Anyone Else Ever Notice....?

[LionessN3cubs]

Okay..This is about cycling but Im not asking if this is okay or for help. Im just trying to satisfy a general curiosity

I know there are a bunch of us members who are doing cycling and maybe IM the only one whose ever seen this because of my OCD issues but Im curious.

I test 3x's a day. 1:30-2 pm, and as close as I can get to the 12 hour mark usually 11pm-1am because I know thats what Im waiting for. Then in the morning around 8 am I test again just out of curiosity. Im obsessive yes.

When I test at the 12 hour mark, there's never a change, unless its so slight I can't see it. Same with 8 am test. Now I figured that from 8 am until 1:30-2 pm is a pretty good 6 hour stretch alot can happen in 6 hours and be reasonable. Usually 1:30-2 my ammonia has dropped from 3-4ppm at 8 to .50.

However, Today, hubby wanted to see the new pretty colors Im getting when testing. So at 11am I tested again *ugh* just to show him. Guess what....still not a change at all. I was delayed this afternoon so my testing was at 3pm. And its down to .50. That means ALL the ammonia processed in the last 24 hours since I added ...was actually processed in the last 4 hours between my 11 am test and 3pm test. Has anyone else noticed that and my curiosity lies in the science aspect of it...is there a scientific reason for it basically is what Im asking?

 

[waterdrop]

No idea. Will be interesting to see if anybody does have an idea.

I suppose it might be chalked up once again to the fact that given that the microbes are so small and that for us the entire process is played out with test tubes and numbers, there is a tendency to think of it like a school chemistry exercise where you pour in so much and everything gets processed exactly so and you read repeatable results (as if it were chemicals rather than living things.)

But in actuality, there are different qualities of media, individual bacterial cells find better niches than others, some are on top of others. Each is a living cell with millions of molecules struggling to accomplish different things within that cell. There are different temperature gradients within the tank and different currents of water. Some cells get manage to get more ammonia than other cells. Some pathways within the media become clogged and others don't. The heater thermostat might set up a small pattern of some sort. The test reagents probably don't test in a linear manner. Sometimes the the test water might be a little above or below the 5ml test line. Maybe all bacteria gorge themselves right after the first surge of ammonia and build up nitrite next to the cells, blocking the uptake of fresh ammonia for a while and setting up some sort of cyclical pattern based on that. There are just hundreds of uncontrolled little things you could think of.

Interesting observation though, maybe there is indeed a simple explanation!

~~waterdrop~~