Also I personally prefer reef flux over vibrant for hair algae removal. But every system is different. And you will have to pull and do manual removal if too much GHA in system. Also, make sure you are cleaning your skimmer so that it is giving maximum benefits. As for the rollermats, you sometimes need to manually move them forward as the fleece sitting too long in the system can be a nutrient issue. The first thing I do everyday is push my Clarisea fleece forward a few inches a day. Works much better for maximum detritus export.
Marine Science, chemistry & computer science MBA need only apply
- Thread starter wantsummora acropora
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Yeah, I’m going to squash the Vibrant. 1 solid month and the GHA is just setting worse. My skimmer runs 24/7 and is a performer. I mark the clarisea and the fleece to see how fast it advances and it moves often enough to avoid being a nutrient source. My current sump is too small for the available space but tall enough to be a pain to service my sump equipment. If I maximizes my space I can get roughly 35% more sump so that is the plan. If I added a turf scrubber I think it would strip too much of the nutrients out of my system. I was already perilously low on nitrates and NO4 a few months ago.
I’m calling them tomorrow.
I would think about giving the Vibrant a little more time, I saw no improvement until about week 5 or 6 if I recall, then progress was noticeable and steady. You can check my Steve's 180 thread starting on post 81 to read my battle.
Tropic Marin Turkey plant had some supposed clay impurities that supposedly don’t affect anything but clarity. I got a bucket last time and I see some acropora that have suffered 
. But TM is holding fast to nope their salt didn’t do it. German stuff is still good. Frustrating. Be careful about suddenly switching between vibrant and reef flux. Might want to do some water changes in between if you are going to switch. And with reef flux you need to vigilant pulling out the dead stuff so you don’t cause a worse problem. You probably will swing the other way and might get a cyano outbreak. So, make sure you are dosing a bacteria product to our compete. If your sump is too small, make sure there is good flow, no dead spots, add a powerhead if detritus is building up and try vacuuming sump of there is a build up. Also, with the Clarisea the dirty fleece left in the water in the Sk5000 version can sometimes be enough to push the nitrate phosphate out of wack. That is why I push it forward a few inches and move it before the machine does. I feed very heavy and run high nutrient systems so I try every trick possible to keep the system as balanced as I can. Having a large pod population and dosing phyto also helps. Counterintuitive but it works. Add some rock or blocks to the sump- marine pure etc with bacteria. You have to find that balance point where algae growth is kept at a rate your CUC can keep up with it and in line with your feeding.
. But TM is holding fast to nope their salt didn’t do it. German stuff is still good. Frustrating. Be careful about suddenly switching between vibrant and reef flux. Might want to do some water changes in between if you are going to switch. And with reef flux you need to vigilant pulling out the dead stuff so you don’t cause a worse problem. You probably will swing the other way and might get a cyano outbreak. So, make sure you are dosing a bacteria product to our compete. If your sump is too small, make sure there is good flow, no dead spots, add a powerhead if detritus is building up and try vacuuming sump of there is a build up. Also, with the Clarisea the dirty fleece left in the water in the Sk5000 version can sometimes be enough to push the nitrate phosphate out of wack. That is why I push it forward a few inches and move it before the machine does. I feed very heavy and run high nutrient systems so I try every trick possible to keep the system as balanced as I can. Having a large pod population and dosing phyto also helps. Counterintuitive but it works. Add some rock or blocks to the sump- marine pure etc with bacteria. You have to find that balance point where algae growth is kept at a rate your CUC can keep up with it and in line with your feeding.
I would 2nd giving the Vibrant more time. It takes longer to work on gha but work it does. That's also why i mentioned dosing twice a week.
Vibrant works on macros and bryopsis within a few weeks. GHA can take 6 to 8 weeks. You've already been doing it a month, what's a little longer?
I'm pretty far from Buckhead and only make it over there when we had meets at Bucket Shop. I do know we have members ITP and I see sales occasionally from them and I have a great memory, it's just short. If you see some quality frags for sale from one of them, reach out via PM hopefully you can find some help.
I also highly recommend getting out and seeing other members systems in person. With covid becoming less of an issue you should have more opportunities soon. There's one thing about us reefers, we love to show off our tanks.
