A little advice

[RedDevil83]

I feel like this is great advice with a great thought behind it for beginners..your beneficial bacteria lives on the surfaces in your tank and isn't free floating in your water. That's why it's important to have a high surface area on your filter media or in live rock/sand.

Where I think this advice makes more sense to the beginners is that many think when they do a water change they are supposed to tear down the tank completely and wash EVERYthing and add new water. It's surprising to me how many people believe this and give it as a main reason why they don't want a tank bigger then a couple of gallons. If you do this then it makes complete sense to add BB back into the tank. But that's because it gets wiped out or takes a huge hit. After you start better WC habits and your tank fully cycles you shouldn't need to add anymore BB but if you are concerned about your fish you could use something like a stress coat.

Ok ! Some one that gets my intention, but how do you check if you have enough bb and how much has died off versus how much poop your fish produce? If you have alot of fish it helps break down the ammonia.

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[LayzorBeams]

I feel like this is great advice with a great thought behind it for beginners..your beneficial bacteria lives on the surfaces in your tank and isn't free floating in your water. That's why it's important to have a high surface area on your filter media or in live rock/sand.

Where I think this advice makes more sense to the beginners is that many think when they do a water change they are supposed to tear down the tank completely and wash EVERYthing and add new water. It's surprising to me how many people believe this and give it as a main reason why they don't want a tank bigger then a couple of gallons. If you do this then it makes complete sense to add BB back into the tank. But that's because it gets wiped out or takes a huge hit. After you start better WC habits and your tank fully cycles you shouldn't need to add anymore BB but if you are concerned about your fish you could use something like a stress coat.

Well you said what i meant to get at in about 1/8 of the words i used.


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[RedDevil83]

Just looking to ensure my fish are well protected ya know what I said to begin with was from a well know source whether it be right or wrong in the eyes of others

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[LayzorBeams]

Could you list the source? A Person who works at you LFS isnt well-known, if thats what your source would be(well, i guess he could be but not likely.) I assume it would be a website?

And yeah, i feel ya. I try to do what i can for my fishy friends.


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[RedDevil83]

https://youtu.be/9MoWkBuMr_w around 25 minutes is a good spot to listen to this guy

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[RedDevil83]

Since you think my opinion is garbage than listen to someone that is more than likely more advanced.

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[Beej1254]

Just looking to ensure my fish are well protected ya know what I said to begin with was from a well know source whether it be right or wrong in the eyes of others

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Everyone in this thread is in the right place if they want to take good care of their fish. A piece of advice I'll give but you may already know is making sure you have a good maintenance routine that you stick to. Most people recommend 10% water changes weekly as a good place to start. Honestly I never washed the decor in my tanks but then again I've only ever owned a couple of fake decorations. Try your best to make your tank is as natural as possible and let it take care of itself. This will help you out in terms of work and money spent. Without getting too into it..You don't want to clean too much of the tank because you can throw off the balance within. Just make sure you siphon the substrate and clean out any nasty fish waste when you do your water changes.

I haven't been in the hobby long (2 years) but I've only ever had 1 bottle of beneficial bacteria that I used. Then I talked to this random old guy at the store that told me I didn't need to add any chemicals to keep a tank so I never bought any ever again and never once thought I needed to.

 

[RedDevil83]

Sorry if I'm a little rude, I don't mean to be. I am just as passionate as you all here.

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[RedDevil83]

After sucking all the poop and uneaten food and the water level is about half I just like to make sure I have the water capacity match what I already have in the tank if you get my drift.

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[LayzorBeams]

Since you think my opinion is garbage than listen to someone that is more than likely more advanced.

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Hey man, never said that. But if you bring up the fact that you have a source then of course people will ask for it, both to validate each others opinions and learn. Im simply saying that what i think is good for my fish differs from what you think, and I'm sorry if i came across as overruling. I don't mean to say that your way was worthless, i was just saying i don't think its as good as mine. Thats what opinions are about.


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[RedDevil83]

Hey man, never said that. But if you bring up the fact that you have a source then of course people will ask for it, both to validate each others opinions and learn. Im simply saying that what i think is good for my fish differs from what you think, and I'm sorry if i came across as overruling. I don't mean to say that your way was worthless, i was just saying i don't think its as good as mine. Thats what opinions are about.


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Of course bro I respect your opinion, did you listen to kg tropicals on YouTube, even he lost fish under unknown circumstances, and he's been doing it his whole life, I guess it's luck of the draw sometimes.

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[Mebbid]

Beneficial bacteria are incredibly fast at adapting to changes in the water parameters brought on by changes in bacterial population. They can go into an overdrive so to speak in order to use up additional nutrients.

But, experience is the key here. If you truly believe that the additional bacteria youre adding is the only thing keeping your tank safe after a proper cleaning, leave it out a few times and test your water after a cleaning. If you notice an ammonia / nitrite spike we would love to hear about if and you would have proved your point. If you notice no spike then you will have validified what is being said

So go out and give it a try if for no other reason than to prove people wrong. Also, any spike you would see will happen within the first 2 days. If it hasnt happened in 48 hours then its not gonna happen.

 

[RedDevil83]

I don't put much after cleaning and I put it in the filter housing.

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[Mebbid]

I don't put much after cleaning and I put it in the filter housing.

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Like i said, give it a test. The aquaria community responds more willingly and happily to tests than nearly anything else.

 

[gilpi]

Most or all of your beneficial bacteria lives in the filter media. Cleaning any decoration in tap water and letting it drip, by the time it's back in your tank, it's all good.

 

[trennamw]

Bottled bacteria is usually in some weak ammonia solution so adding it all the time adds ammonia too. I noticed this when I was new ... Adding bottled bacteria brought ammonia levels up.

Of course the bottle says add it all the time; all your dish soap and laundry detergent also suggest more than you really need.

I haven't heard of a single hobbyist who had a cycle problem after a typical tank clean, even when shaking the crud off the filter media. Every mini cycle I've seen mentioned here eventually related back to something like discarding too much filter media.

It's also well established that most bottled bacteria doesn't work predictably. Anecdotes point to bottled bacteria preceding cycle crashes too.

Finally, the strains in the bottle are often not the strains the tank needs. Which is why, some speculate, using it is sometimes followed by a filter crash: the wrong bacteria populate and crowd out the "right" strains, then die off.

So yes, I think it's possible to do some harm adding it all the time.

We don't think you're anything but well intentioned and poorly informed.


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[RedDevil83]

Everything I clean the tank I add it once in a bucket and dump it in with the conditioner too, after that it's straight tap water buckets. I don't trust the city water and chlorinated water is different in strength from state to state, better safe I guess but I appreciate all the feedback, I think I'll only put bb in if I completely gut it out every 5 months or so, I'd I don't get another tank soon.

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[RedDevil83]

I can smell if the ammonia is high, it's a sense you all should have lol

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[gilpi]

It seems the OP makes a statement just to get someone to disagree and then argue about it.
Bottom line is your tank and you are free to do with it as you please, to go against the grain of people that have lots of experience that you can learn something from, I think it's foolish.


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[dylan p]

I can smell if the ammonia is high, it's a sense you all should have lol

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You should have very little to no ammonia in an established aquarium. Ammonia means something is rotting in your aquarium weather it's over feeding, something dead, or over stocking and in your case I would say it's from adding bb when you do water changes


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