High Tide Aquatics

Black Friday deals

JVU said:
What do you guys think about the 2 different aquabiomics tests? One tests bacteria and archaea and the other tests eukaryotes. Each is $99. I guess I find it somewhat annoying that if you are trying to get a picture of what’s going on in your tank or troubleshoot issues, you’d be getting both since you can’t tell which branch of life your microscopic problem is coming from. Anyone have direct experience with them and recommend or not?
Click to expand...
I've done the bacterial test a couple of times now. I think I posted the results of the first one in my TJ. I mostly wanted to do a before/after chemiclean treatment (didn't notice much change in my microbiome other than a huge reduction in cyano on the results).

I probably won't do another, the results just aren't actionable enough yet IMO.
 
JVU said:
What do you guys think about the 2 different aquabiomics tests? One tests bacteria and archaea and the other tests eukaryotes. Each is $99. I guess I find it somewhat annoying that if you are trying to get a picture of what’s going on in your tank or troubleshoot issues, you’d be getting both since you can’t tell which branch of life your microscopic problem is coming from. Anyone have direct experience with them and recommend or not?
Click to expand...
I've done both. TankDNA once and microbiome twice.

TankDNA test was done mainly to see if I had uronema present after adding fish. Luckily I've been pretty fortunate and haven't added any fish since. I probably wont be repeating this test, as I didn't find much use for the rest of the data.

I performed the microbiome one twice out of curiosity. When starting my tank i added live rock from Australia, Indo, gulf, Africa, and aquabiomics rubble. Bacteria from IPSF, PNS, Polyplab, TBS sand, and live tripic eden sand were all added around the same time.

The initial results where taken a month after and were pretty underwhelming, given all that was added. After some discussion with Eli, I discovered I would need to allow for more time for the biome to normalize and get a good reading on things, hence why I plan on conducting another test at the one year mark.

Like @derek_SR stated above, I also found the data in actionable and find myself doing it mostly out of curiosity. Maybe I'm trying to justify what I spent to myself or just trying to see how I've been able to keep and grow acros much earlier with this build compared to my previous systems.

Do I feel its worth $99? Probably not. Would i continue to test at the discounted rate of their BF pricing? I only ordered the one microbiome test and would much rather allocate funds for future test to something more actionable like ICP test kits.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVU
FinalPhaze987 said:
I performed the microbiome one twice out of curiosity. When starting my tank i added live rock from Australia, Indo, gulf, Africa, and aquabiomics rubble. Bacteria from IPSF, PNS, Polyplab, TBS sand, and live tripic eden sand were all added around the same time.

The initial results where taken a month after and were pretty underwhelming, given all that was added. After some discussion with Eli, I discovered I would need to allow for more time for the biome to normalize and get a good reading on things, hence why I plan on conducting another test at the one year mark.
Click to expand...
Now that feedback from Eli seems contradicting from what I have seen, and I did not add a ton of things as you did, only from a couple of so places, TBS, then the place in Hawaii, I think.

The tank was 30 days old at the time of taking the sample.

Post in thread 'Alex’s IM 150 EXT'
https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/alex’s-im-150-ext.34668/post-498872
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVU
Alexander1312 said:
Now that feedback from Eli seems contradicting from what I have seen, and I did not add a ton of things as you did, only from a couple of so places, TBS, then the place in Hawaii, I think.

The tank was 30 days old at the time of taking the sample.

Post in thread 'Alex’s IM 150 EXT'
https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/alex’s-im-150-ext.34668/post-498872
Click to expand...
I assume your tank would have been much older at the time this sample was taken, would i be correct in saying so?

I took my sample from the my the inside of my return nozzles, which at that time, were fairly clean due to the age of the system. Although you may have added only a couple sources, your tank would have already had an established archaea and naturally been more diverse. Your comparing the taste of an aged merlot to a recently pressed beaujolais.
 
FinalPhaze987 said:
I assume your tank would have been much older at the time this sample was taken, would i be correct in saying so?

I took my sample from the my the inside of my return nozzles, which at that time, were fairly clean due to the age of the system. Although you may have added only a couple sources, your tank would have already had an established archaea and naturally been more diverse. Your comparing the taste of an aged merlot to a recently pressed beaujolais.
Click to expand...

Not sure if I follow. When this sample was taken, the tank was brand new, and only setup 30 days before, back at the end of 2023. Sorry, I might have misunderstood you, but just wanted to clarify.
 
FinalPhaze987 said:
The time line of bacterial additions are on here
Post in thread 'Patrick's 81G - the last dance' https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/patricks-81g-the-last-dance.36088/post-542334

And the biome test was done a week after the last addition
Click to expand...
Sorry, I am lost :).

One more attempt to clarify:

You wrote this:
FinalPhaze987 said:
I performed the microbiome one twice out of curiosity. When starting my tank i added live rock from Australia, Indo, gulf, Africa, and aquabiomics rubble. Bacteria from IPSF, PNS, Polyplab, TBS sand, and live tripic eden sand were all added around the same time.

The initial results where taken a month after and were pretty underwhelming, given all that was added. After some discussion with Eli, I discovered I would need to allow for more time for the biome to normalize and get a good reading on things, hence why I plan on conducting another test at the one year mark.
Click to expand...

I responded that I took my (one and only) Aquabiomics test 30 days after my tank was established, and had already a pretty good result, i.e., 90/91 percentile.

This made me believe that a strong biome can be established rather instantly, and would not need to allow for more time as Eli suggested.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Sorry, I am lost :).

One more attempt to clarify:

You wrote this:


I responded that I took my (one and only) Aquabiomics test 30 days after my tank was established, and had already a pretty good result, i.e., 90/91 percentile.

This made me believe that a strong biome can be established rather instantly, and would not need to allow for more time as Eli suggested.
Click to expand...
Ok. Now i get where your coming from. To paint my experience simply,

I added the rock, sand, and bacterial products. Tested a week later and recieved and underwhelming diversity score. At first I thought it to be user error, so ordered another kit and connected with Eli to ensure I was performing it correctly. I was told that with a mainly dry rock start and only a few (20lbs) of live rock, bottled bacteria, and sand, that it would take some time for it to reflect in the film.

I performed the second test as soon as I recieved it and recieved similar results.

With my experience, this leads me to believe that there is no instant ideal biome, and while we can give it a boots, can only be developed with time and proper conditions.

While it can be started to a point where conditions are acceptable and support life, (nitrification and maybe skipping the ugly phase), dose not make it stable.
 
I did a test couple years ago-only thing that it came up was a huge prevalence of…Vibrio….
Didn’t really know what to do with that info except to make sure to def wash my hands every time after being in the tank.

Now that turn around time is a week I am considering another one…
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVU
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top