Does Vibrant Reef Tank Cleaner Work?

When I first got my 210-gallon reef tank, I bought the tank from a fellow reefer. The tank came with some amazing fish and equipment at a steal of a deal. I spent a week moving the livestock, a humongous tank, and all of the equipment. I then had to set up the tank at my home transporting the sand and live rock. I let the tank sit and go through any cycling process it needed to for about a month before adding the livestock and coral back to the tank. The other thing I inherited with this tank was a pretty significant algae problem. The tank suffered from both green hair algae and bryopsis.

For over a year I worked hard to battle the algae issues in the tank. I added clean-up crews and even kept 4 tangs in the system. I would scrub the algae off the rocks on a bi-weekly basis trying to manually remove as much as possible. I even kept a successful refugium that was chock full of thriving chaeto. To no avail, the algae would grow back continuously making the tank look not as nice as it could look. Also of note, the water parameters were at normal levels for a reef tank with low nitrate and nitrite levels. I’m very diligent in my maintenance conducting regular maintenance water changes with fresh RO/DI water.

Towards the end of the first year, I plumbed in a 50 gallon low boy frag tank to keep my coral frags in. To no surprise, the algae attacked that tank too and would overgrow my frag plugs at a very rapid pace. This was the last straw for me and the tank was beginning to not be enjoyable from a visual perspective. I normally try to minimize the additives or rash measures to fix issues in my reef tanks, but after a year of battling the algae, I was ready to restart the system or try a different approach to defeat the algae. This led me to research and trying out Underwater Creations Vibrant Reef aquarium cleaner. Read on to learn more about the Vibrant product and how it worked for me.

What is Vibrant reef tank cleaner?

Vibrant Aquarium Cleaner for Marine (16 oz)

Vibrant reef tank cleaner is a product created and sold by Underwater Creations Inc. Underwater Creations is a custom aquarium builder company based out of Minnesota. The company also services aquariums. As the story goes on their website, their clients always asked how they keep their tanks so clean and their answer was with the use of a homemade liquid cleaner. After being asked repeatedly if they would sell their solution, the company teamed up with scientists to create a formula for consumer use and the Vibrant product was born.

What are the different types of Vibrant Reef Tank Cleaner?

There are three different Vibrant formulas available. The three types are for freshwater tanks, reef tanks, and saltwater tanks.

What’s the difference between Vibrant for reef tanks and Vibrant for saltwater tanks?

Vibrant for saltwater tanks is for fish-only saltwater tanks and Vibrant for reef tanks is for tanks with fish and corals. As there is typically more nitrate and phosphates in fish-only tanks, the formula is more concentrated and stronger. Dosing is the same for each formula. Be careful you order the right one for your tank. The one labeled Saltwater is for fish-only systems and the one labeled reef tank is for a mixed aquarium with coral and fish.

What are the claims of Vibrant Reef Tank Cleaner?

Vibrant claims to be an all-in-one liquid tank cleaner that when added to a reef tank cleans the tank by killing algae and making the water crystal clear. The product claims to be safe for all fish, corals, and invertebrates.

What is in Vibrant Reef Tank Cleaner

The main ingredient in Vibrant is a cultured bacteria blend at 95% of the content. Other ingredients include 1% Amino Acids (Aspartic Acid), .05% Vinegar, and 3.5% RO/DI water. Vibrant does not publish what types of bacteria cultures are included in their solution.

How does Vibrant work?

Paraphrasing from the owner of Underwater Creations, the magic in Vibrant is in the cultured bacteria strain. The bacteria strains in Vibrant go after and consume algae in the tank and convert No3 and Po4 into biomass which is then removed from the tank via skimming, water changes, or consumed by corals. This differs from other chemical products that simply kill the algae which can release nitrates into the water causing other sometimes even worse issues. Vibrant can be stopped once the algae are gone or dosed as part of a regular maintenance routine to keep the tank clean and in check.

How much Vibrant are you supposed to dose?

The dosing of Vibrant will depend on your tank size and the level of dirtiness in your tank. Here are the recommendations from the back of the bottle:

For a very well taken care of, clean aquarium: add 1ml of Vibrant per 10 gallons of aquarium water once every 2 weeks.

