Vibrant

[Dave MN Nano]

Does anyone use Vibrant like the bottle and website suggests - every 2 weeks. Does it work as advertised? Crystal clear water and 0 algae? Are there any side affects? If it works like the website says why would I not just use this?

[mitten_reef]

there have been plenty of vibrant posts if you search on here, I think @seabass may have a detailed thread where he tracks his progress with it...or at least another "algae-free" product. 

 

none of these magic potions will be something you want to use long term, i feel like for every one that worked, there are also similar amount of complaints re side effects.  imho, some of these products are just a placebo effect of forcing you to pay more attention to your tank - again, just imo.  

[Murphs_Reef]

I've tried it first hand.. and would not recommend to a friend.

 

 @seabass thread

 

 

[Tamberav]

49 minutes ago, Dave MN Nano said:

Does anyone use Vibrant like the bottle and website suggests - every 2 weeks. Does it work as advertised? Crystal clear water and 0 algae? Are there any side affects? If it works like the website says why would I not just use this?

There are potential side effects. There is no such thing as a risk free magic potion. 
 

Some people swear by it and others have said it crashed their tank. Every tank is unique and has a different range of microorganisms and bacteria. There is not guarantee how it will effect one tank vs another.  

[seabass]

Thanks for the mentions.

 

Dave, I have very mixed feelings about this product.  First off, I do not believe the effective ingredient in Vibrant is bacteria.  Maybe there's some bacteria in it; however, I believe it contains a biocide which kills the algae, and pods, and other life which helps make up the biodiversity of a mature reef tank.  After prolonged use of Vibrant, my tanks are now suffering from dinos (which I believe to be due to the lack of of competition resulting from Vibrant dosing).

 

Certain corals seemed more resistant to the effects of Vibrant than others.  For example, my zoanthids seemed to thrive during and after dosing.  However, I lost several montipora colonies (while other montipora were able to hang on).  None of the montipora thrived during dosing, and it took several weeks after I stopped dosing for the surviving montipora to start recovering.  Note, I had no difficult SPS (like acropora) at the time.

 

So here is where I have mixed feelings.  The invasive turf algae which plagued my tanks has been eradicated.  So did it work for me?  Yes.  However, I'm still picking up the pieces from using it.  I don't know, maybe in another year or two, I might be in a better position than if I didn't eradicate the invasive algae using Vibrant.  But right now, I'm trying to induce algae growth and beef up the lost biodiversity, while I fight off dinos.

[Dave MN Nano]

Seabass you dosed Vibrant plus Dr. Tim's plus some other stuff all at once right? It also looks like your algae problem was getting noticeably better and then you upped the Vibrant from once  per week to twice per week???? Why did you do that? I think more is not always better? Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. I am considering using this at the recommended maintenance dosage of 1 ml/10gallons/2 weeks. Has anyone done that? Did it work? Thanks much.

[Dave MN Nano]

Seabass I do love all those RFAs. I have one and plan to get more so they can breed. I could not get mine to stick to the side of my rocks??? It  wants to be on the sand. I wish I could get it to do that.

[Dave MN Nano]

@seabass if I only have 3 or 4 or 5 RFAs, how close do they need to be to each other to have babies? Will they find each other?

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

Seabass you dosed Vibrant plus Dr. Tim's plus some other stuff all at once right?

Yes, I was trying to keep up nutrients and beneficial bacteria.

 

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank.

Haha, I seem to recall hearing that somewhere.

 

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

I am considering using this at the recommended maintenance dosage of 1 ml/10gallons/2 weeks. Has anyone done that? Did it work?

If you go through all the links in my Vibrant thread (including the BRS videos) you'll find that a number of people did follow that route.  Supposedly, chaeto algae can even survive the recommended dosage once every two weeks.  I imagine that corals and other life might better tolerate this dosing regime.  However, you might find that it isn't enough to eradicate the algae that you want to remove.  And leaving remnants of this algae to recover seems counter intuitive to why you started to contemplate dosing in the first place.

 

In order to knock out more resistant strains of algae, a product representative actually recommended using Vibrant up to twice weekly.  But since obviously, I did not stick to dosing once every other week, I can't directly speak to your question.  Although, keep in mind, I still believe that Vibrant is a biocide/algaecide and not a strain of heterotrophic bacteria which targets algae.

 

I feel that upping the frequency of dosing was more to treat a difficult algae strain, rather than impatience and wanting to get rid of algae quickly.  Unfortunately, the tolerance to Vibrant of certain strains of algae seems similar to the tolerance of other life in our tanks.

 

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

Seabass I do love all those RFAs. I have one and plan to get more so they can breed. I could not get mine to stick to the side of my rocks??? It  wants to be on the sand. I wish I could get it to do that.

They go where they want to go.  They are relatively easy to move off of the sand (actually, they are usually attached to the bottom of the tank, as they prefer something solid to attach to).  But if they are happy, they tend not to wonder around all that much.

 

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

@seabass if I only have 3 or 4 or 5 RFAs, how close do they need to be to each other to have babies? Will they find each other?

They do not need to touch in order to breed.  So they can be anywhere in the tank and still reproduce.

[Murphs_Reef]

I use the recommend dose to rid myself if GHA. Before it was stripped I gave up as I noticed a very quick decline (all the way to zero) of my pods population. Almost as soon as I started using vibrant I got and increasingly aggressive cyanobacteria invasion. Which months after stopping vibrant I am finally free off. Corals didnt take well other than zoas. All of the LPS closed up. 

[blasterman]

I've had Vibrant wipe out some strains of nuisance algae in a few weeks, and other strains it has no affect on. So, its a mixed bag with me.

 

Vibrant has vinegar and accelerates bacteria growth to out compete fast growing algae. It will also kill chaeto and found it can seriously aggravate zoanthid colonies . Then again so will nuisance algae , so you have to pick the lesser of the evils.

 

I'm a little more positive on the product than Seabass, but its not a panacea for me either. Its a tool in the right direction.

 

Keeping phosphate Uber low in young tanks and not over stocking is your best defense against nuisance algae.

[BlueDevil-Reefer]

I used it for 8 weeks. Followed the direction. it didn’t do much other than piss off my corals. 

[Tired]

On 7/24/2021 at 11:02 PM, blasterman said:

Keeping phosphate Uber low in young tanks and not over stocking is your best defense against nuisance algae.

I don't know that I'd recommend this. Low nutrients in immature tanks are a great way to get dinos, which are a far worse pest than any nuisance algae. It's normal for a new tank started without mature rock to have loads of nuisance algae- nothing to worry about. Just keep it off any corals, and it won't hurt anything. Keep the nutrients above zero to avoid starving the algae and corals, and let everything go a little wild. Remove any long tufts of hair algae by hand, add a cleanup crew once there's plenty of algae, and it should work itself out. Nuisance algae will run amok until slower-growing beneficial algaes get established, and a new tank will never build up that beneficial algae without nutrients for it to grow with. So, let it grow. Nuisance algae isn't directly harmful, as long as it's not directly on or around a coral and bothering it. And if it is, just clean it off that particular coral.