Brewing Bacteria

[FishieMomma]

As described elsewhere, I am a teacher getting ready to set up several aquariums for the new year: a 60, a 14, and a 5 gallon. In hopes or establishing these tanks as quickly as possible, with a fishless cycle of course, i am attempting to brew a colony of BBs on the fake plants, filter media, and wood pieces as one large batch.

I am using my cycled 14 gal tank at home for this experiment and am open to suggestions on doing this effectively. It has a mature BB colony already in the filter and I put in filter media I've been seeding I my big tank for a long times as well as most of the fake plants that were in my big tank (see the post about filling my tank with terra cotta pots and live plants). I have upped them temp and added a variety of fish food to the 14 to raise the ammonia. It's only at .25 at the moment. I guess I need to pick up another bottle of the ace ammonia- I've misplaced th one I used a while ago.

Anyone ever attempt to do this with tank filters and decorations before?especially in a large batch?

 

[meegosh]

I helped set up 4 tanks all within a few weeks. It took some planning - months in advance - but I was able to seed enough filter material (polyfil) in my filters to provide the tanks with enough BB. We still stocked slowly and watched params and only one tank actually saw a mini cycle. The others never had any detectable amounts of ammonia or nitrite.

The way I did it was added some extra filters to my 30g tank, stuffed with just polyfil. Squeezed some well established filter media out on them. I cut up the established filter media and placed some in each filter's basket, with the new media. After several weeks running on the tank they were placed on their new tanks.

Also, I don't know if it was just for the picture or not but you can do without lighting the tank.

 

[FishieMomma]

Thanks. Yes, the light was to show how ridiculously it is stuffed. I do have a few extra sponges in my tanks I may use when the time comes, also. There is a bunch of filter media already in the stewing tank.

 

[Mebbid]

The issue I see with your ridiculously overstuffed tank is that it's going to restrict water flow like crazy. Would it be possible to just set up all of the filters to run on a single tank? The last time I did a fishless cycle I had 3 50g+ filters running at the same time on a 10g tank. It would be easy to use something like a rubbermaid tote or other container to do this.

 

[FishieMomma]

Mebbid, I hadn't thought of the water circulation. I took your advice and put the filters together as they'll be used at school and with old media under new media. I could fit more sponges in the big one. I may pick some up later.

I also added air-stone deep in there. He's a pick of my "masterpiece" now.

 

[meegosh]

I couldn't tell filter sizes from previous picture but that tank should be a dishwasher! Good point about flow though.

 

[Fishfur]

Btw, you should know that the bacteria you are trying to grow, BB, essentially only grow in filters. They do not colonize wood, rocks,glass or substrate in any notable numbers, nor are they part of the biofilm. This is a common belief, but it's not accurate. The bacteria that make up most of the biofilm are another type of bacteria altogether. The name escapes me just now.

The filter provides what these BB need to survive in any numbers, which is a constant supply of oxygen and food, which is fish waste or pure ammonia, and vast amounts of solid surface area to colonize. They stick to the surfaces, once established, most of them remain there and surprisingly few are washed or rinsed out during cleaning, though of course some do get knocked loose.

Compared to some bacteria, such as those that cause blooms in tanks, nitrifying bacteria are slow to reproduce, needing about 24 hours to complete a reproduction cycle. The bugs that are behind bacterial tank blooms can reproduce in twenty minutes or so,IIRC,by comparison.

The best thing is to have as much media, like floss or sponge pieces, as you can in the filters. Let them run and then use the sponge pieces or chunks of dirty floss to seed the filters in the tanks you'll be running. You can also speed up the establishment of a new filter by pouring the rinsings from a mature filter into a new one. Yes, you'll have to clean that new filter sooner, but most of the loose bacteria that will be in the rinsings will end up in the new media. I don't advise simply pouring rinsings into a tank since the gunk ends up on the bottom and has to be siphoned out later.

It will take them a day or two to run up their numbers after seeding, but so long as they have a constant supply of food and well oxygenated running water they'll grow as fast as they are able.

