Probiotic Systems

[Fragged_it]

In my DT I've been dealing with, first, cyno and now a green algae on my sandbed. Both breakouts are in the same place, the two front corners of the tank. Both seem to get stronger then wain then get stronger then wain.

I know the main cause of cyno is low flow and nutrients in the water. I changed out my skimmer pump greatly increasing my skimming. I have a very fine sandbed, so I can only adjust my powerheads so much to increase flow with out blowing sand everywhere.

All my water parameters are right on, by way of testing. I know there is something feeding the algae.

I ran across the thread written by troylee in title: low nutrient systems....
(a great article btw). I was very curious about the section that covers The probiotic system. Does anyone have any personal experience with these products. Which products have helped, which products have been a money pit, etc.

In my DT I can successfully grow every LPS i've tried. When it comes to SPS I have very poor luck. I can grow them out nicely in my frag tank, but when they make the move to my DT they quickly turn to a white skeleton. I have had good luck with monti caps, such as Idaho Grape. It doesn't hold it's grape coloring, but it grows very quickly. I break a piece off and put it in my frag tank and it starts coloring up beautifully within a few days.

Thanks for any help,

 

[stunreefer]

Just to clarify, it sounds like your DT and FT are different systems?

Does anyone have any personal experience with these products. Which products have helped, which products have been a money pit, etc.

Yes.

In short, probiotic/bacterial driven systems rely on two things, a bacteria source and a carbon source (fuel/food for bacteria). Everything else the companies put it is a money pit as you say (for the most part), or at least they're not the backbone of the system and should be completely ignored initially.

Read a ton and see if it's right for you, I for one can say that they're extremely efficient at keeping nutrients at bay, but at the same time, so is macro algae in a refugium. It comes down to the "many ways to skin a cat" ordeal.

 

[Fragged_it]

Thanks stunreefer,

I plan on reading a lot before I go dumping chemistry into my baby! I appreciate the reply. I have a 20 gallon refugium that is wall to wall chaeto with 6 mangroves mixed in. As well as a sulphur denitrator....

I'm to the point now where I am calling the algae bio-diversity, but I'm slowly getting to where I can't take it much more <grin>

 

[stunreefer]

Keep a close on on your macro algaes, if you run probiotic system over time it will generally drive nutrients low enough to a point where they will not survive, and as this happen they tend to fall apart, releasing crap into the water column (counter-productive).

Just go slow and you'll be fine.

 

[Fragged_it]

Thanks for the heads up stunreefer.

 

[Fragged_it]

BTW, I love your Reef Hugger title, that is classic!