Trying Polyp Lab's "System Reef-resh" this weekend.

[Mike Olson]

Week 1

The first week has passed and I have been impressed with some of the differences I have seen in my tank. I know that the information and data herein is subjective. I have paid more attention to corals that have been in my care for an extended period of time since I have more knowedge on their growth rate and polyp extension prior to Reef-Resh. My feeding schedule has been the same all along. My lighting consists of 2-250W 14K venture bulbs that are 2 1/2 months old and 1-400W venture 10K bulb that is 1 1/2 months old. Flow rates have not changed. The specs for the rest of the equipment are on my signature. There have been no corals/livestock added since starting Reef-Resh.

Feeding:
9:30 AM 1 cube mysis and a pinch of Formula flake
3:00 PM 1- 3 inch strip of nori
8:30 PM 1 cube of mysis (1cube of brine every second day instead
of mysis) and a pinch of Formula flake
1 teaspoon of reef roids in the evening on Mon. and Fri.
DT's phytoplankton every 3 nights.

Corals

Frogspawn, Hammer, Torch - very healthy and hard to tell if any changes have occurred.

Orange Plate- tentacle extension has increased noticeably. They were approx.1/2 inch and now are 3/4-1inch.

2 Open brains- tentacles come out more often in the daytime-not longer

Numerous zoos- definite tentacle extension difference-almost double! No color change

Galaxy- polyp extension is a little more, looks great but no noticeable changes

14"Dia. Toadstool, Colt, Devils Hand. Kenya tree- All doing great- same as before.

4 various Montipora- All show definite improvement...growth has gone from 1/8 inch per week to 1/4 inch this week. Polyps are more defined and the polyps underneath are actually coming out now. Color appears deeper

Pink Birdsnest- Growth has gone from 1/4 inch to 3/8-1/2 this week. Polyps stay out longer and are longer. Pink tips more defined

Pocillipora- growth is roughly the same but polyps are longer and out All week. Appears to have 'lightened' up from darker beige to lighter.

Christmas tree rock- polyps are definitely larger and are growing on to adjacent rocks- cant tell if there is more growth....I didnt realize it was spreading! Ha Ha! The feathers look more defined, that could be due to water quality.

Big Cup coral- Polyps are larger and are out more often. Growth 'seems' to be more, but not sure. Noted that polyps were coming out underneath as well....it has never done that in the year and some that have had it.

Orange Digitata- Growth this week has been equal to the previous two. polyps havent changed ( its in a high flow area) Orange coloration is more defined.

Blue acropora and blue green acro- growth is good 1/4 inch last week. Coloration is awesome...these corals are reatively new so I cannot compare too much.

I have more corals, but these are the ones I am using for comparison. The leathers are harder to note changes. My tank has typically taken along time for sps to grow- maybe since I do have a mixed tank and no reactor, I dont know. That is why I am excited to see the results for the sps's...hopefully the trend continues! The Lps are also hard for me to note skeletal growth differences, it will be easier over a more prolongued period.
I have noticed better water quality though...the only evidence I have is the drop in Nitrates from 5 to 0 though. My water looks clearer and fish, corals, inverts look more defined. I might be looking into it too much, but I have had others tell me that the clarity is better (without me telling them of Reef-Resh) I do notice I have to empty the skimmer cup a day earlier now...anyone out there notice the same?
Overall....Very happy of the first week! Next report will be Week 2
Thanks

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Thanks Mike. Very comprehensive. Looking forward to future reports.

Anthony

[Tangman]

Any before and after pics?

[Ruth]

Well they say the lord hates a coward so I might as well weigh in on this one. If I am not mistaken the general idea of this system is to create an environment that is nutrient poor, ie: nitrate and phosphate at zero, through the use of various strains of bacteria. I would also guess that other factors are required in order to see a real benefit from this such as heavy and efficient skimming, appropriate lighting, frequent water changes, and adequate water flow.
I don't think that it is unrealistic to see marked improvement within the first week of using this system just for the fact that presumably you have been successful in reducing the amount of nitrate and phosphate in your water - thus the corals are smiling. I would be a bit nervous of too rapid a change in your system that has the potential of shocking your inhabitants and as has been said it is usually bad things that happen quickly. I would keep a close eye on your corals to make sure that they don't go too quickly even if the direction you think they are heading in is a good one. I know that when I used Pohl's coral vitalizer there was a marked improvement of polyp extension within the first couple of days and I kept dosing at the same levels and pretty soon I started to see tissue sloughing off around the base that allowed a bacteria or some other algea to attach the base of the coral and eventually kill them. Like most things in a reef aquarium good things happen slowly.
I am not using this system but will follow this thread closely as I am curious to see how it progresses. I have tried the zeovit system but have had to stop using it as I was just unable to maintain it properly without a proper zeo reactor that for some reason (supplier!!!!) I was unable to aquire. Without all the pieces of the puzzle in place systems like zeovit and presumably Reef-fresh simply do not work, IMO.
Pictures would be a wonderful tool to track the progress of your system and also for the rest of us that are interested to observe.
Just my opinion and 2 pennies worth.

[Tangman]

Good point Ruth, like Steve also said , It would be nice to see some before and after progress pictures
Also I am very interested on how much it is going to cost on a month to month basis. I talked to Jeff at J&L and they are trying to determine this as well

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Polyp Lab

Stircrazy,

I think you have your products mixed up....

