Just Been Thinking...

[Geoff1991]

When we fishless cycle, we add enough ammonia to the tank to raise it to 4-5ppm right?

So, how much ammonia does the average stock of fish produce? Im asking because I was thinking, how do we know how much ammonia our filter needs to process?

Just curious...

 

[arobinson1984]

I think with 4/5ppm worth of beneficial bacteria onboard you can pretty much fully stock most tanks, unless I suppose somebody was going for a full massive tank of messy fish lol

I've always wondered, If in a fishless cycle we add 4/5ppm of ammonia and after the cycle our fish only produce 2ppm worth of ammonia, does the level of benefical bacteria drop? In other words, does it need the full amount of ammonia (4/5ppm) to be able to maintain that level of good bacteria?

Is this what you mean geoff but in another way of saying it?

Andy

 

[Geoff1991]

There wasnt a lot of meaning behind my post

I was just thinking as i was testing my water and realised id processed 4ppm of ammonia in 12 hours, how do we know how much ammonia our fish will produce?

 

[JenCliBee]

It's i think an estimation, it may well be above the full stock level required but would you rather do it that way and stock with to much bacteria than fully stock and not have enough bacteria?... i know i would rather be safe than sorry.

 

[Geoff1991]

Yeah same here jen, if a full stock of fish produces 2ppm of ammonia (as andy said) then its good to know your filter can handle 4ppm of ammonia when you stock up...

 

[jmkgreen]

I suspect less bio load would lead to faster consumption of the waste assuming a pretty even distribution of dirty water across the filter media. That is of course assuming the bio load wasn't so large that the media couldn't host the required amount of bacteria in the first place.

 

[Curiosity101]

I think with 4/5ppm worth of beneficial bacteria onboard you can pretty much fully stock most tanks, unless I suppose somebody was going for a full massive tank of messy fish lol

I've always wondered, If in a fishless cycle we add 4/5ppm of ammonia and after the cycle our fish only produce 2ppm worth of ammonia, does the level of benefical bacteria drop? In other words, does it need the full amount of ammonia (4/5ppm) to be able to maintain that level of good bacteria?

Is this what you mean geoff but in another way of saying it?

Andy

Just to answer your question, the size of the bacteria colony will be as big as can be supported.

If you are feeding a colony with 5ppm of ammonia then it will grow to a population that is sustained by this.
If it drops to 2ppm then some bacteria will starve therefore lowering the population back down to a sustainable level.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

It's an interesting point


I'm fishless cycling at the moment - when I have finished I will start with just a few fish, then add some a couple of weeks later and so on.

When I add just a couple of fish and their bio-load is less than 1ppm of ammonia (just a guess - but if the bio-load of 20+ is going to be less than 4ppm then I would guess that it's going to be a fraction of a 1pmm for a couple of fish) - will the bacteria start to die off?

Would I be better to stick a fair few fish in at once?

 

[JenCliBee]

It's an interesting point


I'm fishless cycling at the moment - when I have finished I will start with just a few fish, then add some a couple of weeks later and so on.

When I add just a couple of fish and their bio-load is less than 1ppm of ammonia (just a guess - but if the bio-load of 20+ is going to be less than 4ppm then I would guess that it's going to be a fraction of a 1pmm for a couple of fish) - will the bacteria start to die off?

Would I be better to stick a fair few fish in at once?

Cycling a tank with 5ppm is estimated to be a fully stocked tank, if you only plan on adding a couple of fish (nowwhere near full stock level) then yes you could drop the 5ppm to a lower amount maybe 3ppm however once doing this... if you do decide to fully stock you might have ammonia and nitrite spikes, as curiosity says bacteria will support the ammount of amonia it's fed, if there isnt sufficent amounts there it cant sustain itself and what ever cant/isnt been fed will die off.