After 6 weeks of trialling Vibrant which is claimed to use a mix of bacteria to rid tanks of algae, I can only conclude it is a failure.
Today I scraped the algae off the sides of my tank ans resumed my previous routine of cleaning tank decorations and siphoning water and algae from the bottom of the tank.
What a disappointment.
It is a pleasre to be able to see my fish again, though.
The tank looks largely unchanged from last week. Very sad.
I have again double dosed with “Vibrant” after doing the normal water change.
At this stage, barring any big improvement in the next week, it will be back to the old regime of rubbing algae off the glass with a scrubbing cloth and siphoning off the bottom.
Very disappointing week with the Algae. After double dosing last week, the algae is actually worse this week!
I have double dosed again and we will see how it goes.
The algae seems to still be stable, so today I decided to double the dose. This is recommended where the tank is heavily infested. and I think my tank qualifies for that.
The plan is for 3 weeks of double dosing to see if that improves things. If there is ot significant improvement by then, I will have to conclude that “Vibrant” does not work, and return to my long standing regime of mechanical cleaning.
The algae in the fish tank is still stable, possibly a little worse.
During the water change today, I noticed that the filter was not operating properly. It was running but no water was going through. That might explain why the Vibrant is not very effective. Also cyanobacter prefer still water so perfect conditions.
I cleaned out all the accumulated gunk from the filter and reinstalled it. It took a while to get the pump primed and running, but now it is doing well.
This is week 3 of my test of “Vibrant.”
Each week I have been adding 10 ml of “Vibrant” to my tank when I do my usual weekly water change.
This week I think the growth of algae and cyanobacter has stabilised. As far as I can see, everything is similar to where it was last Monday.
I would have expected a much bigger growth of cyanobacter and the black “sticky” algae.
It appears that the Vibrant is having an effect.
Last Monday I started an experiment with the anti-algae product “Vibrant.” Instead of my weekly program of cleaning tank ornaments and sand, I just stuck with my usual 9 litre water change and added 10 ml of Vibrant.
This week both the cyanobacter and the green algae have increased. The black algae that adheres quite firmly to the glass has grown dramatically also. The black spot in this picture, about 1/4 of the way in from the left and 1/4 from the bottom is about twice the size of last week’s photo, and there are more spots on the back of the tank.
You can see from this photo that the cyanobacter is becoming quite thick on the sand.
At this stage, I am not too worried. This is probably about the amount of algae that I would expect to be seeing if I had skipped my cleaning last week. I expect that as the population of algae busting bacteria builds up, then the algae, including the cyanobacter, should start to decline.
For many years, since I was 18 years old, I have kept a saltwater fish tank. I love the colours of reef fish. Over the last couple of decades, the hobby has moved on, and many people keep reef tanks with living corals and other invertebrates. The equipment required for keeping the pristine conditions and lighting necessary for corals is beyond my means so I have stayed with the FOWLR system- fish only with living rock.
I have never really found algae control a problem, although in the current location we get a fair bit of light coming in from outside. In this picture you can see a lot of green algae on various parts of the aquarium. The reddish material is actually bacteria called cyanobacter.
In the image on the right, there is a small black blob- out of focus- just above the low point in the sand. It is a very sticky algae which adheres to the glass and literally has to be scrubbed off.
My procedure until now is every week I do a 9 litre water change, clean the inside of the glass and remove about a third of the ornaments for cleaning with a hose connected to my rain water tank. During the water change I try to siphon off as much cyanobacter from the sand as I can.
It’s all good. In less than an hour a week I keep the water quality good and the tank fairly clean.
Last week i read about this product:
I ordered some after seeing a video test on Youtube which looked quite impressive. They took some very badly algae encrusted test tanks and dosed them with Vibrant twice a week. Over about 6 weeks the algae of several different species just about disappeared from all tanks.
I am going to dose my tank once a week and see how the tank responds. I will not be cleaning the sand or rocks, but just doing the regular water changes.
Vibrant is a culture of various bacteria that has been developed for use in marine tanks. There is a version that is for fresh water tanks.
What I like abut it is there are no poisonous chemicals involved, so it should be safe for the fish.
We will see how it goes over the next few weeks,
New Life Narrabri 