This thread is about Reef-resh. A bacterial export system. We never gave out samples of Reef-resh.

I think you are talking about Reef-roids which is our coral food for filter feeders.

=)

Oh don't I just feel like an idiot!!!! you guys need to stop releaseing stuff so fast you got a link to the info on this stuff?

Steve

[vanreefer]

I'm going to give this a try as well I will try to take some pictures every week to document changes... There are a few questions That I would have... Maybe polyp lab could answer them for me... Does this new strain of bacteria we are adding replace or compete for nutrients with the de-nitrifying bacteria that is normally present in our reefs... ie if I run out or decide to stop using this product wiil my tank re-cycle as the normal flora returns?... are there any negative effects to missing a day or two? will the bacteria die off too rapidly (without the food) and release the nitrates and phosphates ,back into the water collumn, that they had comsumed? I don't think this would be to big an issue with the size of skimmer I am running (G4X on ~100gals) but good to know.

Mike: are you seeing the development of bacterial mats like they advertise?

Polyp lab: Is the food (reef fuel) simply a source of organic carbon... and would this fuel the growth of the pre-existing bacterial strains present in our reefs?
without the addition of your bacterial strain?
Thanks for your answers,
I am looking forward to giving this product a try

Regards,
Dan

[dirtyreefer]

Well it's been a week of using this stuff and I can't really significantly report any major difference up till now. I did notice that the water clarity was good, and I can also report a bit more skimmate than before.

As for SPS changes, I can't really say. I am not going up to the tank every night and checking to see whether there are any difference because I honestly wouldn't know whether a branch is growing more than before or not.

The best way is definitely to take some before and after pics which I may do this weekend. These will be the before shots and I'll post them here.

I think the normal waiting period is about 4-6 weeks before you can really notice any dramatic improvements so I'm not gonna get too excited at this point.

[Polyp Lab]

Mike Olson: I’m glad the product is working out for you.

Tangman: The winner of our photo contest has placed some photos of his progress on several forums. I am not sure if I am allowed to post links to these forums on Canreef so I’ll let you do some searching =)
There is some information on cost on our faq page at www.polyplab.com/faq/html
The cost for a 100 gallon aquarium is around 17-18 dollars a month.

StirCrazy: No problem about the confusion =) I must admit, the names we chose are a little confusing. You can read more about this product at www.polyplab.com/reefresh.html


Ruth: System Reef-resh is a much more gradual (and consequently safer) nutrient export system than other European bacterial systems. We use more efficient strains and a much safer carbon source. Bleaching is not a problem that you will encounter with this product.

VanReefer: I’ll try to answer your question with a quick summary of some of the mechanisms at work here..

There are several bacterial species in the RF-Genesis product. Some species are designed to stay in a planktonic (free-floating) state in the aquarium while other species are designed to firm micro-colonies with existing and novel strains. These micro-colonies are also known as biofilms.

Biofilms typically contain many layers of bacterial cells to form microcolonies. These colonies have fairly complex cell to cell communication between the cells and act as a “team”. The bottom layers of these biofilms attach to a surface and provide some kind of structure for the upper layers. The upper layers are the nutrient exporting elements. They trap nutrients to feed the cells that it is made of. As the top layers of the biofilm consume nitrates and phosphates, it repeatedly grows and sheds.

The layers of the biofilm that have been shed are either eaten by your corals (sound tasty huh?) or are skimmed out by your skimmer. That is why people are noticing more skimmate - you are skimming out bacterial slough.

There is no real problem with missing a day or two of dosing, but the system is most effective when dosed as instructed. With an extended period of non-dosing, the biofilms will find other food sources to survive, but over time will be unable to sustain the structure of the biofilm and will slough off entirely. If you are running a skimmer, they will not break back down before they are skimmed out.

However, if you are running a skimmer-less setup and you stop dosing the product for an extended period of time (several weeks), then you do run the risk of the biofilm layers breaking back down. This is why we do no recommend running System RF in a skimmerless setup. Will you get a second cycle? Unlikely… At this stage your aquarium will likely be mature enough to handle a temporary increase in excess nutrients.

Correct. RF-Fuel is a source of organic carbon and several amino acids that are soluble in the carbon source. The fuel source encourages some strains to multiply that we want to grow, while not effecting other strains that we do not want. It does minimally fuel the growth of some of your existing bacterial stains.

Some European methods use vodka as a carbon source. Vodka is a terribly stupid thing to use as a carbon source in aquariums since it encourages the wrong types of bacteria to grow (Mostly autotrophic as opposed to heterotrophic). It also rapidly results in monocultures of that species and over time you end up with aquariums filled with bacteria that do not provide any real nutrient export.

In a market saturated with hundreds of garbage "reef products", skepticism towards any new product is wise. So regardless of how this product sounds on paper, the experiences of other hobbyists will be the best reviews.

We have put in a LOT of time into developing this product, so to hear positive experiences with the product is very rewarding. Thanks!

[Mike Olson]

Originally Posted by Tangman

Any before and after pics?

I have a few before and after pics. Not very good though....my camera will not go into manual focus. I will try to post though...I am hoping to borrow my friends new 8mg digital SLR this comng week.
I am constantly checking my sps for growth since they have never grown that fast in my tank. Thats probably why I have noticed the most changes/occurrences on them.....my Softies have always grown like mad.