So...um...bacteria? Do I have to send invitations?

[TomK2]

Nitrifying bacteria are ubiquitous in our world. They live in the water and in the soil. Older aquarium books (the kind Top Cat would read) used to advise to take a few pinches of rich, active garden soil and add it to your tank on set-up as a nitrifying bacteria seed. Not really needed, since enough of them come into the tank even with your chlorinated tap water. They are slow growing, and need 7 - 14 hours to double compared to other bacteria, which need about 20 minutes. The SW variety are different than the FW variety. It generally takes a few weeks for the ammonis eaters (nitrosomas, nitrosococcous, 7 hour double time) to become established, and another few weeks for the nitrite eaters (nitrobacter, nitrospira 14 hour double time) to do the same. Thus an unseeded cycle takes 3 to 6 weeks, while a filter seeded from another aquarium can be done is a few days to a week.

Hope this satisfies your curiousity, and remember you need to be patient.

 

[bosk1]

Hmm... What if I continually tap on my aquarium glass and yell really loudly, "HEY BACTERIA! WAKE UP!"

 

[Mananhammer]

You are not alone man my girlfriend started a 5 gal eclipse for a betta and possibly one or two other fish or shrimp. She is getting impatient as well but now that we have the spreadsheet for reference we are happier now. The only thing that i can say that we did differently is used the shrimp method instead of the pure ammonia. Good luck with the tank pictures when it is fully functional would be awesome.

 

[bosk1]

Was out of town all weekend. Came back tonight expecting some action. Still nuthin'... Come on, bacteria!

 

[Jchillin]

Well, with all this talk of waiting for nitrites, might as well figure out where you are NH3 wise. What is the current NH3 level?

 

[bosk1]

Good question. I'm at about 5 ppm.

 

[Jchillin]

Good...your nitrites are on the way. It took 10 days for nitrite to show up in my 30 gal.

 

[bosk1]

Yeah, I'm just impatient. Plus, my wife and kids have been out of town for a week, and will likely be gone all this week, so I'm bouncing off the walls a bit.

 

[bosk1]

Well, I'm on day 10, and there better be some nitrites when I get home tonight! (still zero last night) Otherwise, I'm going to have to see if anyone has any bacteria laying around that they aren't using.

 

[bosk1]

Day 11. Still nothing. I was joking about being impatient before, but now I really am starting to get a little impatient. Ammonia has been at 5 for 11 days, and not even the slightest trace of nitrite. :x I think I'm going to make a trip to the lfs tomorrow and see if they'll give up some filter media so I can jumpstart this tank a little bit...

 

[greenmaji]

...at least it helps satisfy my insatiable curiosity.

If you find something that completely satisfiys this insatiable curiosity of yours.. could you give me an e-mail or something cuz I need me some of that..


give it 4-5 more days and the NO2 should show up in abundance.. If you can get some filter media to give it a jump start, all the better..

 

[bosk1]

In another day or so, I may start worrying that something is seriously wrong with my water or something. Sunday night, a friend of mine did a filter media change, and gave me his old filter media. I dropped it into the tank Sunday night. As of this morning, I still do not even have any detectable nitrites. I know the cycle takes a while and I need to be patient, but I'm starting to get a bit concerned. Could there be something in my water that is killing the bacteria?

 

[Jchillin]

I would think that the nitrite would have shown itself by now. Has your ammonia level been consistent?

 

[bosk1]

Yes. The only change in levels was upward when I added a little more ammonia when I knew I was going to be out of town for a few days. I initially got it up to 4.0. The article I read said keeping it at 4-5 was ideal for the early part of the cycle. When I knew I was going to be out for a few days, I added to get it up to 5.0 in case the bacteria started munching while I was gone. (didn't want them to run out of food) Otherwise, no change. I'll check it again tonight and post here again.

 

[bosk1]

Okay, just checked again tonight, and still absolutely zero. I don't get it...

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Is the tank dechlorinated? The chlorine would have evaporated, but chloramine doesn't. Just something to ask. Might try adding just a little more conditioner such as Prime, to be sure. Where you are I don't know how concentrated they treat your water.

 

[bosk1]

Interesting point. I was... I had a lot of evaporation, and added some water Sunday night before I dropped in the used filter media. Since there were no fish, I didn't bother to dechlorinate. Could that have killed off the bacteria in the filter media?

*goes and adds decholorinator right away*

 

[Jchillin]

Rut row...untreated tap water will kill off bacteria very quickly. If this has been done in the past, you have discovered your problem.

 

[bosk1]

Oops. Well, better to lose some bacteria than some fish, eh?

 

[Jchillin]

So very true. But something still puzzles me, have you experienced cloudy water during the past couple of weeks? Stands to reason that if you had any bacterial die off, it would have manifested itself visibly.