Vibrant works on macros and bryopsis within a few weeks. GHA can take 6 to 8 weeks. You've already been doing it a month, what's a little longer?
I'm pretty far from Buckhead and only make it over there when we had meets at Bucket Shop. I do know we have members ITP and I see sales occasionally from them and I have a great memory, it's just short. If you see some quality frags for sale from one of them, reach out via PM hopefully you can find some help.
I also highly recommend getting out and seeing other members systems in person. With covid becoming less of an issue you should have more opportunities soon. There's one thing about us reefers, we love to show off our tanks.
Cool beans! I know of a few people that have done that. Fortunately, it is one of the easiest goals to achieve, but requires patience (or laziness, lol). Based on the comments, it seems like we are under a different impression, as if you want to reduce or get rid of some of these guys. So my recommendations will differ from others here.
To naturally balance your tank, just do as little as possible. Dont try to control the various species populations. Just keep the temperature and salinity within reasonable limits (depending on any secondary goals). Different organisms will rise to prominance, and some will pass away, but that will balance it as naturally as possible for you. Personally, i still think its good to clean the glass, so you can have a better view of everything as the ecosystem develops. With one of my friends tanks, there was lots of GHA after the first couple years, surrounded by tons of mushrooms and couple toadstool corals, and lots of microfauna and clean up crew. He maintained that one for about 20 years, but that tank has since been taken down. The other friends tanks, i didnt follow the progress.
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I'm going out on a limb without reading all the responses - but this is working very well for me.
I no longer add any chemicals used to control anything in our tank - only things I'll add these days are things the animals or plants consume. No vibrant, no carbon source etc - nothing.
Natural predators - and time.
high quality food for the animals - we over feed but it keeps everyone happy.
I also think routinely adding phyto for several months did well - and I throw freshly hatched brine shrimp in the tank once in a while
I tried fighting bubble algae for 5 years - found a foxace that was in love with it - strategically moved rocks from tank to tank for a while - there is literally not a single bubble anyplace in our tanks. None - zilch.
Aiptasia - on it's way to the same - finally got a really good peppermint shrimp. I'll likely introduce some berghia when it's convienent to finish that job off in the tough spots.
I also mostly ignored the tank for months - in the past month and a half - I've started doing water changes weekly and the tank is simply just running itself.
Pod population is off the charts - many different species and sizes, snails laying eggs nightly, cleaner shrimp roaming freely, peppermint shrimp, stars, crabs - all are pretty easy to find cause they're usually out and about and working etc.
Our 4" hippo tang is harder to find than the inverts in our tank half the time.
Lost plenty of hard corals - anemones and softies are generally in great shape for us these days.
I hear this all the time - and it's valid and true. Time, stability (even if not ideal parameters) and keep your hands off stuff.
I no longer add any chemicals used to control anything in our tank - only things I'll add these days are things the animals or plants consume. No vibrant, no carbon source etc - nothing.
Natural predators - and time.
high quality food for the animals - we over feed but it keeps everyone happy.
I also think routinely adding phyto for several months did well - and I throw freshly hatched brine shrimp in the tank once in a while
I tried fighting bubble algae for 5 years - found a foxace that was in love with it - strategically moved rocks from tank to tank for a while - there is literally not a single bubble anyplace in our tanks. None - zilch.
Aiptasia - on it's way to the same - finally got a really good peppermint shrimp. I'll likely introduce some berghia when it's convienent to finish that job off in the tough spots.
I also mostly ignored the tank for months - in the past month and a half - I've started doing water changes weekly and the tank is simply just running itself.
Pod population is off the charts - many different species and sizes, snails laying eggs nightly, cleaner shrimp roaming freely, peppermint shrimp, stars, crabs - all are pretty easy to find cause they're usually out and about and working etc.
Our 4" hippo tang is harder to find than the inverts in our tank half the time.
Lost plenty of hard corals - anemones and softies are generally in great shape for us these days.
I hear this all the time - and it's valid and true. Time, stability (even if not ideal parameters) and keep your hands off stuff.
