RightNow! System / Hiatt Method

Patent - Bacteria - White Papers - TBPC

Introduction
Freshwater
Freshwater planted tank
Refugium
Maintenance
Setup

Introduction
When was the last time your ordered fast food? Was it fast enough?
How long did you have to wait for this page to load?
How long does it take to fill your gas tank? or commute through traffic?
In a ever changing society that requires things at a fast pace, the aquarium trade must keep up with new ideas and inventions.

Kids always ask, "Daddy I want a Nemo" not realizing it will be 8 weeks from now until they can have one because the fish tank has not yet cycled.

With the RightNow! System you don't have to wait 8 weeks for your saltwater or freshwater to cycle anymore. It actually waits for you to put in your first fish as the name implies.

The system is not just for new tanks, but can also be used on existing / problematic tanks (saltwater or freshwater)

How is this possible? Lets go back to the roots of fish keeping.
Biological (bacteria), Mechanical (sponges, protien skimmers), and Chemical (carbon, resins).
Of the three which is most important?
Mechanical and Chemical is dependant on maintenance.
Biological filtration, you do nothing... bacteria all do the work.

The nitrogen cycle/biological filtration at Reef Sources had a animated diagram. This takes 28days up to 8 weeks to complete through anaerobic bacteria (no oxygen). Anaerobic bacteria double approximately every 28-30 days.

RightNow! is a aerobic/oxygen utilizing bacteria that doubles almost every half an hour or less. Also, aerobic bacteria are far more efficient at growing and therefore need to eat more. If you could have a bacteria that eats lots of waste and doubles quickly, you have RightNow! bacteria. When they are done eating they die. That's a problem.

How do we now keep fish/inverts/corals alive?
These bacteria need carbon to breakdown/eat waste to complete this diffrent aerobic nitrogen cycle. RightNow! bacteria cannot survive off Tri-based carbon alone.

In addition to eating, you need to have lots of the buggers around to breakdown waste.
So we need lots of surface area for them to grow.
Carbon has more surface area than other products (biobale, bioballs, live sand, live rock, silica, etc.) Approx 1 lb of carbon is 0.2 square miles of surface area or 5,575,680 square ft (1150m2/gram minimum) for bacteria to grow. That's a lot of bacteria. More bacterial surface area than live rock and a 5 inch sand bed in the same tank combined.

What about phosphate?
Phosphate enters the aquarium from fish and invertebrate waste and decaying organic matter (DOM), such as dead algae and uneaten fish food. Water treatment facilities may add phosphate to tap water to prevent pipe corrosion and reduce concentrations of heavy metals in drinking water. Some salt mixes also contain phosphates. Excess phosphate my lead to algae blooms. In saltwater aquariums, phosphate precipitates dissolved calcium and magnesium ions, inhibiting the growth of hard corals and other reef building organisms. In the hobby phosphate is considered a "Poison" to reef aquaria.

Lets sweeten the deal, in the process that these bacteria work, they also reduce phosphate competing algae for their major food source. The reduction of nitrogen to phosphate is 4:1. This is a period of 4-6 weeks reduction in phosphate. The standard anaerobic nitrogen cycle removes no phosphate.

So will this rid me of phosphates in my aquarium?
Yes, and no. The RightNow! bacteria will definitely give algae a heard time to grow.
Certain algaes also need certain metals like silica and even magnesium to grow.

MetalGone is a fourth optional component in the RightNow! system. It adds a chemical resin that will removal phosphate and 28 other heavy metals called MetalGone. (that competes algae at this source and when the algae is broken down, the bacteria then degrade the algae)

The RightNow! System
This is a optional method of keeping healthy fish and reducing fish loss. This is not to say that other methods don't work, but with water so clean you don't have to change the water so often and in turn fish eat more, grow faster, and less chances for fish loss.

For saltwater we use these starter components:
RightNow! bacteria, Tri-based carbon, pH rock (optional), MetalGone (optional), Sea Lab Trace Blox (optional) and a starter fish.

CARBON NEEDS:

Freshwater Fish only tank = (tank gallons x 0.1667)

Saltwater Fish only tank = (tank gallons x 0.1667)

Saltwater Reef with some fish = (tank gallons x 0.1667)/2

Saltwater Reef only = (tank gallons x 0.1667)/3

Why all the strange calculations? Plain answer is some organisms don't like perfectly clean water to thrive. (see FAQ section)

After about one month, the chemical filtration of carbon is depleted, but the carbon to be used as a biological surface area/catalyst will last 3-5 years if cleaned appropriately.

This powerful Tri-base carbon MUST be soaked for 1 day prior to use or run in the filter for 1 day prior to use (for new and established). Add only 1/2 LB per 3 days (for existing systems) otherwise your fish will DIE.

This isn't your run of the mill Carbon, it's designed to work concurrently with the RightNow! bacteria.

How much TBPC is in 1 pound?
One pound of Tribased Carbon is about 4 cups volume (i.e. 1 Fluval tray is 2 cups, double tray 4 cups and XP filters 1 tray is about 4 cups)

pH ROCK NEEDS (optional, highly recommended for saltwater)
pH rock is not essential, but benefits outweight cons (large enough canister filter).
This is a mined mineral that is processed to be Calcium Carbonate, Magnesium Carbonate, Trace elements, and a pH buffer at 8.4. The system will maintain Calcium at levels above 400. There is no need for a calcium reactor.
The rock cannot be used alone. It needs CO2 to dissolve the rock into the water from the bacteria. It must be placed after the carbon to dissolve and maintain pH, Ca, Mg, trace elements.

