1. What kind of bacteria is better? Bacteria in powder form or liquid form?
2. If I overdose on bacteria in the aquarium, will it accelerate the water cycle?
I used bacterlife previously..It stated to double the dosage for new water..so I guess should be okay.
An another note..am wondering if um doing dsm now..can I can 'cycle' the water separately? So when plants rooted etc I can immediately flood the tank with the 'cycled' bacteria full water..
I used Ada Bactor 100(powder) & Green bactor(liquid), seachem stability(liquid) both works and I believe bacteria is just bacteria as long as it can function as required.
But if you overdose too much, your water may become cloudy due to a boom in bacteria. Bacteria needs time to grow and stablise in your tank and filter media.
Hi Solidbrik,
You can cycle your filter media now by setting the filter running a pail of water with bacteria added in.
Thanks. .was thinking of that too..lol
Note that the bacteria need ammonia to consume and multiply, without it they will just die off. Therefore if you want to cycle your filter in an empty tank or container without livestock, you'll need to add in some ammonia source (ie. pellet food or a cup of ADA aquasoil) so that the various bacteria colonies can start feeding on a steady supply of the released ammonia and multiply though the conversion process of the nitrogen cycle.
Yeap. I am using ada soil as my substrate and my ammonia level has been pretty high even when I am cycling the water for the past two weeks. Added quite a bit of bacteria but the ammonia level doesn't seem to go down. So I'm wondering if overdosing on bacteria will accelerate the process.Originally Posted by Urban Aquaria
Does this mean we shouldn't add products that kill off ammonia when changing water? Products like seachem prime that removes both chlorine and ammonia?
Oh no..forgot to add fish food in! Lol..3 days later maybe my office pail cycling bacteria water will all just die off..lol
Well, for new tanks with brand new ADA aquasoil, 2 weeks is still early days for the progress of the cycle... the aquasoil is designed to release a lot of ammonia during the initial few weeks to boost plant growth so you'll naturally see high ammonia levels during this time (this period is meant to grow out plants as fast as possible).
The bacteria solutions can aid in introducing various types of bacteria to kickstart the cycle and process the ammonia but it still takes time for them to establish and do so. Dosing higher amounts of bacteria solutions (more than the recommended dosage) usually wouldn't harm the tank, but if it's too much it may cause a bacteria bloom which looks unsightly and would tend to block light from reaching the plants (not so ideal if you are running a planted tank).
If your tank is not planted or only lightly planted (ie. tank focused on keeping fishes or shrimps, not much on plants), then you could just lower the high ammonia levels by simply doing frequent large water changes (like 80-90% water change every day for a week). That will help to flush out the excess ammonia and reduce it to more moderate levels for the bacteria to more easily handle and process.
Btw, if you do go for the large water change method, recycle the ammonia-rich water to water your house plants or garden... put all the valuable nutrients from the ADA aquasoil to good use.
For Seachem Prime, it doesn't physically remove ammonia... it only detoxifies the ammonia for 24-48 hours, so the beneficial bacteria will still be able to consume and convert the non-toxic ammonia during that period of time.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 26th Jul 2014 at 02:06.
I used EBB, eco bio block for aquarium,i have been using it for years now. It is in solid form.
All you need to do is put it in your tank or filter and it will get the job done. It is expensive but that stuff last
a long time. In a long run you saved a lot.
http://koyoh.jp/en/ecobio-block.php
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks