am i atcually growing bacteria?

[Paul_MTS]

Right to set the seen, i'm trying to prepare some media to put in my sump for an almost instant cycle on my 805litre tank.

what i'ved done is with my 204 external filter i took it apart and poured the mucky water in there into a tub, added a bit ore water (dechrinenated) and then rinsed the 204 sponges in that water aswell.

i then added alfa grog (my choosen bio media for the sump) to the mucky water added 2 airstones to turn it over and a heater to get it at optimum temperature.

will there actually be bacteria growing in this mix??

 

[yvez9]

If there is no source of ammonia to feed them, the bacteria will die off

You'd need to add ammonia in there once in a while to keep it going, otherwise you're not achieving much

 

[Paul_MTS]

damn, i'll stick a load of fish food in there then!!

can't get pure ammonia over here!!

 

[WILDER]

You can buy nutrafin benefical bacteria that should keep it going.

 

[Paul_MTS]

i can't get nutrafin stuff locally, no one supplies it.

I have a API filter establish though which would be along the same lines.

i'll go and test the water in it see if there's any readings.

 

[WILDER]

Or throw a frozen prawn in for a couple of hours, you can buy pure ammonia from a chemist I thinks it's called jays ammonia.

 

[Paul_MTS]

just done water testing and very high results....

Ammonia- 7.3+ mg/l (off the scale!!)
Nitrites- 3.0 mg/l
Nitrates- 110mg/l

so shall i just leave ti alone or add something?

 

[WILDER]

I would leave it for now, just keep testing the water.

 

[Paul_MTS]

it's probable only going to be in there for another 2-3 days. i'm doing the finishing touches on the tank!!

so what do those readings tell me? is there bacteria present? seems a tad nuts to say the least!!

 

[WILDER]

It's a good job their isn't any fish in that water, it looks promising to me.

 

[Paul_MTS]

lol could say that!! I'ved never had readings like this before when cycling though, infact I don't think i'ved ever produced large numbers on readings.

i'l give it another test tomorrow night, purely to see the lovely colours that come out in the test!!

 

[Paul_MTS]

tested it again today and the ammonia readings were about 0.3 mg/l and the nitrites and nitrates were still the same.

 

[isu_guy]

You have bad test kit(s), assuming you have no plants to use the nitrate.
Ammo has to go to Nitrite,
nitrite has to go to nitrate.

If ammo drops it had to have turned into nitrite.
If nitrite stayed the same, it would have had to turn as much nitrite into nitrate as there was ammo turned into nitrite.
So with nowhere for the nitrate to go, it should have risen.

BUT.... from what I've heard (complete hearsay) nitrate testers are notorious for being impresice. so perhaps that is the only error, and then who really cares since this isn't the water that you'll take, just the media.

but this was just my guess at the situation. if ammo really did drop that quickly, you'll need to add more ammo to keep that bacteria going sometime soon because i'll bet it gets to 0ppm very quickly if it dropped from 7.3 to 0.3.

 

[Paul_MTS]

maybe yesterdays test was a bit funny, but my test kit is only about 5 months old.

i'ved added filter establish and i'll chuck some food in there.

yep the waters not an issue, but it would be nice if i don't need to worry so much about cycling.