MB7 + BioFuel (or Vodka) - Show Thread

I'm having trouble tweaking the MB7 and RBF dosages.

My biggest problem is it's so subjective and there isn't a lot of documented evidence from other users. I have adjust both dosages to see the effects and still can't draw too any conclusions.

160-170g tank. Currently dosing 12 drops MB7 p.d and 2.5ml RBF AM & PM. I am having to clean the glass every day or two of green diatom stuff. Didn't have this problem on prodibio. The sand also gets a bit of brown/green crap and notice it recedes a bit after the PM RBF dose. Have a bit of cyano too, have ordered some ZeoZym and Coral Snow to hopefully assist.

So now I am wondering if I should dose 7.5ml MB7 every 2 days and 7ml RBF to observe effects - or stop MB7 for a week to see if that's causing the 'diatom' crap??

Nitrate 1ppm (salifert)
PO4 0.04-.05 (hanna) can't seem to get it down despite running GFO

I do also run other supps such as aminos, etc which may be contributing to my problems...
 
@xsboot
I would increase the RBF dose to like 15ml daily. I believe that the recommend dose is 5ml per 50gallon. I would continue this until you nitrates and PO4 are immeasurable. For the MB7 I would go down to 6 drops per day or ~15ml weekly.

The increase of RBF should help decrease the nitrates and PO4. As for the AA i would not dose that until your nitrates and PO4 are zero.

I would give this a week or 2.
What skimmer are you running?. How often are your doing your water changs?
 
Until recently I had been dosing just Vodka. I was about 9-10mos in. My dosage was pretty high, and I was struggling to get my NO3 down, and as a result, I'm not thrilled with the colors I'm getting. Add to that I was getting a lot of brown film (diatoms?) on the glass. I could clean the glass at lights on, and I would literally have noticeable film on the glass by the time the lights were about to go off. So I was reading about MB7, and debating adding that to the mix, or stopping altogether. Then I had some pump problems with my skimmer, had to shut it down, and stopped dosing.

I've got some MB7 on it's way, and I'm going to give MB7 + vodka a go and see if I get a better result.
 
mrsmithers said:
@xsboot
I would increase the RBF dose to like 15ml daily. I believe that the recommend dose is 5ml per 50gallon. I would continue this until you nitrates and PO4 are immeasurable. For the MB7 I would go down to 6 drops per day or ~15ml weekly.

The increase of RBF should help decrease the nitrates and PO4. As for the AA i would not dose that until your nitrates and PO4 are zero.

I would give this a week or 2.
What skimmer are you running?. How often are your doing your water changs?
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, I will give that a try.

I'm running a bubble magus 200Pm, seems to keep up ok. Water changes are 20% every fortnight
 
Anyone noticed the instructions for Koralle-VM are 8 drops to 1ml but Koral Colors is 20 drops to 1ml?? And to make matters worse, the drops from the Koralle-VM bottle are much smaller - so this is clearly inaccurate?
 
Joining in...are sump socks okay?

Joining in...are sump socks okay?

I have decided to join in and give the MB7 + Vodka system a try after following along on this thread. My nitrates and phosphates have been testing 0 for over 6 months now (API and Elos tests, respectively). I have been quite happy with most of my corals, but there are a couple SPS that just don't have the color I am hoping for so I've decided to give this system a try.

Here is a shot of some of the SPS's I am pretty happy with:

picture.php


Here are a few frags that just don't have quite the 'punch' I'd been hoping for. That's a few frags off an ORA Red Planet Table in the foreground, and behind it is an ORA Borealis. Both are hanging in there, slowly growing, but I am hoping to improve their color and growth with the MB7 + Vodka (I am happy with the various montis you can see in this shot):

picture.php



I usually run sump socks, changing them out every few days. Do I need to remove them while seeding/running the MB7? I wonder if the sock will remove the bacteria from the system....
 
I know some people that ran filter socks with a bacteria dosed tank and all they noticed was that the filter sock would get all clogged up and so they just got tired of changing them out and went sock-less.
 
@ Gyr

Welcome aboard! I believe the logic behind ULNS and filter socks is exactly what you stated; filter socks may actually take away the Bac that you are feeding your tank, thus defeating the whole purpose. I ran sockless under Zeo, as well as MB7+Vodka.

By-the-way...great looking SPS! Keep us updated with yur progress?
 
reefsic said:
By-the-way...great looking SPS! Keep us updated with yur progress?
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll update some photos of those 'problem' SPS's of mine in a month or two. I wish I could get a decent FTS, but they alway turn out cruddy.

I may have a bit of trouble with the high dose 'seeding' phase of MB7 dosing, however. I found that when I turned my skimmer back on 4 hours after today's dose, I had to turn it way down or it would have quickly overflowed the collection cup, but within an hour I had to dial it back up to get any skimmate at all. Since I work 12 hour shifts, I'm not sure how to manage this wide fluctuation in skimmate. I had planned to use a timer to turn the skimmer back on after the 4 hours, but I'd hate to have the skimmer either overflowing or not skimming at all for 8 hours until I get home again. Has anyone had similar problems?

I am going sockless, by the way..
 
Gyr- Most MB7 users don’t shut down there skimmer and this is one reason why. What I do and I know of others that do the same is just increase your MB7 dose a little. This will compensate for the bacteria that get taken up by the skimmer before they have a chance to do their thing. Great looking tank BTW.
 
I'm just getting things underway with MB7, quick question. Several people have mentioned bumping up the dose a little if you run the skimmer. How much should I bump it up?
 
Okay well after 3 weeks of Biofuel I decided to switch to Vodka. Just wasn't getting the results I was expecting. The first week was looking promising but then about 2 weeks in, things just didn't look any better, I actually noticed a patch of hair algae pop up. So, I have been dosing Vodka for 6 days and everthing is going well. Even better results than with Biofuel. The patch of hair algae is gone and my glass i much cleaner. Glad I made the switch, I think it will work out better in the long run.
 
3 weeks is not a fair trial period . Any carbon sourse you use will take 2-3 months for you to see change . Even with the new bio pellets they say it will take at least 4 weeks for you to see changes ..
 
Yea maybe not but I have noticed more of a difference in the 6 days of Vodka dosing than I did in the 3 weeks of Biofuel. I'm not putting down Biofuel in any way, it's just my observation.
 
Quick question. I'm on day 7 of vodka dosing and I tested my P04 and N03 today. N03 was undetectable(API) and P04 was 0(hanna checker). When I started vodka my P04 was .08. I am dosing .6ml of vodka right now. According to the chart I should start adding .5ml to my existing dose for the next week but since my P04 is 0 should I keep the .6ml of vodka as my maintenance dosage and not go up the .5ml?
 
I think people have recomended cutting your current dose in half once your params reach 0. That would be .3ml for you. If you find .3ml isn't maintaining you levels you could go up again. I wouldn't dose more than you have to.
 
This trend has really seemed to have caught on. What are the advantages over running a cheato fuge and a skimmer with 0 nitrates/phosphates? Trimming the cheato once a month? I am kind of a tech junky/new techniques junky so anything worth while I am up for. Surely some here had successful systems before hand, was there improvement/advantages?
 
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