If pH rock is not used in the system, the pH must be manually adjusted or buffered to maintain alkalinity at 8.4. Calcium, Magnesium, and trace elements need to be added.

amount pH Rock required = (tank gallons x 0.7) for a canister filter
or
amount pH Rock required = (tank gallons x 2) inside the tank

What's the ratio of pH rock weight to volume?
pH rock is about 1 pound per 1 cup volume (i.e. 1 Fluval tray is 2 cups, double tray 4 cups and XP filters 1 tray is about 4 cups)

Acclimate your one fish appropriately then add to the tank.

Lastly, add half the amount of RightNow! bacteria to the system. We recommend half because the full amount of bacteria in a fully stocked system with fish will consume all the oxygen and KILL all the fish. After the fish are dead and removed from the tank. The excess bacteria will die off and remaining will consume them until equalibrium is reached. Then the tank will be stable. Adding half the required amount give the bacteria room to grow to where they need to reach equalibrium.

If no fish are added and only bacteria, they will die off because no waste is being produced even if you have tri-based carbon in the system.

I'm sure this all sounds complicated; however, it's really not once you do it yourself.

FLOW RATE
Canister flow rate of 10x per hour is required for the bacteria to process waste efficiently.
This does NOT include additional powerheads in the tank, but for canister filters only.
Advertized flow rates are all underrated when the filter is packed to the nose with Tri-based carbon and pH rock. Most flow rates are half the rated output rate.
If a canister filter advertizes a output of 450gph it's real flow rate is 200-225gph. Ideally, this would be a flow rate for a 20g tank. Though the flow rate is at 225gph, canister filters clog overtime and this becomes negligible.

If one's system is larger i.e. 40 gallon two cansiter filters running at 200gph would work

For very large systems we carry larger custom canister filters that require some plumbing and a external pump.

OUTPUT/RETURN
The output/return from the filter must be above the water or resting right above the water to drive off the excess CO2 from the bacteria in the canister or your fish will DIE. The output should be placed cross corner on the surface of the water. Other options are to use a spray bar attached to the output above the surface of the water.

POWERHEADS
All powerheads used must break the surface of the water allowing gas exhange of carbon dioxide and oxygen. All life forms are limited by their size due to the ability to carry oxygen. That's why elephants are not mice and vice versa. Larger animals have larger lungs for oxygen carrying capacity. Limiting oxygen limits how much a livestock can be kept in a tank. Do yourself a favor and increase the oxygen in your tanks. Increasing flow rates also increases oxygen because the surface of the water is broken more.
Powerheads under water retain CO2 and will KILL all your fish/inverts/corals.
This is true even for systems that don't use aerobic bacteria.

FOR FRESHWATER PLANTED TANK SETUPS
For freshwater we use these starter components:
RightNow! bacteria, Earth pellets, MetalGone (optional), Freshwater Trace Elements (optional) and a starter fish.
Tri-based pelletized carbon will complete the aerobic nitrogen cycle allowing for reduction of nitrates to nitrogen gas and reduction of phophate (needed for plant growth).
Instead of carbon we use "Earth Pellets" which have a large surface area for bacterial growth, the bacteria digest waste and releasing CO2 made from the bacteria as a by product for plant growth. This is not a fully aerobic nitrogen cycle, nitrates will be retained for plant growth.
The output of the return is placed just below the surface of the water. The plants will photosynthesize and produce oxygen during the day and uptake nitrates and CO2.
The Earth Pellets (not efficient as tri-based carbon but still efficient) will provide a surface area for bacteria to grow but will not allow the bacteria to consume phosphate and nitrate for plant growth.
There is no need for a CO2 setup to maintain plants to grow, they will naturally consume CO2 from the RightNow! bacteria.
The CO2 cannot be overdosed because it's only present when fish waste is present, not 24/7.

Amount Earth Pellets = (gallons x 0.1667)/2

MAINTENANCE: Once every 2-4 weeks (Saltwater & Freshwater)
1. Be sure to feed your fish daily
2. Clean out canister filter and rinse 1/2 of the carbon/earth pellets or for a vessel backflush your carbon/earth pellets for 10-15 seconds to loosen the carbon of debris. This will prevent growth of anaerobic bacteria in the carbon which is what we don't want.
3. Vaccum your gravel and rocks to relieve your dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and decaying organic matter (DOM)
4. Water change of 10-25%

Want to keep a saltwater refugium, combine your RightNow! system with a small filter to run Earth pellets for the refugium. Problem solved.

SETUP
1. Soak the Tri-based carbon until no bubbles and let it run for 24 hours in your filter.
For existing systems, soak the carbon for 24 hours and add 1/2 lb of carbon every day until reaching the desired amount.
2. Acclimate your fish/invertebrates and add them to the tank
3. Add half the doseage of RightNow! bacteria (too much will KILL your fish, see FAQ)
4. One can add more livestock over the next several days

INSUFFICIENT or OVERUSE of CARBON / pH ROCK / FLOW RATES
Non-recommended uses/amounts of Tribased carbon, pH rock, flow rates, output are not suggested. The amounts specified using the formulas suggested were tested in a strict labratory enviroment under controlled conditions at HDL the manufactuer and distributor for over 7 years. The product is protected with a patent.