anybody tried fishless cycle double seeding

[Tanktop]

has any body tried seeding a fishless cycle and then when the nitrite builds up doing a second seeding?

my thinking is that we keep feeding ammonia to keep the first lot of bacteria alive while waiting for the second stage to start, but during that first stage there is no nitrite for the second bacteria (which would have been included in the seeding).

while nitrite is building do the nitrite --> nitrate bacteria die off i wonder?

i wonder if a second seeding would speed thinks up.

any thoughts?

 

[j2112j]

Sounds logical to me. I don't know of any proven info about the life span of the bacteria but thought of borrowing a friends microscope to see if somehow this can be determined. I'll try your suggestion the next time I do a fishless cycle.

 

[mfdrookie516]

This is something I've thought about myself, as well as a few others here. With all the threads on the cycle stalling with nitrites, it only makes sense. If you have the ability to use that much seed material, do you have an extra filter? I don't even cycle tanks anymore. I just pull a filter off an established tank and it's ready to go.

 

[eco23]

It all makes sense...but I'm not convinced it'd make that drastic of a difference. By adding seeded filter media there should be an instant and constant ammo to no2 conversion happening as soon as you dose up the ammo. The bacteria can live a while without a die off, so I would think there'd be plenty of no2 to no3 bacteria remaining in the seeding material in the short time it'd take nitrItes to show up. That being said, the more seeding material the better so give it a shot. Personally I'd just add it all at once to get the party started faster.

 

[James_in_MN]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

I, also, wasn't able to find out much about bacteria longevity, and was forced to do a test myself. I had a nearly two week long conference to attend out of town, and it was right in the middle of a fishless cycle.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/bacteria-longevity-test-148088.html

In my experience, bacteria were able to live up to two weeks.