Vibrant - Liquid Cleaner for Reef Tanks - Product Review and Test!

IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
Background: So I have run into some issues with nuisance algae and dinos. They came on quickly and two days later covered the sandbed, most of the rocks to some degree, and started irritating the corals they landed on. The dinos sent strings into the watercolumn which are caught on other rockwork or in SPS branches. I have had two acros specifically which the dinos have taken root on the tips. Very frustrating!

The Solution?: I have been following threads on other forums around a new product which claims to rid reef tanks of all nuisance bacterial and algaes without any ill effect other than to any ATS that are left online. For those of you that know me, I am one to jump right into something that has hype around it without some proven facts. I also noticed a lot of the people reviewing the product had been provided free samples for their reviews. Hmmm. What I couldn't help but notice is the through the test pictures, I was seeing improvement.

Fine... I broke down and purchased a bottle for my own testing! If it worked, it will be the best $42 I have ever spent on my reef. Worst case, it added some beneficial bacteria and I learn my lesson and hopefully prevent others from making a similar purchase! Here goes!

...proof of purchase for any scepticism out there :)


Before Pictures & Thread
For all the details... http://www.chicagoreefs.com/forums/showthread.php/32014-Nuisance-Algae-ID-Help?p=357908#post357908

Some sample pictures from the thread above.




Progression
updates coming soon
 
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IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
[MENTION=2509]rockhead[/MENTION] feel free to add in any of your experiences (I assume you bought a bottle since you sent me the details and picture!)
 
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
I will be following as i seem to have same issue went black out for 4 days thought it was gone then bam less then 1 hr with lights on it came back . Then i started dosing peroxide but didnt see difference so i went lights out and im dosing twice a day now probably gonna crash the dam tank again but nothing freakin works
 
ninjamyst

ninjamyst

Premium member
Looks same as other bacteria solutions out there like Dr Tim's Waste Away. Following along to see your progress. I thought people been buying them for just $20 a bottle?
 
K

Kevin Says

Member
ninjamyst said:
Looks same as other bacteria solutions out there like Dr Tim's Waste Away. Following along to see your progress. I thought people been buying them for just $20 a bottle?
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The company that is selling the product is an aquarium maintenance company. They would not have the resources to manufacture the product. But they probably have used just about every bacteria additive product and used them in different combinations. So it's probably just a rebranded product or a combination of existing products. You are paying for knowledge here. Personally, I would stick with Dr Tim's or Microbacter7.
 
K

Kevin Says

Member
I just checked the price on Dr Tim's and it's only $13.20 on Amazon. I bought a bottle. Dr Tim is the inventor of Bio-spira and bacteria is his specialty.
 
IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
Thanks everyone. By itself I didn't see much of any improvement. However, I did manage to kill off 99% of this stuff by doing the following...

Day 1-3 I vacuumed the sand bed and blew off all the rocks. Came back within 30 min and back to full strength in an hour.

Day 4-6 I did a blackout (3 24hour period worth) and added a sea hare. It was 99% gone and not making a comeback!

I attribute the blackout period for knocking it out and potentially the bacteria for not allowing it to resurface. My educated guess anyway.



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T

#theMatrix

Active member
Blackouts work great.
Im turning mines back on today from being off for 4 days.
Sand and rocks look great. So hopefully they remain cleaner
 
IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
I had a few darken and one brown out (a variation of a PC Rainbow) but all is well.

I did have one Millipora that had the algae growing on the ends that I had to cut down 50% and I'm not sure if it will recover but it is holding on with minimal polyp extensions.

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madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
So i ordered vibrant figured what i have had to lose. Anyways i dosed yesterday have the t5 lights staying off only my kessils will turn on as the slime seems to not grow with the kessils least not as fast. And by the way i found out theres a saltwater version of vibrant and then a reef version i kinda freaked out since i already dosed and didnt get the reef one. So i emailed them they responded fast and there words were the saltwater is meant for fish only but i was safe corals wont die lol so i asked well whats the dif then they responded its the same ingredients just the reef one is weaker . So in the end i think the saltwater one is way to go since i dont want weaker i want stronger to try to kick this chit. Figured id post in case anybody was wondering whats the dif
 
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K

Kevin Says

Member
madjoe said:
So i ordered vibrant figured what i have had to lose. Anyways i dosed yeaterday have the t5 lights satying off only my kessils will turn on as the slime seems to not grow with the kessils least not as fast. And by the way i found out theres a saltwater version of vibrant and then a reef version i kinda freaked out since i already dosed and didnt get the reef one. So i emailed them they reaponded fast and there words were the saltwater is meant for fish only but i was safe corals wont die lol so i asked well whats the dif then they responded its the same ingredients just the reef one is weaker . So in the end i think the saltwater one is way to go since i dont want weaker i want stronger to try to kick this chit. Figured id post in case anybody was wondering whats the dif
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Dr Tim's also has a reef and saltwater version. According to Dr. Tim, there is absolutely no difference and it's just marketing. There is probably no difference here either.
 
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
Kevin Says said:
Dr Tim's also has a reef and saltwater version. According to Dr. Tim, there is absolutely no difference and it's just marketing. There is probably no difference here either.
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As i said i emailed the makers and they say its tge same just reef is weaker im guessing the dilute the reef one more lol
 
K

Kevin Says

Member
They don't manufacture the stuff. I am not sure if they know what is in it. It's probably just a combination of stuff that they've found to work well in their aquarium maintenance business.
 
IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
madjoe said:
As i said i emailed the makers and they say its tge same just reef is weaker im guessing the dilute the reef one more lol
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Well be careful. I found that whatever bacteria is in this out competes the algae and eventually the coral too. I started dosing nitrates after I noticed some ill effects on my coral color and PE and after 2 weeks my colors are coming back.

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madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
IHaveCrabs said:
Well be careful. I found that whatever bacteria is in this out competes the algae and eventually the coral too. I started dosing nitrates after I noticed some ill effects on my coral color and PE and after 2 weeks my colors are coming back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
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How long u been dosing now
 
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