Dosing Bacteria

[BiGGiePauls33]

So after dealing with some RTN and STN and reading this thread on R2R: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-cant-u-keep-sps.670707/
It seems that most suceddful SPS keepers are dosing some strain of bacteria. Looking for some insight, that may help me long term. I've acquired some rock for the new build that is over 10 years old and has a slew of life on it, so I'm thinking this will be a good starting point.

What do you dose in you SPS aquariums?
How much and how often?
Do you use a particular brand and why?

 

[rock-n-reef]

Thanks for sharing that article Paul. An interesting read. I have been dosing vibrant on one of my tanks, and yes it was started with man made rocks. But I never considered that as part of keeping healthy/successful SPS. For me it was more of to keep any nuisance algae at bay (and which it does and I can vouch for that). The article provides an interesting perspective.

As far as SPS health, compared to my previous tanks (which have all been started with artificial rocks) that I have maintained with no vibrant or other bacteria products, I cannot say for sure if there is any difference. There are multiple ways to be successful in this hobby, and it could be one.

 

[Slombardi]

I use the aquaforest line. It has bio s with every water change and pro bio s everyday. Along with others, but I think those are the only "bacteria" ones. My tank has been great since using it.

 

[thespsguy]

I do a combination of Brightwell Amino acid and Acropower. This is what lately is helping my SPS. I used to have the entire red sea color and energy dosing but for me, didnt work. Beside have 3 apex dos just for that. Now I removed 2 dos and the system is doing way better.

 

[dz6t]

Paul, I think you brought up an very important topic.
There are many research done on bacteria and coral relationships. I will like to summarize what I learned so far despite I only cover the tips of an iceberg. Lets focus on sps at this time.

1. Bacteria is a double edge sword. On one hand, sps are heavily depend on bacteria for survival.

Several important biological functions include nitrogen fixation, sulfur cycling, and protection against pathogenic bacteria.

Also it is well documented that sps consume bacteria as an important food source, some deeper water acro even heavily depends on this feeding method.

Recent studies even show that acropora are able to manipulate surrounding bacteria communities to benefit their survival by sercreting certain chemicals.

 

[dz6t]

2. More bacteria diversity does not translate to better SPS health. First of all, many bacteria are harmful to sps coral and they can be carried by wild or maricultured coral.

2nd, depending on the environment and stress on coral, such as poor water quality, many bacteria can turn harmful.

3rd, there is no easy way for hobbyists to analyze the bacteria content of a reef tank. Such analysis is almost impossible or not practical.

 

[dz6t]

There are several bacteria products on the market, but in reality, bacteria “requirements” are vastly different for different coral, dosing these products is not a guarantee for success.
Also consider how rapid most bacteria multiply, a continuous dosing regiment may not be necessary.

 

[dz6t]

On the dark side of bacteria dosing, some bacteria products that marketed as algae cleaner, in tank pest killer, can do significant damage to coral.

 

[Chlorinated]

@dz6t Dong, do you personally dose any bacteria? If so what ones? Any recommendations?

 

[dz6t]

Many years ago I tried AF bioS. Saw no difference and I stopped.
Since my reef systems are all the way back to 2004, I believe bacteria is not a concern for me. Bacteria is only part of a eco system, the overall diversity including sponge is more important in my opinion.

 

[dz6t]

As an experiment, I have a 120g tank that I toss all sort of scraps in it over the past 10 years. It mostly contains a lot of rocks I accumulated over the past decade. Whenever I get wild and maricultured coral, I cut off the base rock and toss them inside. Also when a coral die, I toss them inside as well, as well as delayed shipments that mostly dead on arrival. The interesting thing is that the water always very clean with hardly detectable phosphate and nitrate even I toss a dead fish in it. There are many sponges and other non photosynthesis craps growing inside as well. Since there is no light on this tank, there is no coral inside. But there are some fish that nobody want living in there too. Occasionally I take rocks in this tank to aquascape my reef.

One interesting thing is that, a fish store insisted to get some water from time to tome from this tank, they said the water in this tank was something special because they had good use for it. I told them I would not responsible for any bad thing happened by using this water but seemed like they never have problem with it.

 

[serwobow]

Well Dong,
I should get some water from that tank, because I have had seriously bad coral dying issues lately, which seem to have begun months ago when I treated the tank with chemiclean (antibiotic) to get rid of a cyano issue. Well, the cyano disappeared and then a week later came back, and my corals all seemed to start getting more sensitive as well. Now I have had a bunch of acros die, and some montis failing, and most weirdly of all, my kryptonite candycanes, which have thrived for over a decade, and now are all dying off. Many other corals (Acros montis and euphyllia) are totally fine and growing, and all the parameters I measure (alk, Ca, Phosphorous, nitrate, salinity, tempertature) have been solid during this time. I think there is some microbial pathogen issue happening, and am not sure what to do about it.

I think it is interesting that in humans, when a certain pathogenic bacteria infects the gut, the very best treatment is transfer of a healthy microbiome into that patient:
"Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), also known as stool transplantation, is a procedure in which stool from a healthy donor is placed into the gut of a patient in order to treat a certain disease. FMT is not a new concept, but in the last six years it has become a standard-of-care therapy for the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). "

So, maybe harmful bacteria in the reef tank should be treated with a "stool transplant" as well...

 

[dz6t]

Instead of getting water from that coral graveyard tank, you are welcome to get water from my reef tanks, free.
Chemiclean is a broad spectrum antibiotic, it wipe off many bacteria in your reef tank along with cyano, which is a type of bacteria as well.