Let's talk about Bacteria in a Bottle

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No matter how you say it, you're actually mistaken. The beneficial bacteria, that we all love and need, grows in and on solid material, such as live rock, live sand, glass, equipment, etc. There's virtually no beneficial bacteria present, in the actual water column.

it is something a person can do if they feel it "works" for them. Not knocking it as aged/mature water does have some beneficial bacteria in it, but it doesn't have a lot.

I dont think I can agree with the above mentioned statements to be honest. One has to look not just at a free swimming bacterial count when trying to figure out how much bacteria is in the water column. If you look at the amount of detritus in the water column say?? how many bacteria are associated with that? what about biofilm dislodged? or Slime products from various corals and other organisms? then their would be microscopic particulate material? or bacteria associated with dissolved nutrients such as N and/or P?

Mojo
 
I have always heard that there isn't much bacteria in the water column...and compared to all the other places it is in much greater quantities it does seem useless, but have also has success in it seeding a new tank. key word seeding! how much of a bioload you put on the new tank and how quickly means everything. so yeah, if you no live rock..no bacteria in a bottle etc. then sure, old tank water is better than new it seems to me.

seems like we spend too much time trying to proove points rather than.......lets just say I am too busy enjoying my new system that I started with bacteria in a bottle to argue the minutia. I have 6 fish and a good size cleaner crew and the tank has never blown up on me. fish have never shown signs of stress. now, I am just waiting it out a while for the tank to mature and proove to me its stabilty that seems to be on track.
 
I dont think I can agree with the above mentioned statements to be honest. One has to look not just at a free swimming bacterial count when trying to figure out how much bacteria is in the water column. If you look at the amount of detritus in the water column say?? how many bacteria are associated with that? what about biofilm dislodged? or Slime products from various corals and other organisms? then their would be microscopic particulate material? or bacteria associated with dissolved nutrients such as N and/or P?


Mojo


I don't know Mojo. I always kept a pretty clean tank. Never thought about it from that angle though with water filled with detritus accumilation. That's another perspective we didn't take into account for which makes sense in that sense. With my tanks though, the tank swaps were mainly made up of new water. I took the opportunity to use a tank swap as an opportunity to do a big water change and never had a "cycle" or issue doing this and as many people know, I changed tanks alot. I still think it all boils down to the fact that free floating bacteria in the water column in general doesn't hold much weight. If it did, then people would be selling aged tank water for cycling new tanks, but rather they suggest seeding a tank with liverock or livesand from an established tank as it contains more beneficial bacteria. I never hear, "Let me pick up a gallon of water from you to help cycle this tank or lend me your old powerhead that has been sitting in your tank for a few months so I can get a bit of the bacteria on it to help seed my tank" LOL. So in my opinion, I really don't think using 50%-100% of aged water on a new setup will speed up much unless as you mentioned, you want to transfer a few gallons of detritus filled water into a person new tank to add in a bit of waste (which is what I am gathering from your post). That I can see. What if it was collected from an area where there is no free floating detritus? Bacteria population decreases?? To me, using dirty detritus filled water is just like throwing in a raw decaying shrimp or urinating in your tank to add waste. Me giving someone 100% of my tank water for example to seed their tank will dissapoint them highly as my water was always just too clean to provide them with much waste. ;)
 
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Krish I am not saying that one should use just old tank water to seed a new tank, obviously thier are better ways to go about that, from LS to LR to Bacteria in a bottle I was just responding to theirs no bacteria in the water column. Yes ther is very little free swimming bacteria in our reef tanks water column BUT if you do counts on all the bacteria that are associated to the various compounds that are found in that same water you would be surprised.


Mojo
 
Krish I am not saying that one should use just old tank water to seed a new tank, obviously thier are better ways to go about that, from LS to LR to Bacteria in a bottle I was just responding to theirs no bacteria in the water column. Yes ther is very little free swimming bacteria in our reef tanks water column BUT if you do counts on all the bacteria that are associated to the various compounds that are found in that same water you would be surprised.


Mojo

Oh...Ok. Well, if you read all of my posts, you'd see I agreed that there was beneficial bacteria found in water. Never denied that, just said not a whole lot. When you quoted me and I responded to it and you came back and said that you were referring to those that felt there was no bacteria in water, I took it as you though you thought I said that there was no bacteria found in aged tank water which I never said. I 100% agree there is. Still nothing to write home to momma about:)


Krish I don't think tank water would be alive long in a bottle. I think it would rot and stagnate.

Then you'd have a bottle of waste to kick startyour new tank! :D
 
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As soon as I get some peace and quiet from the kids, I will check out the link. :)



I have always heard that there isn't much bacteria in the water column...and compared to all the other places it is in much greater quantities it does seem useless, but have also has success in it seeding a new tank. key word seeding! how much of a bioload you put on the new tank and how quickly means everything. so yeah, if you no live rock..no bacteria in a bottle etc. then sure, old tank water is better than new it seems to me.

seems like we spend too much time trying to proove points rather than.......lets just say I am too busy enjoying my new system that I started with bacteria in a bottle to argue the minutia. I have 6 fish and a good size cleaner crew and the tank has never blown up on me. fish have never shown signs of stress. now, I am just waiting it out a while for the tank to mature and proove to me its stabilty that seems to be on track.

Fail!!! Joking:lol:

Man, we just took over your thread here huh? LOL!! Continue to keep us updated with your results. :)
 
HEY....STOP it! THIS THREAD IS ABOUT BACTERIA IN A BOTTLE.

so, anyone following my progress with my using the fritzyme turbo start 900. My update is....as you know I have not seen any notable ammonia or nitrite in the first 6 weeks or so. I added a midas blenny, diamond watchmen gobie and about 100 mini hermits and snails a week ago and had a max nitrite spike of .25 with perhaps a trace measurable ammonia a few days later. at this time all is fine with nothing measurable except about 10ppm nitrate max. I did a 15% water change and used some seachem prime for the nitrite spike. so, Iguess all is well and tank is on its way,

as a side note I found it very interesting to see the orp drop from the mid 400's to the low 200's the first 2 days after adding the "prime". makes me want to take a chemisrty class but with my limited understanding of measuring orp and the affects of prime,amequel etc is they use ( or bind or whetever) much oxygen and the drop in orp probalby represents this very well. so, as side note when useing those products to help with ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate...they are not kidding when they say to maintian good oxygenation the first 24 hours...or like they say to add it in the morning (when plants are putting out o2 and not co2). just a little fyi.
 
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Okay. LOL! I read the whole thread...

How's the tank doing KP? I'm really trying to determine how best to start this little adventure and there's lots of good information here - just wondering how everything turned out? I can kind of infer from your comments on my thread but still wanted to know... after reading this whole thread. :)
 
tank is perfect, never a prob. Looking back I think most of the people here just underestimated the "new guy" and didn't give me the respect that I may know a thing or two. I was just surprized that we do have very good products available now to cycle our tanks and its not "snake oil" and was trying to share my excperience with a particular product that was VERY effective in myh case. the days of peeing in our tanks and rotting shrimp are over...unless by choice.
 
another product ive used is dr tims waste away has all the aerobic bacteria then turns int anaerobic bac. but this is not for cycling its made for a new tank syndrome scenario. good stuff tho. but still needs food to survive why i recommend using on a tank that has already gone through a hard cycle. mojo turned me onto this stuff and i used on my frag tank 3 mos after cycling with live rock. now after 7 mos it looks like a tank that's been up for years. the only filtration on it is a skimmer (that hardly works and piece of crap) and carbon. tis fully stocked with coral and 2 fish no deaths in this tank ever.
 

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