There is an excellent article on the whole bloom, BB bacteria thing.. let me see if I can find the link. It has the names of the bacterial types as well.

Link to article. Bacterial Blooms Explained - New to the Hobby Questions and Answers - Tropical Fish Forums

 

[Mebbid]

Btw, you should know that the bacteria you are trying to grow, BB, essentially only grow in filters. They do not colonize wood, rocks,glass or substrate in any notable numbers, nor are they part of the biofilm. This is a common belief, but it's not accurate. The bacteria that make up most of the biofilm are another type of bacteria altogether. The name escapes me just now.

The filter provides what these BB need to survive in any numbers, which is a constant supply of oxygen and food, which is fish waste or pure ammonia, and vast amounts of solid surface area to colonize. They stick to the surfaces, once established, most of them remain there and surprisingly few are washed or rinsed out during cleaning, though of course some do get knocked loose.

Compared to some bacteria, such as those that cause blooms in tanks, nitrifying bacteria are slow to reproduce, needing about 24 hours to complete a reproduction cycle. The bugs that are behind bacterial tank blooms can reproduce in twenty minutes or so,IIRC,by comparison.

The best thing is to have as much media, like floss or sponge pieces, as you can in the filters. Let them run and then use the sponge pieces or chunks of dirty floss to seed the filters in the tanks you'll be running. You can also speed up the establishment of a new filter by pouring the rinsings from a mature filter into a new one. Yes, you'll have to clean that new filter sooner, but most of the loose bacteria that will be in the rinsings will end up in the new media. I don't advise simply pouring rinsings into a tank since the gunk ends up on the bottom and has to be siphoned out later.

It will take them a day or two to run up their numbers after seeding, but so long as they have a constant supply of food and well oxygenated running water they'll grow as fast as they are able.

There is an excellent article on the whole bloom, BB bacteria thing.. let me see if I can find the link. It has the names of the bacterial types as well.

Link to article. Bacterial Blooms Explained - New to the Hobby Questions and Answers - Tropical Fish Forums

Bacteria will grow anywhere there is oxygenated flow and available nutrients. I've seen no less than 3 instances where people that regularly changed their filter cartridge every month without any issues or mini cycles changed their substrate and then immediately had a complete crash of their cycle due to the fact that it was all growing on the substrate and tank decorations. This is also the same way a UGF works.

While a filter is very efficient at growing BB it is by no means the only place that it will grow en masse.

 

[FishieMomma]

Thanks guys!

I will stuff a few more sponges in the filters and add a spliter to my air line so I can have two air stones working at once.

I'll keep the plants and wood in just in case they get some helpful bacteria on them. As far as I know, it can't hurt anything.

 

[FishieMomma]

Just an update: I haven't had a chance to get Ace ammonia, but I've been dumping a variety of fish foods in the tank to at least feed the BBs that are there. I can't seem to get the ammonia levels up past .25. The BBs always clear it (which is a good sign). I know I need ammonia to really see what's going on. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

 

[Fresh2o]

Just an update: I haven't had a chance to get Ace ammonia, but I've been dumping a variety of fish foods in the tank to at least feed the BBs that are there. I can't seem to get the ammonia levels up past .25. The BBs always clear it (which is a good sign). I know I need ammonia to really see what's going on. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

If you have Harris Teeter grocery stores in your area, you might try there for ammonia. That's what I used to cycle my tank.

 

[FishieMomma]

No, we don't. But thanks for the tip.

I do know where an Ace is, just need to get over there.

 

[Fresh2o]

No, we don't. But thanks for the tip.

I do know where an Ace is, just need to get over there.

Just checking. The half gallon I bought was under $2 and I think I only used 20-30 mL at the most.

 

[Fishfur]

Mebbid, I don't disagree that nitrifying bacteria can grow anywhere their needs are met. But in most tanks, under most conditions, the vast majority of them are in the filter, and if someone is trying to max out their growth, filter media is the best place to do it, IMO.