Back up bacteria colony

[lomeli562]

So ive been scheeming recently and ive come up with an idea. Im planning to get a pvc pipe 12" long placing an airstone at the bottom drilling a few holes about 3" from the bottom filling it with biomedia, capping both ends then drilling a few holes on the top. This way I will be able to have a constant source of benifical bacteria incase a filter cuts off or I accidently screw up my colony. Any tips for this project in the making?

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[Brookster123]

Sounds ok on paper, what will you use to house this pipe? What will you feed it?

 

[ptray1982]

I'm actually doing a similar build but making that my filter, by adding sponges and floss at the input and bioballs

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[lomeli562]

Either standing it in a corner of the tank or adding suction cups to one side. And what do you mean by feed?

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[Wy Renegade]

So bacteria colonies do not simply sustain themselves because you create a separate environment. Your tank will support only enough bacteria to break down the food (waste - debris, leftover food, fish waste, etc) in your tank. Putting an additional environment simply means that the bacteria colony of your main filtering method will reduce.

 

[lomeli562]

Oh really =/ is there a way i can have a strong colony in there thats independent from the rest of the tank

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[Sheldon.Winters]

isnt that basically a diy filter?

 

[Wy Renegade]

Oh really =/ is there a way i can have a strong colony in there thats independent from the rest of the tank

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Only if you feed it directly, independent of the rest of the tank.

 

[lomeli562]

Like add a source of ammonia directly? And Sheldon, yea pretty much but I wasnt planning to add any mechanical filtration

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[BillD]

If you run it in a tank and just keep it as backup to move to any other tank that might need it it will work. It will do a portion of the bio for the tank it is kept in. So, as mentioned, you will have a DIY filter. If you want to use it to build bacteria you should have something to prevent a build up of debris (prefilter) in it and lose the bio balls as they aren't very good for the amount of space they take up. You would be better off with pot scrubbers.

 

[Alan26]

keep some extra filter media in the back of your filter...

 

[93MSB]

Like add a source of ammonia directly?

yes.

you need a good environment for the bacteria to grow then add the ammonia for the food source and the bacteria will grow. You have to figure out how much to dose and then once the bacteria starts growing you will have to figure out a daily dose of ammonia to keep it alive.

Your basically fishless cycling except you wont ever add fish, instead you have to add a daily ammonia source to keep it alive

 

[BedfordCRS]

I just add a sponge in my canister filter and use the sponge in a new tank when needed.

 

[jetajockey]

Yeah, I wouldn't overthink it. If you need spare biomedia for quick startups, just put some extra in your filter. If you nuked your filter in the tank then odds are the biomedia contraption will get nuked also.

Nitrifying bacteria are pretty resilient little buggers, anyhow, it takes a pretty devastating action to kill them off substantially, like adding an effective antibiotic or harsh chemical.