What would cause benefical bacteria to not grow?

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NeverEnoughFish

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 4, 2014
Messages
15
Location
Madison, WI
I've been doing a lot of reading on here and elsewhere but really can't seem to find a ton of solid information on why bacteria would never grow in the first place, even after doing everything else right (adding ammonia sources, etc). I can think of some obvious answers: you completely changed your filter media early on in the cycling process, you added untreated tap water resulting in bacteria being killed, you completely cleaned the gravel early on in the cycling process. But what if you did everything right and months later still have amounts of ammonia and nitrites showing up. Also assume the tank is not overstocked and fish are not being overfed. I was thinking that to answer the question, one would have to apply any and all scenarios when it comes to starting a tank. These would include such cycling processes as: fish in-no bacteria added, fishless-no bacteria added, fish in with bacteria added and fishless with bacteria added. Those four scenarios seem to the most common ways people start their tanks. And after thinking about these start up procedures, then think of what people would be doing wrong that would cause bacteria to never grow.

I'm curious to know if anyone has some good information to share on this subject. I think it could help folks who are just starting up a tank rule out some things if their numbers of ammonia, nitrites, etc are not going down or going away even after several weeks or months.
 
could be a pH problem? Drastic pH (under 6 above 9) could prevent bacterial growth?
 
The two primary reasons bacteria doesn't grow are a low ph and lack of nutrients for them to grow. Other than that there really isn't anything to stop them from growing.

Even adding untreated tap water to your tank won't really affect the BB in the tank.

Other reasons you can have ammonia and nitrites months into the cycle is adding more bio load, too much cleaning, overfeeding, dead fish temporarily causing an ammonia spike, build up of detritus in substrate causing an ammonia spike when disturbed, changing the filter pad, changing the substrate, and treating the tank with medicines.
 
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