Alternating days when dosing multiple types of bottled bacteria

[undermind]

Hey all! First off, I should note that my hope is to avoid a discussion of whether bac in a bottle is effective, worthwhile, etc. That's been debated plenty in other threads. I wanted to focus on the concept of using multiple different bacterias and alternating the days. This would be ongoing long term, not occasional additions.

I'm a fan of Mike Paletta and have noted in several interviews that he doses multiple commercial bottled bacteria products (about 4 different ones) for general health and diversity. I've also noted on the directions for a few different bacterias that they say not to add multiple types of bacterias on the same day. That makes sense to me, as it seems that allowing at least a day for a particular bac to settle onto surfaces would be better than making bacs fight for space or dominance.

So for those that add multiple different bacteria products, what is your routine?

Bonus question: I bet there are brands that are reselling bac strains, or multiple brands that actually have the same exact stuff in their bottles. Do you know of duplicates?

 

[AJsReef]

I've introduced a few different bacterial products as well as live rock rubble. I try to wait 1-2 weeks between

 

[Who me?]

Hey all! First off, I should note that my hope is to avoid a discussion of whether bac in a bottle is effective, worthwhile, etc. That's been debated plenty in other threads. I wanted to focus on the concept of using multiple different bacterias and alternating the days. This would be ongoing long term, not occasional additions.

I'm a fan of Mike Paletta and have noted in several interviews that he doses multiple commercial bottled bacteria products (about 4 different ones) for general health and diversity. I've also noted on the directions for a few different bacterias that they say not to add multiple types of bacterias on the same day. That makes sense to me, as it seems that allowing at least a day for a particular bac to settle onto surfaces would be better than making bacs fight for space or dominance.

So for those that add multiple different bacteria products, what is your routine?

Bonus question: I bet there are brands that are reselling bac strains, or multiple brands that actually have the same exact stuff in their bottles. Do you know of duplicates?

I remember an interview with Jack Kent, owner of brightwell Aquatics and Continuum. He stated the reason to wait isn't because the bacteria will compete with one another but rather to avoid a bacterial bloom by adding too much at one time...

I dose microbacter clean and microbacter 7 every Saturday literally seconds apart, never have a problem other than the water looking a bit cloudy for a few hours.

 

[Who me?]

Missed your second question.

MicroBacter clean and Continuum Aquatics’ Bacter clean M are the same product.

MicroBacter7 and Continuum Aquatics’ BacterGen.M are the same product​

​

 

[Isaac Alves]

I dose several bacterial products daily, morning and evening and some on alternate weeks.

Morning: 4 drops of AF Pro-bio S
Evening: Fauna Marin Bacto Reef Therapy

Bi-Weekly: Fauna Marin Bacto Balls and Dr. Tim's Eco Complete

I've been doing this in my 70gallon display (20 gallon sump) for almost 3 years now. The tank is almost 6-7 years. Since dosing bacteria I've had pretty good luck with stable nutrient levels as well as coral growth.

The why, initially was because I was getting bacterial infections in several new fish and wanted to see if I could push these "bad" bacterias into hiding by introducing multiple strains of probiotic type bacterias. The consequence intially was I was not killing off SPS coral and instead seeing growth. So I kept it going and haven't changed my practice. I've also found these particular products to be cost effective and easy to store.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I too join the bottle bac trend of 2022. For me it was to recover from a fallow that caused all kinds issues when I added the fish back and nutrients all out of whack. I assumed part of the nutrient issue was in imbalance in bacteria population with all the changes trying to recover the tank.

I’ve been in a bacterial game for about 4 months now doing a wide range of bacter7, bacterclean, fritz etc. The tank is stable again so back to maintaining and keeping the stability.

I thought more about this and asked do I keep dosing the bacteria variety or do I start carbon dosing to feed the population from the bottle. I’m now cutting back on the bottles down to a single type (bottle) weekly while I feed them. Not sure of the long term benefits comparison but makes sense logically plus carbon source is much cheaper than bact bottles.