High Tide Aquatics

Bacteria after cycling

svreef

svreef

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BRS suggests adding a product like MicroBacter Clean or Vibrant after cycling but before turning on the lights. It sounds like the idea is to establish heterotrophic bacteria to outcompete others like Cyano and Dinos before they get a chance.

Do I have that right?
Has anyone done this?
 
I personally think adding bacterial products blindly like this especially after tanknis established and stable is a bad idea. I think you can end up creating competing strains that without more carbon source to feed the added bacterial population you deal with bacterial die our and can creat biological filtration imbalance.
If the system is mature, i would think it reach equilibrium where the imported nutrients is just enough to feed the exsistinf bacterial population. When you increase the population without increasing the bacterial food source the surplus of the bacterial population will die out.
Needless to say I alsonpersonally do not believe om vibrant and think its snake oil.
You woll see ppl swear off the produxt but I have yet to see someone showcase long term success with it...
 
svreef said:
BRS suggests adding a product like MicroBacter Clean or Vibrant after cycling but before turning on the lights. It sounds like the idea is to establish heterotrophic bacteria to outcompete others like Cyano and Dinos before they get a chance.

Do I have that right?
Has anyone done this?
Click to expand...

Based on my experience with dinos, and reading the threads on R2R/everywhere else I could, the idea behind it sounds about right. Common observation is that 0 phosphates predisposes tank to a dino bloom. This would indicate that dinos are outcompeting everything else in these limiting-nutrient conditions.

New tank is likely to have 0 phosphates. Dosing with bacteria (which, like dinos, reproduce exponentially) could provide competition to reduce risk of dinos, and doing it under lights-out conditions further weights the odds of success towards bacteria (which do not require light to reproduce).

I'm onboard with @bfirecat that it seems a bit of overkill to dose bacteria continuously.
 
Like the prior threads here indicate, I believe a diverse, bio-rich, system is key. My new tank (started one year ago) lacked all microbio diversity. Yes, it cycled and could consume ammonia and nitrite, but it was a desert in terms of biological diversity.

This, in large part, let to a dinoflagellate bloom that took months to resolve, I believe, and as others have suggested and written on.

A big part of my strategy was bacteria and micro fauna boosting; along with UV, shutting down protein skimming for several hours a day, removing filter socks, stopping water changes, adding pods and small CUC. And feeding.

My tank at 13 mos. is as bio-rich as I think i could have made it through corrective steps. I have N and P. And no problematic plague dinos or problem algae.

I’m no pro at this, but my recommendation is to make your tank bio-dense on all eco layers. Even the smallest bacteria layers.

And I no longer dose bacteria (just a regimen of Microbacter7 months ago). I feed the system and the engine does what it’s supposed to do.
 
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