Seeding a New Filter

[Sakti]

Hello! I purchased a new 75 Gallon Tank the beginning of July. I am still in the Ammonia phase, haven't moved into Nitrites yet. A friend took his tank down a couple weeks ago and still had his canister intact with all the media and it had water in it. He said I could use it to seed my filter. So I put some of his media (the little cylinder things in the filter into mine) and even cut up a piece of his filter padding and put in inside. Should this help? I am concerned how long the bacteria can stay alive since it was just sitting inside his closed up canister. It was still full of his tank water though. I just hope I didn't screw up....My Filter is a Fluval FX4 Canister. Thanks!

 

[Byron]

It should speed up the colonization of the nitrifying bacteria. The only downside is if any pathogens came with it from his fish/water. No way to tell without microbiologist testing, but for the future, this is not a safe practice. We quarantine new fish from a store to avoid introducing disease and pathogens, and any object from an aquarium with fish is the same risk. Substrate, wood, rock, plants, filter media...but what's done is done, let's hope he was a conscientious aquarist.

There are many species of bacteria living in an aquarium, but you are most likely thinking of the nitrifiers Nitrosomonas sp. that take up ammonia and produce nitrite, and Nitrospira sp. that take up nitrite and produce nitrate. These are not the delicate critters many assume; scientific study has revealed some facts quite different from the myths we all used to believe. One of these is that these bacteria do not die off so rapidly; they can go into a sort of suspended state. The specific circumstances determine what actually occurs, but studies suggest that nitrifying bacteria can switch their metabolisms, resulting in resting cells, or even by switching from nitrifying to denitrifying behaviour in the absence of oxygen. A lack of ammonia/ammonium can also be overcome, either by just going dormant for a time, or even by using ammonium stored in their own cells.

How long it takes for the bacteria to spring back into action depends upon several factors, but it seems that the more of them there are, the longer it may take. Still, they do not die off as rapidly as some still suggest.

Byron.