Stage 3 Fishless Cycle

[Uriel]

I was just wondering why during phase 3 of fishless cycling (When we're expecting bacteria to process 5ppm ammonia and nitrite every 12 hours) why we only feed them every 24hours. I know that putting more than 4-5ppm ammonia in one dose would be wrong but why when we're getting double zeros or close aren't we feeding the bacteria every 12 hours, cause surely after you get a double zero or close the bacteria spends the next 12 hours inactive due to lack of food ? Even if it was just a half dose like 2ppm ? .

 

[Skins]

Adding ammonia every 12hrs over a long period will increase the nitrate levels very quickly which could stall your cycle.

Skins.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Adding ammonia every 12hrs over a long period will increase the nitrate levels very quickly which could stall your cycle.

Skins.

Low PH will also stall the cycle...

I'm having to keep a very close eye on my PH as it seems once a week it drops to 6.4. A 50% water change carried out this morning will bring it back up (as does the Bicarb Of Soda i've been adding)..

Apologies for hijacking this thread, it just seems i'm having a few difficulties on stage 3.

Cheers, terry.

 

[Uriel]

We probably have similar water terry as i'm in south wales. Not sure which area of wales you are from but i have had to do water changes and bicarb doses to keep my ph in a good range. I'm not really suggesting do this for a long period just at the end of the cycle to finish it off basically so max 7-10 days. Just something i was thinking about is all. Possibly something that would help those stuck at like 0 ammonia 0.5 nitrite also or maybe not.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Uriel,

"... 'cause surely after you get a double zero or close the bacteria spends the next 12 hours inactive due to lack of food ?"

My own personal take is that this may be where our thoughts diverge. The idea that there's a big sheet of autotrophs and we feed them ammonia or nitrite and they just reproduce and the colony gets bigger is of course a gross oversimplification. There are more complexities to their life cycle that bacteriologists know and an even larger body of knowledge probably that we don't know at all.

There are "phases" of bacterial colony growth and the colonies are doing complicated things. They are building biofilms that have structures, little channels for instance that get some rigidity from calcium and other minerals and help the water and ammonia/nitrite flow through the biofilm with better distribution to a greater number of cells. In the waste-water industry there are studies that find benefits to "pulsing" the feeding of the bacteria, to better integrate with the patterns of activities the colonies use to carry out their activities.

~~waterdrop~~