My Bacteria Driven Journey
- Thread starter Tswifty
- Start date
RokleM
Premium Member
Wow! That's great! Thanks everyone for voting!
:beer:
No no no, thank you for creating and consistently contributing to the community with a valuable thread like this.
ryno212
Member
I posted this in Sonny's thread too, but also wanted to cover it here.....
If anyone on this thread could help.
I have been dosing MB7 for about a month and a half and just started vodka 5 days ago.
After the loading phase I'm only doing 6 drops of MB7 on a 60gallon and doing .2ml of vodka. I noticed about a day into the first dose of vodka my water got cloudy and some stringy slime in my sump. It is not bad, but don't want to mess anything up. Should I stop anyone of the 2 or dose more of one than the other. Wednesday I would be doing .4ml of vodka. I also run carbon and do weekly water changes. I'm doing this dosing because of hair algae and maroon turf algae. Thanks for any help
If anyone on this thread could help.
I have been dosing MB7 for about a month and a half and just started vodka 5 days ago.
After the loading phase I'm only doing 6 drops of MB7 on a 60gallon and doing .2ml of vodka. I noticed about a day into the first dose of vodka my water got cloudy and some stringy slime in my sump. It is not bad, but don't want to mess anything up. Should I stop anyone of the 2 or dose more of one than the other. Wednesday I would be doing .4ml of vodka. I also run carbon and do weekly water changes. I'm doing this dosing because of hair algae and maroon turf algae. Thanks for any help
Tswifty
New member
Thanks for all the kind words guys.
Thank Chris. I still can't believe I found that Mystery Wrasse in the sump when you stopped by. It's doing well now, I think it's just thrilled to be back in the tank after it's 3 day vacation. :lol:
Tswifty
New member
I'm hoping it will disappear soon, I also added 2 more Emerald Crabs to the tank today. Hopefully they'll last longer than the others. :rolleye1:
That's a bacterial bloom. What you're observing is outlined almost word for word in the Reefkeeping Article.
Bacterial Blooms - High additions of carbon sources at once are noted as production of slimy white strings upon rocks or in sumps that become noticeable a few hours to a day after addition. There is no clear evidence that this is detrimental to your tank. If this is observed dropping your dose by 50% will result in the disappearance of these strands. Additionally, these strands may have given rise to the notion of "bad bacteria". By this forum users mean pathogenic bacteria. But there has not been any documented evidence of such yet. If you happen to overdose your tank with an organic carbon dose, you will stimulate a bacteria bloom, this appears like a snowstorm in your tank. After a day, the tank will clear up. During this time people have reported mixed results on survival from this snowstorm. Stony_Coral has purposefully caused this on one tank and while ORP readings dropped, no loss of livestock was observed. However, people have mentioned loss of more delicate fish such as anthias during the visualized bloom. In general, a visible bloom will not occur if vodka is dosed as per the instructions above.
If your seeing bacterial blooms at such a low Vodka dosage, I personally would stop Vodka dosing for the time being, increase my MB7 dosage, and see how the tank reacts. Then once the bacterial bloom disappears, resume Vodka dosing according to the chart along with the increased MB7 dosage. I mentioned it earlier, but when I measured out the recommeneded drops of MB7 per day vs the recommended ml per day... the drops (out of my dropper) had me dosing FAR below the daily recommendation. Remember, the point behind dosing the MB7 is to boost the "good" bacteria population in our tanks in hopes that it will outcompete "harmful" bacteria for the carbon source.
Any particular reason behind doing such frequent water changes? You're also going to be removing some of the beneficial bacteria during your water change. This is why it is recommended to dose a larger than normal portion of MB7 the day following the water change in order to compensate for the loss. I used to do weekly water changes as well, but moved back to a monthly water change during the MB7 "seeding" phase and initial few weeks of Vodka dosing. Now I perform a small 10% water changes every 2 weeks. I believe Sonny still performs his Monthly.
Hope that helps. Good luck.
Tswifty
New member
I changed a few things before I left for Ohio. Feedings were increased by A LOT, and more frozen food was used. Also, I doubled my weekly Amino Acid dosing. So it could have been one or the other... or a combination of both... There are a few maintenance tasks that were neglected while I was gone that may have contributed as well. It's hard to nail it down to 1 specific thing since I was away from the tank when the outbreak occured.
Right now I've started by reducing my feedings to once per day, as well as reducing the amount offered. Also, I've cut back to using more pellet/flake than frozen food. I'm leaving my Amino Acid dosing alone for now.
Right now I've started by reducing my feedings to once per day, as well as reducing the amount offered. Also, I've cut back to using more pellet/flake than frozen food. I'm leaving my Amino Acid dosing alone for now.
newsalt
Active member
TSwifty-
I too was banging my head on the wall regarding cyano and diatoms on the sand bed. My numbers are rock solid every week when I test them but I could never get phosphates down.
I just converted to the MB7 and Vodka as well. Previously I had a blanket of cyano on the sand bed and I was dosing vodka for the past six months but could never figure out the cyano on the sand. I realized that my membrane on my RO/DI unit was needing to be changed. I changed that and also started running RowaPhos on my make up water container.
My process is water change on the weekend and make up a new batch on Sunday, I then run the Rowa all week to remove any phosphates from my make up water. This coupled with the strict dosing of MB7 for two weeks, then startup of Vodka wiped it out in three days. My nitrates are 0 and have very little algae buildup. Even the glass, I only need to clean every 5 days or so where previously I was cleaning everyday.
My wife even came in and asked what I did to my tank because the water was crystal clear.
I was tempted like most people to keep dosing vodka while starting the MB7 and I was told this was a big NO-NO. I stopped the vodka for two weeks and then started the MB7 only and followed it to a T.
Hope this helps people reading the thread.
I too was banging my head on the wall regarding cyano and diatoms on the sand bed. My numbers are rock solid every week when I test them but I could never get phosphates down.
I just converted to the MB7 and Vodka as well. Previously I had a blanket of cyano on the sand bed and I was dosing vodka for the past six months but could never figure out the cyano on the sand. I realized that my membrane on my RO/DI unit was needing to be changed. I changed that and also started running RowaPhos on my make up water container.
My process is water change on the weekend and make up a new batch on Sunday, I then run the Rowa all week to remove any phosphates from my make up water. This coupled with the strict dosing of MB7 for two weeks, then startup of Vodka wiped it out in three days. My nitrates are 0 and have very little algae buildup. Even the glass, I only need to clean every 5 days or so where previously I was cleaning everyday.
My wife even came in and asked what I did to my tank because the water was crystal clear.
I was tempted like most people to keep dosing vodka while starting the MB7 and I was told this was a big NO-NO. I stopped the vodka for two weeks and then started the MB7 only and followed it to a T.
Hope this helps people reading the thread.
aquariumclown
New member
Why is this a no-no? I did both for months with no ill effects, it actually accelerated my process to low nutrients. From my understanding vodka is a carbon source, mb7 is a carbon source, there are many different carbon sources, unless they kill eachother and create havoc, bacteria diversity is suppose to be a good thing. I don't dose vodka anymore but not because something was wrong, because I'm too lazy to dose both everyday, my mb7 is on automatic doser now.
tamthapluc
New member
Thanks, I have just added two urchines about a quarter size.:bounce3:
Congrat on the Thread of the Month and Sticky :beer:
saltygeek
New member
Yes, I continued to dose the MB7 after the HA was gone.
