Understanding what i did?!?!

Sentari

Sentari

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So this weekend i decided to do some maintainance on my tank.

I've been trying to get my tank into decent condition without having to do much.

So this weekend my tank was looking worse for wear. Very mirky water and nothing was clean. I did a water change last weekend to see if it can help and that did nothing.

So this weekend i did the following and my water is CRYSTAL Clear! Now the problem is what did i do right? and will it work in future?

This is what i did

Cleaned out my skimmer. Left if off for 4 hours for the MB7 to settle.
Put a pump in the first and last chamber to blow up the detritus.
Added a bag of carbon.
Added 2 caps of Microbacter 7.

I have a funny feeling that the MB7 might have sorted my problem out. I know carbon also helps with this but the carbon hasnt really been helping. Also if i dosed 2 caps of MB7 yesterday do i wait 2 weeks to dose again or do i keep dosing every day? I understand the concept of dosing to reduce phos and nitrates but will i need a carbon source all the time?

My next question is what will happen if i dose MB7 without dosing a carbon source? Is there something that i can watch for until such time that i need to start dosing carbon? I dont want to dose both until such some that i understand what worked so well to make my tank all of a sudden sparkle.

I will try do tests to see where i'm going with this.
 
magman said:
Hi Sentari, it is the carbon that you added
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Its very weird cause once a month my tank goes through a phase where it seems like some sort of spawning even happens. Problem is ive removed all my corals from my tank for now until i finish with my new tank build.

My skimmer is also pulling out whitish crap and not that dark brown crap you usually see. What would be the cause of this?
 
Its a combination of all of the above IMO.

And you can dose MB7 with no carbon source... the results will not be quite as good, but there should be an improvement... your tank does naturally feed bacteria- dosing teh carbon source just gives them more food. My advice though is do not overdose the MB7- I noticed it can lead to a little bit of fuzzy green algae if overdosed consistently
 
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mariusmeyer said:
On the label of the MB7 you will see it says that the tank will look clearer from about 30mins after dosing.
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Then my next question would be that the bacteria have some sort of carbon source in the water? Without me having to dose a carbon source like vodka?

I just want to get into a regime where i either dose MB7 and Vodka to see if this is helping. I would have thought since i have a DSB i wouldnt see the results so quickly.

magman said:
Probably a combination of both then, I know carbon makes the water very clear.
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True!
 
You dose the MB7 every week so that you dont get a monoculture of bacteria as the bacteria will consume each other until a dominant one is prevalent. The vodhka shlould be dosed every day - I use 1ml/100lt of water so i dose 7.5ml a night. Remember that the bacteria is gonna break down waste and ur skimmer is gonna skim them out so u have to constantly boost their numbers.
 
Monti said:
Its a combination of all of the above IMO.

And you can dose MB7 with no carbon source... the results will not be quite as good, but there should be an improvement... your tank does naturally feed bacteria- dosing teh carbon source just gives them more food. My advice though is do not overdose the MB7- I noticed it can lead to a little bit of fuzzy green algae if overdosed consistently
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Yep i think thats what initially fueled my GHA! I dosed Prodibio not knowing how to dose and it started going south!

Whats your view having a DSB also?

My view is the DSB will still function but not at full capacity but shouldnt makes a difference.

durleo said:
You dose the MB7 every week so that you dont get a monoculture of bacteria as the bacteria will consume each other until a dominant one is prevalent. The vodhka shlould be dosed every day - I use 1ml/100lt of water so i dose 7.5ml a night. Remember that the bacteria is gonna break down waste and ur skimmer is gonna skim them out so u have to constantly boost their numbers.
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Thanks.

What i'm going to do is dose weekly and then when i can see a difference i'll start dosing vodka.

Whats your guys views on MB7 vs Stability? Which would you think is the best?
 
Well personally, Im in between tanks, and my next tank will be prodibio and vodka with no DSB. Some guys will shoot me saying this, but with carbon dosing, a DSB is not necessary. If you need references on this I can provide.

Also, whilst the argument for dosing the bacteria regularly has credence, there is actually very little chance of a monoculture ever developing (again, there are quite a few sources on this). However, what it does do is ensure that cyanobacteria, which also feeds off a carbon source, does not outweigh the good bacteria.

With regards to bacteria sources, it really is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. I really like prodibio, and fauna marin. However, stabilty and MB7 are fine. It all depends on availability I guess
 
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Monti said:
Well personally, Im in between tanks, and my next tank will be prodibio and vodka with no DSB. Some guys will shoot me saying this, but with carbon dosing, a DSB is not necessary. If you need references on this I can provide.

Also, whilst the argument for dosing the bacteria regularly has credence, there is actually very little chance of a monoculture ever developing (again, there are quite a few sources on this). However, what it does do is ensure that cyanobacteria, which also feeds off a carbon source, does not outweigh the good bacteria.

