using a seachem test kit but it was impossible to read. I think its cyno but im not 100% sure....It kinda looks like cotton and its a pain to get off the rocks. Im hoping the water changes will start helping along with some kind of carbon dosing. I do have a good skimmer(reefdynamics) so thats a plus. My tank is a 180 gallon with a preaty good fish load.

Are you referring to the Hanna Nitrite Checker or is there a Nitrate Checker made by Hanna. I own the Alk and Phos checkers and love them. I'd love to get a Nitrate checker but don't think they make one.

 

[Treed]

Going to get a pinpoint one then a hanna PO and Alk one

 

[Gyr]

Curious if you two are dosing anything with the vodka system? I gave up on mine because the colors were bad. My buddy is dosing but he also supplements a ton.

I have been dosing Brightwell's amino acids since before starting the MB7/Vodka. Like I said, I'll probably give it another month to see if colors improve, but I suspect I'm going to wind up quitting the regimen.

My situation was a little unique, in that I had undetectable Nitrates and phosphate (and no cyano) for many months before I started the MB7/vodka. I use an overated skimmer and run GAC & GFO reactors continuously, so I kind of had a quasi-ULNS tank to start with. I had been quite happy with most of my SPS, except a few that were just a bit pale. I thought I'd give a true ULNS system a try to see if the colors of those few SPS would improve, but I feel the opposite has happened. I know there is a school of thought that ULNS can fade colors, so after another month I'll probably wind up going the opposite way and cut back on my skimming and GFO/GAC reactors to let the nutrients bump up a bit to see if that improves things....

I'm always tweaking things. I probably should just let it be.

 

[urbaneks]

Cloudy Water

Cloudy Water

Im on week 2 of vodka doseing am I am having a bit of an issue, my tank is very clear in the morning but gets cloudy as the day progresses. My nitrates are at 0 and have been since I started and my phosphates are around .15. Has anyone else had this issue? What did you do to resolve it? Thanks in advance.

 

[Alex T.]

Gyr, this happened to me. I lost a lot of corals chasing "holy grail" parameters and dosing products I didn't even understand and took on faith. In the end I concluded that a lower maintenance approach suited me best. I do a weekly 10% display volume water change, use a great skimmer (SRO XP 2000 internal) feed just enough to keep my finned friends happy and dose one drop of Lugol's iodine per day which has really helped my blues. Everything looks much better since I resigned myself to taking it slow and obvserving only those things that I can control like:

flow, photoperiod, feeding, water changes, temperature and stable parameters.

Growth is steady and I like my colors. It's also less tweaking than I was doing before so I can enjoy the tank more. Taking time to make changes can also help pinpoint what change it was that has a positive affect instead of wondering what new concoction did it.

Running a ULNS is not for everyone and proved to be more work than I really wanted. I was constantly fighting the next wave of cyano and pale colors and subsequent losses. I concluded that if it took 4 years instead of 2 for the tank to develop into what I had envisioned then so be it. Rushing anything in this hobby has always backfired on me so I prefer the mother nature approach.....let it evolve and mature on its' own and you will be rewarded for not getting in the way.

 

[xsboost]

Im on week 2 of vodka doseing am I am having a bit of an issue, my tank is very clear in the morning but gets cloudy as the day progresses. My nitrates are at 0 and have been since I started and my phosphates are around .15. Has anyone else had this issue? What did you do to resolve it? Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a bacteria bloom from the vodka (carbon) source.

Try seeding your tank with MB7 for 2 weeks prior to starting vodka

 

[urbaneks]

Sounds like a bacteria bloom from the vodka (carbon) source.

Try seeding your tank with MB7 for 2 weeks prior to starting vodka

I did seed for 2 weeks with MB7 before starting the vodka dosing. After the 2 week of seeding, I followed the steps and was on the 3rd increase when the tank started clouding at night. Per the instructions, I cut the dose in half but it has not changed the nightly cloudiness. Has anyone else had a similar issue?

 

[mrsmithers]

@urbaneks
I havent had that issue but it does sound like maybe a bacteria bloom. I would cut the dosing down like you have and wait it out.
HTH
-m