When battling algaes in a reef tank many suggest to use a bacteria product such as MB7 to out compete the algae. Another form of action would be to rebalance the nutrients to the red field ratio and allow bacteria a chance to feed and grow to out compete the algae.
I may be wrong on this, but this is how I’m understanding it. I have used bacteria before to successfully out compete cyano/dinos, however my nutrient levels dropped very low. A month after stopping the bacteria the algae came right back and I believe it was from nutrients being low and out of balance.
Scenario 1: so is the idea to keep dosing nutrients to keep nutrients balanced while dosing bacteria? I am assuming in this scenario the bacteria levels will eventually grow higher than the algae levels and they can out compete the algae regardless of there being enough nutrients for both.
scenerio 2: dose the bacteria and not any nutrients so that the bacterias starve out the algaes of nutrients? The problem would then be unbalanced nutrients at the end and a possible relapse?
I can’t seem to find a clear answer and in short what I’m asking is. Do you dose nutrients while dosing mb7, because dosing mb7 is essentially carbon dosing and will lower nutrient levels.
thanks in advance!
I may be wrong on this, but this is how I’m understanding it. I have used bacteria before to successfully out compete cyano/dinos, however my nutrient levels dropped very low. A month after stopping the bacteria the algae came right back and I believe it was from nutrients being low and out of balance.
Scenario 1: so is the idea to keep dosing nutrients to keep nutrients balanced while dosing bacteria? I am assuming in this scenario the bacteria levels will eventually grow higher than the algae levels and they can out compete the algae regardless of there being enough nutrients for both.
scenerio 2: dose the bacteria and not any nutrients so that the bacterias starve out the algaes of nutrients? The problem would then be unbalanced nutrients at the end and a possible relapse?
I can’t seem to find a clear answer and in short what I’m asking is. Do you dose nutrients while dosing mb7, because dosing mb7 is essentially carbon dosing and will lower nutrient levels.
thanks in advance!