What Palustris Is
Palustris (Bacto Fuel) is a live purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) culture built around Rhodopseudomonas palustris. It’s made for reef keepers who want a biology-first approach to cleaner water, steadier nutrient dynamics, and a more resilient microbial baseline.
This is biology, not a chemical remover.
Palustris is designed to support nutrient cycling. In practical reef terms, that means adding living bacteria that can use dissolved organics and available nutrients to grow, turning “invisible” inputs into bacterial biomass that your system can export (skimming, mechanical filtration, refugium harvest, water changes) or feed into the food web (filter feeders, microfauna, and opportunistic coral capture).
If you want the deeper “why,” these two reads explain the approach:
Core Benefits
- Purifies water naturally by supporting biological processing of dissolved organics and nutrient availability over time, rather than binding nutrients like a resin or media.
- Helps reduce waste accumulation by improving microbial breakdown of detritus-prone areas (sand bed, rock pores, and low-flow zones).
- Supports coral and filter-feeder nutrition by adding edible bacterial biomass to the water column (a natural, protein-rich food input).
- Supports a more stable microbial environment through competition and consistency, especially in systems that feel sterile or swingy after heavy filtration, UV, or aggressive nutrient stripping.
- System-wide colonization potential: dosing places live bacteria into the water column and onto surfaces (rockwork, sand, overflow and sump surfaces), where they can persist as conditions allow.
How It Works
- Bacteria use dissolved organics as fuel and can incorporate available nitrogen and phosphorus into new cells.
- Those cells become biomass, which is either exported by your filtration or consumed by animals and microfauna.
- Results depend on feeding rate, export capacity, and consistency. Palustris is a systems tool, not an instant-number-dropper.
When Palustris Makes The Most Sense
- You want cleaner water and better stability without relying on aggressive chemical removers.
- You feed heavy and want more biological processing capacity.
- Your tank collects detritus easily, or you’re trying to keep sand and rockwork fresher between maintenance.
- You’re rebuilding stability after a crash, a big reset, or a long period of ultra-low nutrients.
How To Dose
- Shake well.
- Dose into a high-flow area.
- Start low and build up based on response, especially in nutrient-limited systems.
Use Notes
- Skimmers and mechanical filtration may export some of the added bacteria. Exporting biomass is one pathway to nutrient control.
- UV can reduce free-floating bacteria shortly after dosing. If you rely heavily on UV, consistency matters even more.
- If your NO3/PO4 are already near-zero, dose conservatively to avoid pushing the tank into nutrient starvation.
Ingredients
Purified water, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, complementary bacterial strains, natural growth medium, hibiscus extract, carrot extract.