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I tried vibrant a couple of times and each time Cyano followed treatment. I use reef flux now for any uncontrolled GHA as a last resort and it has been great for me. I also use the KISS method on my reefs. I feed my fish, do water changes occasionally and dose AB+ and BRS two-part. That's it. Through this process, I get a stable system and build resiliency. As ActiveAngel stated some corals will die with no "real" problem as everything else is thriving but that one coral doesn't lead me to make drastic changes it just wasn't a good fit for my system. I also find some members' stuff dies in my tank and in other people's systems they thrive and vice versa. Only bad things in this hobby happen quickly.
Ive posted this before, but similar to Trizzino's experience. Ive added Vibrant to a clean tank, and immediately got a cyano outbreak. Which leads me to conclude some strain of cyano is in vibrant.
Cyano it the most prevalent bacteria on the planet. It's in every tank and when the parameters are right it will rear it's head to visible levels. I believe the conditions are just more favorable post Vibrant as most of the competitors have been reduced or removed. Cyano is something every one of us is going to deal with at come point and it's one of the easier things to rectify.
I agree and disagree. It is everywhere, but it must be introduced to a system first and doesnt appear due to nutrient balances. However, nutrients and environmental conditions can promote its growth if already introduced. And while there are many differing species of cyanobacteria, it is unlikely for an aquarium to pick up a marine species carried by air this far inland. Therefore, if you wanted a cyano-free tank, it is certainly possible with the right effort... but will become an increasing challenge with each introduction. Just my 0.02
Interesting, because I've had red cyano before but since I've been dosing Vibrant I have gotten an orange/red cyano and a green cyano. I wont flat out blame Vibrant due to me guessing wrong on just about everything regarding reefing.
One of my few wins has been with aiptasia. I aggressively went after them and I haven't seen any in over 4 months. There are probably still some somewhere so let's just say I reduced the army to an insurgency.
Yeah, I want a realistic reef for my 150g but minus the harmful pests. When I get my 2nd tank up and running for SPS I'll strive for a much cleaner tank. I'm going to send in an ICP test and do a microbiome test so I know the bad stuff on a bacterial and microbe level next week.
I'm going to let the Vibrant play out since I'm so far into it. I've seen 4 or 5 systems. The best being Brians and Emmanuels. I generally look for pests when I see others tanks and those two guys I couldn't find anything. I would rate Emmanuels tank as a Four Seasons Hotel tank.
BRS says TM is working on a solution so I hope that is true. I do have some brown crud in my mixing tank Which I know was not present due to me having to dismantle and clean it four months ago due to bugs getting in it. The irony of my situation is that I have 15 gallons of german salt but used the Turkey stuff due to UPS busting up my boxes and I was afraid the plastic bags would get punctured and absorb moisture. Taking your advice on the Clarisea and I have plenty of live rock and marine pure spheres in the sump. My pod pop is really good. I'll get some phyto later and maybe some more cuc.Tropic Marin Turkey plant had some supposed clay impurities that supposedly don’t affect anything but clarity. I got a bucket last time and I see some acropora that have suffered
Gha and cyno is kid stuff. I'm not generally all about chemical treatments but Boyd's chemiclean knocks out cyano consistently for me.
GHA just needs urchin and turbos with a refugium in the sump. GHA->Snail Poop->chaeto->garbage can. I eyeball GFO needs once the initial lawn mowing is complete.
Bubble algae and bryopsis is where things get fun
GHA just needs urchin and turbos with a refugium in the sump. GHA->Snail Poop->chaeto->garbage can. I eyeball GFO needs once the initial lawn mowing is complete.
Bubble algae and bryopsis is where things get fun
I used chemiclean on my last cyano outbreak and it was magic. Trying vibrant this time and it’s much slower. I don’t have a fuge so that’s out. My foxface took care of a minor bubble outbreak. The cyano this time around grows crazy fast.
If you're in the acropora game you undoubtedly already know but cyano thrives with poor water flow. I did one round of chemiclean on this 90g a couple of months into it and haven't had a resurgence since other than a small green slime outbreak that came and went in a week or two. My dad had a 55g years ago that was a cyano magnet. He'd run Boyd's every 6-8months. Never saw any ill effects from it but it was all softies.
When I upgrade to a 180/220/210g I'll toss in a fox face.
I played with vibrant in my nano project and it seemed to work well at preventing any outbreaks but it also has caulerpa macro algae and very light bio-load. I've got half a bottle of it if you are ever around cumming or woodstock you can have it.