With regards to bacteria sources, it really is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. I really like prodibio, and fauna marin. However, stabilty and MB7 are fine. It all depends on availability I guess
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@Monti, why would they shoot you. I run an low nutrient system with no DSB and live rock (very little live rock at least) and mainly base rock with no problems. I have said many times that a DSB, ATS, chaeto, biopellets and phosphate media is not necessary. Millions of bacteria can be held on something half the size of your pinky nail, so imagine the amount of bacteria on every surface in your tank, all reducing nutrients.

To further cement your point, if you are constantly adding bacteria a dominant strain can't develop. The populations will however develop to the nutrients in your tank and will fluctuate from time to time. I am a prodibio fan and have have plenty success with it. I cant talk for fauna marin as I have never used it. Stability is also decent and I think Dallas cycled a tank in a day with it. I personally never had much luck with MB7 but a friend of mine swears it keeps his glass perfectly clean, so who knows.
 
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Rex said:
Before changing the water of the tank you should clean the whole tank because there is some dust in the tank. By doing this your fish can be survive.
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I'm sorry..I just had to...:confused1: :confused1: :confused1:..
When you say "clean the whole Tank"..surely you are not refering to a 100% water change...:eek:..you ARE refering to MARINE Aquarium..:blush:
 
Sentari said:
Put a pump in the first and last chamber to blow up the detritus.
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i have recently put a Tunze 6055 in my sump to flush up detritus and my corals have never looked better.. i think it was clumping and starting to fowl the water and transferring that into the main system...
 
belindamotion said:
I'm sorry..I just had to...:confused1: :confused1: :confused1:..
When you say "clean the whole Tank"..surely you are not refering to a 100% water change...:eek:..you ARE refering to MARINE Aquarium..:blush:
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you can most definatley do a big waterchange, i have in the past drained so much water out that the fish litterally lay on their sides.. and refill with NSW..

i got the idea from a friend who attended IMACSA a few years ago and he passed thin on from a lecture he attended held by Anthony Calfo.. i have always been a fan of big waterchanges so i pushed it and it worked..

obviously try stabalise the water temps salanitys etc as much as possible.. and beware of corals such as frogspawns and anemones who retain water they cannot hold the weight out of water.. so they will rip.. it is best to gently wave your hand near them prior to draining to get them to deflate or move corals such as frogspawns further down..
 
@leslie hempel ..I do 20-25% weekly..I've never considered 50% or more...I'll admitt that I would prefer that, if I knew it would be beneficial doing so large, but what about Bacteria..? I'm under the impression there is no Bacteria in Saltwater(New Salt Mix)...and isn't it stressful on the Fishes..?
 
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belindamotion said:
@leslie hempel ..I do 20-25% weekly..I've never considered 50% or more...I'll admitt that I would prefer that, if I knew it would be beneficial doing so large, but what about Bacteria..? I'm under the impression there is no Bacteria in Saltwater(New Salt Mix)...and isn't it stressful on the Fishes..?
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the bacteria is present on the rockwork and every surface within the system, my feeling is that the more you challenge bacteria the stronger it returns , much like the way a fluidised bed filter works, the more the bacteria are rubbed off the more they multiply untill they get to a level where there is a threshold population so to speak. (they will basically multiply to consume the available excess nutrients and then die back)

so by doing a big waterchange you are encouraging all living things in your system to be a little stronger.. i dont like to baby my inhabitants..;)
 
belindamotion said:
@leslie hempel ..I do 20-25% weekly..I've never considered 50% or more...I'll admitt that I would prefer that, if I knew it would be beneficial doing so large, but what about Bacteria..? I'm under the impression there is no Bacteria in Saltwater(New Salt Mix)...and isn't it stressful on the Fishes..?
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In salt brands like Red Sea there are tons of bacteria once the water is mixed for a day. This is because the salt is made from drying out salt water opposed to laboratory made salt brands. The water still contains the bacteria from the sea which become dormant when dried out and come back to life once rehydrated. However, the lab made salts do produce some bacteria but no where nearly as much as salts that are made by evaporating sea water
 
@leslie hempel..Thanks..it's good to know I can go larger if I want...was thinking of doing a 50% when I get my NeoMarine Salt as I don't like my current replacement Salt, but was worried about doing a very large waterchange, just so that I could get rid of the replacement Salt...would this "large" waterchange still be "viable" when I'll be "introducing" a different Salt..?
 
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Tony said:
In salt brands like Red Sea there are tons of bacteria once the water is mixed for a day. This is because the salt is made from drying out salt water opposed to laboratory made salt brands. The water still contains the bacteria from the sea which become dormant when dried out and come back to life once rehydrated. However, the lab made salts do produce some bacteria but no where nearly as much as salts that are made by evaporating sea water
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@Tony ...where can I find out what Brands are "Lab created" and which arn't..? Are Lab better or Natural "better"..?
 
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