Bacteria-in-a-bottle

[AmyKieran]

You can do a 20% water change if you like but it won't remove many of the bad things from the water. And you will have to do bigger water changes if you get an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

I also agree with this but I thought ide ask, why not then do 100% each week? Taking cost and time etc out of the equation

 

[Colin_T]

100% water change means removing the fish and this stresses them and can physically harm them. Or they flop about on the substrate and harm themselves.

A 50-75% water change dilutes a lot of the stuff in the tank but leaves enough water for the fish.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[GaryE]

If you do a 90% water change, do you leave 10% of the bad stuff in? Yh i think im getting this now

The hope is there isn't enough problem stuff for it to have built up. Water changes manage the problem.

But 20-30% works better. The more the merrier.

 

[AmyKieran]

This also leads me to ask, what’s wrong then with chucking some bacteria in a bottle in, every water change?

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Nothing wrong with boosting the bacteria with each water change if wanted, however the beneficial effect of doing so is debateable and would become expensive after a while of weekly water changes, especially if the benefit of doing so is not evident or proven.

 

[AmyKieran]

Nothing wrong with boosting the bacteria with each water change if wanted, however the beneficial effect of doing so is debateable and would become expensive after a while of weekly water changes, especially if the benefit of doing so is not evident or proven.

I buy a 100ml bottle of pets at home of bacteria for £5 (sometimes it has 25% off on app) and it treats 36l for every 1ml

So it actually is pretty cheap

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I buy a 100ml bottle of pets at home of bacteria for £5 (sometimes it has 25% off on app) and it treats 36l for every 1ml

So it actually is pretty cheap

I mentioned the expense over time cos as things are currently with the cost of living, it might not be a priority when there isn't any real proven need for it. If that makes sense. It is fine to do it but its not a life and death neccessity unlike when using tap water to use dechlorinator, for example.

 

[Rocky998]

I buy a 100ml bottle of pets at home of bacteria for £5 (sometimes it has 25% off on app) and it treats 36l for every 1ml

So it actually is pretty cheap

Its just one more thing you dont NEED to buy... It can be useful for speeding a cycle but to keep using it after-cycle is a waste of money in my opinion

 

[AmyKieran]

I mentioned the expense over time cos as things are currently with the cost of living, it might not be a priority when there isn't any real proven need for it. If that makes sense. It is fine to do it but its not a life and death neccessity unlike when using tap water to use dechlorinator, for example.

Yeah the cost of living is ridiculous at the moment. I just wrote to my local MP about nhs low income travel expense. Petrol prices are going up but you get the same amount on a travel expense claim ..

Its just one more thing you dont NEED to buy... It can be useful for speeding a cycle but to keep using it after-cycle is a waste of money in my opinion

I find it keeps bacteria in check every water change, could just be me lol

 

[Rocky998]

Yeah the cost of living is ridiculous at the moment. I just wrote to my local MP about nhs low income travel expense. Petrol prices are going up but you get the same amount on a travel expense claim ..


I find it keeps bacteria in check every water change, could just be me lol

Your tank should automatically keep them in check with the fish waste and organic matter. The bacteria will keep reproducing.

 

[DoubleDutch]

i have bactera in a bottle here and i put it in my aquarium which i will put fish in 5 days but when i was searching if the stuff works ive been reading stuff saying the bacteria dies off after 1 week hence why they put in the instructions "dose after 7 days" is this true? i mostly see this in api quick start

Edit: im very certain that the product i use has nitrifying bacteria based on the packaging and i have people that i know also use it

I think what you mean is based on the bacterial starters you using.

The most starters only contain heterotrophic bacteria that only live short and temporarily will do the same thing as the original autotrophic ones we want in our tanks. Starters only containing the first bacteria only buy time for the natural ones to occure. One doesn't seed his/her tank with those.

 

[Rocky998]

I think what you mean is based on the bacterial starters you using.

The most starters only contain heterotrophic bacteria that only live short and temporarily will do the same thing as the original autotrophic ones we want in our tanks. Starters only containing the first bacteria only buy time for the natural ones to occure. One doesn't seed his/her tank with those.

If I'm correct, the only company that has the correct bacteria is Tetra and Dr.Tim. but Dr.Rim sold it to Tetra so its the same

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually, when Dr. hovanec di his work he was the head researcher for the parent company of Marineland. So he and they shared the patent. When the parent company was purchased by a conglomerate, Dr. Tim elected not to make the move and started his own company. The company that bought out Marineland etc. also owned Tetra at the time. They transferred their patent rights to Tetra who used it to make SafeStart. They are close to being the same product as Dr. Tim's, but not exactly the same. Both should help to cycle a tank.

And no, the nitrifiers do not all die in a week. That is an urban aquarium myth. They go dormant.

How can bacteria live in a bottle and not die for 6 months or a year?

A common misconception about bacteria in general is that they die if they are not fed. From a human being point of view this sounds perfectly reasonable: if you don’t eat, you die. However, bacteria are not human beings. Bacteria operate much differently than people and have a variety of ways to deal with those times when resources are not available for them to grow and reproduce. Some bacteria when stressed (from say lack of nutrients) form spores and go into a resting stage, waiting for conditions to improve. Nitrifiers do not form spores but have other mechanisms to deal with nutrient deficient periods. For nitrifiers, one way to deal with stressful conditions is to form a protective “shield” called EPS. EPS stands for extracellular polymeric substances and is, in simplistic terms, an organic protective shield that research shows inhibits various organisms from attacking and breaking open the cell wall of nitrifiers. Nitrifiers belong to a very old line of bacteria (millions of years) and they have developed ways to cope with very long periods of “drought.” Because the nitrifiers in DrTim’s One & Only are grown on a substrate, they can form EPS when needed and last 6 to 12 months in a bottle.

from https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/products/one-and-only-live-nitrifying-bacteria/

 

[C-Monster]

do you have any alternatizes to duckweed? i heard duckweed is hard to control once it starts to suck nitrates and ammonia

I prefer red root floaters, because their roots aren’t nearly as long as frogbit which is another good option! Frogbit looks like little mini Lilly pads kind of and their roots will grow pretty long unless you’re constantly maintaining them or have a fish that will eat roots - like goldfish!
Try root floaters - I still picks at the roots to make them shorter which is probably a no-no. Careful when you get any of the floating plants - I’ve been burned recently by them - they’ll often times come with snails (more likely than rooted plants) unless specified otherwise.

 

[DoubleDutch]

If I'm correct, the only company that has the correct bacteria is Tetra and Dr.Tim. but Dr.Rim sold it to Tetra so its the same

There are some more nowadays.