Dosing MicrobacterClean/Vibrant

[RaymondL]

Tank is 5 months old - diatoms are blooming nicely......green algae forming on all the rocks, which I think is normal.

Should I let nature do its thing, or could I dose some help of Brightwell's Microbacter clean, or Vibrant.

I have cerith and trochus snails as clean up crew, but they aren't keeping up.

Cheers

 

[Jekyl]

The ugly phase is normal. Don't use any products on your tank that aren't natural. Ensure proper cuc, reduce white lighting, dose live phyto, manage parameters

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Tank is 5 months old - diatoms are blooming nicely......green algae forming on all the rocks, which I think is normal.

Should I let nature do its thing, or could I dose some help of Brightwell's Microbacter clean, or Vibrant.

I have cerith and trochus snails as clean up crew, but they aren't keeping up.

Cheers

Vibrant is an algicide, not the product they advertise it to be. There are threads about this on R2R. Not saying you can't use it, only that you should know what it is before you put it in your tank. I agree with what @Jekyl said.

 

[RaymondL]

The ugly phase is normal. Don't use any products on your tank that aren't natural. Ensure proper cuc, reduce white lighting, dose live phyto, manage parameters

Roger that - I have white lighting at 0% - just using Blues, Cyan and Purple channels only.

 

[Jekyl]

Roger that - I have white lighting at 0% - just using Blues, Cyan and Purple channels only.

Tbh it's probably going to get much worse. It's all normal now due to the dry rock trend. Manual removal and the things I mentioned earlier are the best course of action.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Just wait it out, this happens to 100% of tanks. Eventually all that gross algae will be replaced with beautiful coraline algae. Putting chemicals in is not the answer in my opinion. A quick fix in the world of reefing normally comes with other consequences down the road. Probably end up killing all kinds of beneficial things in your tank, having unknown chemicals in your rock and water, and I would imagine algacides will kill the coraline algae that needs to be on the rock in order to prevent the nasty algae.

 

[RaymondL]

Just wait it out, this happens to 100% of tanks. Eventually all that gross algae will be replaced with beautiful coraline algae. Putting chemicals in is not the answer in my opinion. A quick fix in the world of reefing normally comes with other consequences down the road. Probably end up killing all kinds of beneficial things in your tank, having unknown chemicals in your rock and water, and I would imagine algacides will kill the coraline algae that needs to be on the rock in order to prevent the nasty algae.

Thanks - There's a film of green algae coating all the rocks at the moment - it doesn't come off by hand, so it's deeply embedded into the rockface - the hope as you say is that one day coralline algae will take it's place. I do have much purple coralline algae that came with the frag plugs, so hoping it'll seed soon.

 

[RaymondL]

The ugly phase is normal. Don't use any products on your tank that aren't natural. Ensure proper cuc, reduce white lighting, dose live phyto, manage parameters

Thanks - any recommendation on a specific phyto brand I should try out?

 

[Jekyl]

Thanks - any recommendation on a specific phyto brand I should try out?

I started with the algae barn stuff. If you're consistent and like the results, making your own down the road isn't hard.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Thanks - There's a film of green algae coating all the rocks at the moment - it doesn't come off by hand, so it's deeply embedded into the rockface - the hope as you say is that one day coralline algae will take it's place. I do have much purple coralline algae that came with the frag plugs, so hoping it'll seed soon.

It will look like crap for awhile, might get worse before it gets better. But once coraline takes over, it keeps all the algae on the rocks at bay. Unless you induce some kind of algae event, which you would have to ride out again. My rock is completely covered in purple, no nasty algae. Even the sand stays perfectly white and I do not vaccume it. Also, you probably need to keep your calcium and alkalinity up in order to get good coraline growth.

 

[RaymondL]

It will look like crap for awhile, might get worse before it gets better. But once coraline takes over, it keeps all the algae on the rocks at bay. Unless you induce some kind of algae event, which you would have to ride out again. My rock is completely covered in purple, no nasty algae. Even the sand stays perfectly white and I do not vaccume it. Also, you probably need to keep your calcium and alkalinity up in order to get good coraline growth.

Yeah, it's a test of patience for sure. How long did you endure this 'ugly phase' before everything cleared up and remained all clean as like in your scenario.

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah, it's a test of patience for sure. How long did you endure this 'ugly phase' before everything cleared up and remained all clean as like in your scenario.

Ugly phases occur mostly during the course of the first year but can occur after to if the tank is not maintained stable.

At 5 months green film algae is normal for you but diatoms is not. They usually occur in the first month or two. Are you sure it's diatoms?

 

[RaymondL]

Ugly phases occur mostly during the course of the first year but can occur after to if the tank is not maintained stable.

At 5 months green film algae is normal for you but diatoms is not. They usually occur in the first month or two. Are you sure it's diatoms?

I 'believe' they are diatoms - I had the lights off for the first 3 months as I was curious if it would make an impact based on BRStv's theory of 'leave the lights off for 4 months' - obviously, that has been debunked - well, it could have been worse, so perhaps it made a difference.

So the lights have been on for almost 2 months as of this week, and the diatoms did come out first week of December, so it does coincide with what you stated in that they are present in month 1 or two.

 

[Lavey29]

I 'believe' they are diatoms - I had the lights off for the first 3 months as I was curious if it would make an impact based on BRStv's theory of 'leave the lights off for 4 months' - obviously, that has been debunked - well, it could have been worse, so perhaps it made a difference.

So the lights have been on for almost 2 months as of this week, and the diatoms did come out first week of December, so it does coincide with what you stated in that they are present in month 1 or two.

Yes you are correct then and as others mentioned just let it run its course. No chemicals is best.

I left my lights off first 4 months and had minimal ugly phases thereafter.

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t see anything wrong with algae and diatoms, as long as they aren’t overgrown.

Herbivores will readily those types of algaes. I purposely dose silica to my tank to get diatoms. They are the bases of the food chain and offer a lot of value IMO.

As long as the algae doesn’t smother my corals, it’s welcomed in my tank.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Yeah, it's a test of patience for sure. How long did you endure this 'ugly phase' before everything cleared up and remained all clean as like in your scenario.

Maybe 8 month? Max a year but I don’t think it took that long. Cannot remember exactly. I also dosed all for reef to keep all my levels steady. If you don’t keep you all and calcium steady, not sure how it would go.