For a dirtier aquarium: add 1ml of Vibrant per 10 gallons of aquarium water once per week.

For a tank with Bryopsis or Turf algae: dose 1ml of Vibrant two times per week.

How many Vibrant doses does it take to clean your reef tank?

The number of doses will highly depend on the amount of infestation and the type of algae infestation. When the bacteria is added to the tank its population will multiply over time growing its capability to consume algae and out-compete it.

Vibrant claims to be effective against all sorts of issues including cloudy water, diatoms, cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, bubble algae, hair algae, turf algae, and bryopsis. Here are the estimated number of doses for each:

Cloudy/hazy Water- 1 dose

Diatoms – 1-2 doses

Cyanobacteria – 1-5 doses

Dinoflagellates – 2-5 doses

Bubble algae – 3-8 doses

Hair Algae – 3-5 doses

Turf Algae – 8-20 doses

Bryopsis – 6-30 doses

Is Vibrant bad for fish, corals, and invertebrates?

Vibrant claims to be safe for all fish, coral, and invertebrates. When dosing my tank, I did not see any ill effects on any of my livestock including corals. The coral seemed to be just as happy and opened as without the dosing of vibrant. I did not lose any fish during the dosing of vibrant.

Will Vibrant kill Chaeto?

I think the jury is out on this one. There are many anecdotal reviews and posts in forums that claim their chaeto melted and died off during the dosing of Vibrant. When I used the product my chaeto did not die off and grew just as rapidly as it had previously. There is probably something happening in the water parameters in the chain effect of using Vibrant, but it is hard to pinpoint. If I had to guess nitrate levels may drop to unsustainable levels for chaeto.

A good practice is to dose Vibrant to get rid of algae issues and stop dosing and add new macroalgae. Another thing you can do is reduce to a Vibrant maintenance dose and add new macroalgae. Though Vibrant doesn’t directly attack chaeto and macroalgae, it will take out the algae in algae turf scrubbers. It’s best to take your ATS offline while dosing Vibrant.

When I used vibrant in my tank I had a large refugium with lots of chaeto. It did not kill my chaeto, but it slowed its growth. If I were to guess, I think that Vibrant strips the water of nutrients that algae feed off, and without it chaeto and other macroalgae would eventually die off. I stopped dosing Vibrant before this happened. After I stopped dosing Vibrant my Chaeto bounced back nicely after about two weeks.

Does Vibrant work?

In my experience Vibrant did work. I was dealing primarily with bryopsis in my tank and as advertised it did take quite a while across many doses to rid my tank of bryopsis. I dosed once a week at the recommended amounts for about three months before 90% of the bryopsis was gone. I continued my regular weekly maintenance schedule doing about a 20% water change every week. The other step I took was manual removal of as much bryopsis as I could. I would pick off clumps with my hands and tweezers and scrub other areas of live rock with a stiff toothbrush.

With my initial doses of vibrant, I definitely could tell there was a slowing of algae growth in my tank, including after the first dose. I found that my glass could go longer before needing to be scrapped and in areas where I manually removed bryopsis, it was slow to grow back which previously it would grow back within a few days.

The other impact that I did notice was on my Chaeto. I keep a large refugium on my tank and light my chaeto with a high-quality Prime HD grow light. I typically have a full refugium and have to harvest every three weeks. While using vibrant I would say that my chaeto didn’t look as healthy and growth had slowed to needing to be harvested every 6 weeks. This wasn’t too much of an issue for me as the display tank was much nicer to look at as a result of the dosing. My chaeto did bounce back nicely though after a few weeks of finishing the dosing regimen.

Another reported concern is diatom bloom while using Vibrant. I did not experience a diatom blow during the use of Vibrant. Overall I would consider vibrant a good product that overall works as advertised. I didn’t experience any issues with fish or coral in my tank and seemed to only impact my chaeto. If you use a refugium with macroalgae I would recommend dosing until you are happy with the algae levels in your tank and then stop.

Vibrant Aquarium Cleaner for Marine

Vibrant is a new revolutionary liquid aquarium cleaner. You can say goodbye to algae, cloudy water and that grungy, dirty aquarium and say hello to that sparkling, crystal clear, algae free, vibrant aquarium you have always wanted!

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