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PSA on Vibrant

IOnceWasLegend

IOnceWasLegend

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R2R link, but a user there has a really good write-up (with lots of delicious scientific backing, and backed up by Randy Holmes-Farley) that indicates Vibrant is Algaefix and that the ingredient list is (at best) wildly inaccurate:

www.reef2reef.com

Understanding Vibrant: Algaefix, Polixetonium Chloride / Busan 77

The purpose of this post is to look closely at Vibrant to compare its properties to a known algaecide, Algaefix by API. This is intended to shed light on the active ingredients in Vibrant, explain its mechanism of action, and give people insight into its use and what to expect. It is not a...
www.reef2reef.com www.reef2reef.com
 
Important note/takeaway from this is that, if this data is accurate, the primary ingredient of Vibrant is listed as a molluscide by the EPA.

My two cents: while I'm not an analytical chemist, I did have some experience reading NMRs and am familiar with virtually all of the other techniques he's used. Barring the author lying, or an unlikely scenario where someone intentionally contaminated bottles of Vibrant, I think his conclusions are accurate.
 
Pretty in depth look at this stuff!

I have used Vibrant with success in my frag tank to get rid of hair algae and cyano. May have killed a shrimp but thats about it. Found it safe for softies and Zoas. Testing it on SPS now.

Seems to have a hit or miss effect for people. Then there are those that say it crashed their tank, but I feel there was another factor to the crashes.
 
Remarkable. We all assume companies won’t just completely lie to our faces about what their products are, but then you see cases like this where they do. I will never again trust anything from Underwater Creations Inc. Hopefully something terrible happens to the business.
 
When I saw the thread on r2r I thought about posting something here. I remember several years ago, there were quite a few people on here that used it based on a recommendation from another member. Has anyone had a purely positive reaction from its use? It seems like at best there was at least one extra casualty.
 
JVU said:
Remarkable. We all assume companies won’t just completely lie to our faces about what their products are, but then you see cases like this where they do. I will never again trust anything from Underwater Creations Inc. Hopefully something terrible happens to the business.
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And lets not forget the standard cast of E-tailers who sell the products telling us how great they are, along with the vloggers and other "industry experts" who promote them because they decided to donate a little something something or what not.
 
JVU said:
Remarkable. We all assume companies won’t just completely lie to our faces about what their products are, but then you see cases like this where they do. I will never again trust anything from Underwater Creations Inc. Hopefully something terrible happens to the business.
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That's more or less my reaction as well. Especially since several users on R2R pointed out prior Q&As with UWC where the company reiterated that it was bacteria, and even by a generous stretch their ingredients list is BS.

Flagg37 said:
When I saw the thread on r2r I thought about posting something here. I remember several years ago, there were quite a few people on here that used it based on a recommendation from another member. Has anyone had a purely positive reaction from its use? It seems like at best there was at least one extra casualty.
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I've had a positive reaction from it in regards to it killing off most of my bubble algae in my frag tank.

sfsuphysics said:
And lets not forget the standard cast of E-tailers who sell the products telling us how great they are, along with the vloggers and other "industry experts" who promote them because they decided to donate a little something something or what not.
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To be fair, the largest retailer - BRS - just announced it's suspending sales of Vibrant.

Not denying the 'pay to play' occurs, but I think it's fair to say this is a pretty unique situation in that it's less "whether or not the product works" and more "available evidence indicates they outright lied about what was in the product, robbing consumers of the ability to make an informed decision."

Vibrant has worked for me and I have not experienced side effects. However, I would have DEFINITELY thought twice about using it (and will now relegate it to 'last line of defense') knowing it was a chemical treatment as opposed to a biological one.
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
Not denying the 'pay to play' occurs, but I think it's fair to say this is a pretty unique situation in that it's less "whether or not the product works" and more "available evidence indicates they outright lied about what was in the product, robbing consumers of the ability to make an informed decision."
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Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, lying about what is in your product is 1000% worse than being one of the dancing monkeys that tells you this product is great because of how it's different by reading the marketing on the box. But at some point maybe we should demand a bit more out of our monkeys, sure you can't expect them to run mass specs on every product that comes through but maybe not be so excited about never before heard of ways to deal with something.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, lying about what is in your product is 1000% worse than being one of the dancing monkeys that tells you this product is great because of how it's different by reading the marketing on the box. But at some point maybe we should demand a bit more out of our monkeys, sure you can't expect them to run mass specs on every product that comes through but maybe not be so excited about never before heard of ways to deal with something.
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You mean like the youtuber who promoted Reef Delete then towards the end of the video you can see that it doesn't actually work?
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
Important note/takeaway from this is that, if this data is accurate, the primary ingredient of Vibrant is listed as a molluscide by the EPA.

My two cents: while I'm not an analytical chemist, I did have some experience reading NMRs and am familiar with virtually all of the other techniques he's used. Barring the author lying, or an unlikely scenario where someone intentionally contaminated bottles of Vibrant, I think his conclusions are accurate.
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As an organic chemist those NMR are indeed pretty conclusive.
 
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