MonsterfishGuy said:
Thats impossible to validate but theres one thing i dont understand about heterotrophics bacteria that die!!
They can survive in a bottle for a years amd they die within couple of weeks when they have food and when they can reproduce instead of dying?!?(tank condition are a paradise, full of food and not much competition!!)
You're right, it's a lot more complicated than just "dying off". In fact that may be a generalization I've personally used which isn't 100% accurate...however it's a good summation.
First, the strains of heterotrophs used in aquaria are spore forming...so in reality, their life cycled doesn't even begin until they are introduced to water. Compared to autotrophs they are short lived and do not sustain themselves for long periods.
The heterotrophs directly compete with the true nitrifiers for surface area, oxygen and a food source. You'll see in the article I'm about to link, but heterotrophs colonize and begin conversion at a blindingly fast rate compared to the autotrophs...something like 4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 to 11 in a 24 hour period. What happens is someone uses an instant cycling products or bacteria booster....then within a short time frame the tank appears cycled and stable...only to crash later.
From all I've gathered, the bio-filter crashes caused by heterotrophic bacteria are due to basically a false belief that a tank is cycled and stable, while in reality it is simply the heterotrophs colonizing, performing nitrification and going through their life cycle...while at the same time the true nitrifying bacteria haven't even gained a foothold since they colonize much, much slower and are also in direct competition.
Heterotrophs also don't really care for ammonia and no2, they much prefer organics they can turn INTO ammonia. So once organic debris starts showing up that they can use as a food source instead of ammonia...they basically change their diet. So that, plus the fact they are short lived equals a very rapid crash of what is considered a bio-filter...and since the autrotrophic bacteria has not fully colonized, there is not enough beneficial bacteria to continue the nitrogen cycle.
So yeah, I agree there's a lot more going on than it just dying off...but the same principle applies in many ways.
I also agree the eco-complete assumption can't be validated yet (unless you've got an older bag, a "new & improved" bag and a microscope sitting around), but it stands to reason that if the new version does contain a more powerful strain or higher amounts of heterotrophs and these occurrences that just started recently continue...it's definitely something worth considering as a cause.
http://www.bioconlabs.com/autoheterobac.html
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/72-heterotrophic-bacteria.html
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/71-autotrophic-bacteria-manifesto.html