Cause for concern?

NoeyD · Jul 13, 2024

Hello everyone, I know this is a reef only forum and I am freshwater but my question has to do with a marine product, so I thought this would be the best place for answers. So I ordered a bottle of Brightwell MicroBacter7 from Amazon and when it arrived I went ahead and dosed my tank, (which was almost half the bottle as I have a 180 gallon) and then the following day started noticing fish acting a little erratic and actually lost 3 in total. Tested the water, tempo 78.8, pH 7.2, ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 10-20ppm. Then I noticed that Amazon had delivered the wrong product. I ordered the MicroBacter7 and received the MicroBacter Clean for Marine. At a quick glance the bottles look very similar, maybe that's why the mix up? But my concern is if this was harmful to my tank/fish? I did loose 3 fish the following morning, not sure if it was from that or not. I ended up doing a water change just in case anyway. I did call my lfs and explained what happened and the guy I spoke with said it would "be fine, bacteria is bacteria", but I thought that the marine bacteria would have something in it not safe for use in freshwater, that's why its labeled marine? Then on the manufacturers website it says NOT to use it in freshwater. Im confused, is it safe or not? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Dan_P · Jul 14, 2024

NoeyD said:
Hello everyone, I know this is a reef only forum and I am freshwater but my question has to do with a marine product, so I thought this would be the best place for answers. So I ordered a bottle of Brightwell MicroBacter7 from Amazon and when it arrived I went ahead and dosed my tank, (which was almost half the bottle as I have a 180 gallon) and then the following day started noticing fish acting a little erratic and actually lost 3 in total. Tested the water, tempo 78.8, pH 7.2, ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 10-20ppm. Then I noticed that Amazon had delivered the wrong product. I ordered the MicroBacter7 and received the MicroBacter Clean for Marine. At a quick glance the bottles look very similar, maybe that's why the mix up? But my concern is if this was harmful to my tank/fish? I did loose 3 fish the following morning, not sure if it was from that or not. I ended up doing a water change just in case anyway. I did call my lfs and explained what happened and the guy I spoke with said it would "be fine, bacteria is bacteria", but I thought that the marine bacteria would have something in it not safe for use in freshwater, that's why its labeled marine? Then on the manufacturers website it says NOT to use it in freshwater. Im confused, is it safe or not? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Contact the company. Only they know what they put in the bottle.

Some guesses.

If your aquarium is overstocked and circulation is low, dumping in a bottle of organic matter like bottled bacteria might have depleted the oxygen and maybe resulted in a rise in ammonia.

The “not for freshwater” might mean the bacteria won’t survive in fresh water.

NoeyD · Jul 14, 2024

Dan_P said:
Contact the company. Only they know what they put in the bottle.

Some guesses.

If your aquarium is overstocked and circulation is low, dumping in a bottle of organic matter like bottled bacteria might have depleted the oxygen and maybe resulted in a rise in ammonia.

The “not for freshwater” might mean the bacteria won’t survive in fresh water.

ok thank you, I will reach out to them.