Bacteria In A Bottle, Does Is Work?

[snazy]

Does bacteria in a bottle work?

Depends, whether the correct bacteria is stored in the bottle

 

[pern]

I only understand half of the stuff you guys and girls are sayin

I'm not the only one.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The bacteria we want to cultrivate in our tanks are heterotrophic as they need ammonia or nitrite to consume in order to survive.

Thats is not true. Heterotrophic means it uses organic matter like fish waste, dead plant, etc.
Autotrophic means it uses non-organic matter like oxygen, ammonia, nitrite.

Memory doesn't serve me as well as it used to... my last biology course was about 15 years ago. (I hate all that vocabulary stuff! Physics is so much easier. )

 

[Fishy friend2]

I only understand half of the stuff you guys and girls are sayin

I'm not the only one.

Yay I'm not alone

 

[Fishy friend2]

So Snazy, how is your cycle coming along? Does it work, or not

 

[snazy]

Hi Fishy Friend 2.
I have another thread opened for it, but I haven't even setup the aquarium yet.
I need to buy a few more things, like bio noodles to replace the carbon and the bio balls that came with the APS filters, which alter the Ph and I don't really want.
I got the air pump delivered yesterday.
I need to get an ammonia test that tests toxic an non-toxic ammonia(out of curiousity). Also I need to buy a couple of big bottles of tetrasafe start, some rocks, an aqueon water changer as it looks really hard to be carrying buckets of 15 litres for a 330 litre fish tank. Also, I need to order the plants I have chosen, but this could be done after the cycle I guess.
So far it has cost me more than I thought, so I need to wait till next pay check next week to get all I need.
Once done, I'll log everything in the the "cycling with tetrasafestart thread" and update with pictures.
At the moment, it has a few inches of water in it, just enough to be able to soak the pieces of driftwood I got, as they are bigger than any container I have at home.
Even the sand is still in the packets in the cupboard beneath the tank, and rest is in it's boxes.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

which alter the Ph and I don't really want.

They don't, i asked Santa the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy all said the same

 

[snazy]

which alter the Ph and I don't really want.

They don't, i asked Santa the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy all said the same

I am not sure if you are serious on that, but if they don't, then even better for me. Do you trust Easter bunny and the Tooth fairy enough?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Snazy, if you're trying to prove that Tetra Safe Start works then you shouldn't add plants as that will affect your readings (depending on how many you put in) and render your experiment void. You can always put the plants in once you've cycled.

 

[snazy]

Snazy, if you're trying to prove that Tetra Safe Start works then you shouldn't add plants as that will affect your readings (depending on how many you put in) and render your experiment void. You can always put the plants in once you've cycled.

That's what I thought too. I can't buy them soon anyway so for the experiment to be proper, I won't add them before the tank is cycled. I'll post pictures of the tank to prove too, or whatever anyone wants me to post as proof, if reasonable

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I'm really interested in seeing how you progress. There is a problem though (may have already been covered here - can't be bothered reading the whole thread), Tetra Safe Start and, as far as I know, all the other bacteria-in-a-bottle products assume you're doing a fish in cycle. They are not made for the relatively high ammonia levels a fishless cycle uses. How are you going to cover that, and hence make the test valid? Are you going to dose to no more than 0.25ppm as in a fish-in cycle?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Sorry just read the entire post, and makes very good arguments both sides. If you don't mind I will add my experiences of when I didn't have the time to look after my tank (sorry in advance of reading, and won't happen again )

I didn't maintain my tank and all but 3 fish died, now the tank was about 3/4 full. So a large die off and inevitably lower amounts of ammonia produced. It was like that for a couple of months.

Now I moved house and re-set up the tank, and added 15 fish plus the others that survived, I thought this may be too much, however I did read on here ( another thread and I can't remember who said it) that the bacteria do lie dormant when the conditions aren't what they should be. Now I'm not a biologist, but what I think happened was that, all the bacteria that wasn't needed became dormant.

Right so back to present again, added the fish and tested daily, I didn't record however but I have an ok memory, that there was a tiny spike of ammonia after 2 days of adding fish, still less than .25ppm and then 3 days later a, again small spike, of Nitrite .25-.5ppm. 50% water change and the next day double 0's.

So IME the bacteria in our aquariums do lie dormant, but this is only one example in the real world, it could be a number of things that caused this set of results.

 

[snazy]

How are you going to cover that, and hence make the test valid? Are you going to dose to no more than 0.25ppm as in a fish-in cycle?

I don't really know how to approach that part. I was thinking to adding no more than 3ppm ammonia. I have no idea how much ammonia fish produce compared to fishless cycle, but 0.25 ppm seems too low to me.

Edit: I am open to suggestions

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I did some testing with Biozyme to see if it had any impact on speeding up a fishless cycle. I dosed to 4ppm. I need to redo the experiment as my filter broke halfway through

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I did some testing with Biozyme to see if it had any impact on speeding up a fishless cycle. I dosed to 4ppm. I need to redo the experiment as my filter broke halfway through

Biozyme broke her filter! Remember, you read it here first!