best bacteria to refresh a tank
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OP
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I pride myself on qt and not having any pests in my system. While I trust friends to a point I will not use live rock from anyone’s system.
mcshams
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I am not questioning the use of these products for starting a tank, or assisting speeding up a tank's bacterial load for some significant change to overall system such as the addition of fish, some other change in parameters that may have affected existing bacterial populations, and/or some other external factor that may have affected existing bacterial counts.... HOWEVER,
I agree with @brandon429 in that these products would have little to no significant effect on a stable existing system. The way bacterial growth works, there is a point at which stable resources produce stable bacterial populations. It's based on the "carrying capacity", which is simply the amount of resources the bacteria have in a biome to survive nearly equaling reproduction with death rate. So if you don't remove or add a resource, such as substrate, food, waste, etc, then once a tank is established, adding additional bacteria will not replace* and/or improve bacterial count. *(if in the rare occurrence you introduce a new bacterium that can out-compete and/or kill another strain of bacteria to take it's place, or there is a niche nutrient that the new bacteria can live on that other strains do not).
The "food curve" represents the nutrient resource that a bacteria would have to live. The part that is missing here is reflected on the next graph.
So if the resource to live (ie food source for the bacteria) is even relatively stable (hence a stable tank with not wildly changing feeding schedules, nutrient spikes and drops, addition of bioload, etc), then the population of bacteria stabilizes overtime.
Now for my counterargument to my current argument. Rarely if ever are tanks SUPER stable. So, if you change your feeding schedule, experiment, add fish, remove fish, change foods, add a filter, take away a filter.. as we all like to experiment, you are in essence moving the line of the carrying capacity. In that case you'll either kill off a few bacteria as they can't find the resources to live.. or you'll provide excess and they'll grow. In which case you can add the bacteria as a safe guard.
Sorry if boring. Even more sorry if wrong.
I agree with @brandon429 in that these products would have little to no significant effect on a stable existing system. The way bacterial growth works, there is a point at which stable resources produce stable bacterial populations. It's based on the "carrying capacity", which is simply the amount of resources the bacteria have in a biome to survive nearly equaling reproduction with death rate. So if you don't remove or add a resource, such as substrate, food, waste, etc, then once a tank is established, adding additional bacteria will not replace* and/or improve bacterial count. *(if in the rare occurrence you introduce a new bacterium that can out-compete and/or kill another strain of bacteria to take it's place, or there is a niche nutrient that the new bacteria can live on that other strains do not).
The "food curve" represents the nutrient resource that a bacteria would have to live. The part that is missing here is reflected on the next graph.
So if the resource to live (ie food source for the bacteria) is even relatively stable (hence a stable tank with not wildly changing feeding schedules, nutrient spikes and drops, addition of bioload, etc), then the population of bacteria stabilizes overtime.
Now for my counterargument to my current argument. Rarely if ever are tanks SUPER stable. So, if you change your feeding schedule, experiment, add fish, remove fish, change foods, add a filter, take away a filter.. as we all like to experiment, you are in essence moving the line of the carrying capacity. In that case you'll either kill off a few bacteria as they can't find the resources to live.. or you'll provide excess and they'll grow. In which case you can add the bacteria as a safe guard.
Sorry if boring. Even more sorry if wrong.
RZsocial
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I've had the same problem in the past.
I checked a bit here.
I realized that it was better not to use any of them. And use a cleaner instead.
OP
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I am not questioning the use of these products for starting a tank, or assisting speeding up a tank's bacterial load for some significant change to overall system such as the addition of fish, some other change in parameters that may have affected existing bacterial populations, and/or some other external factor that may have affected existing bacterial counts.... HOWEVER,
I agree with @brandon429 in that these products would have little to no significant effect on a stable existing system. The way bacterial growth works, there is a point at which stable resources produce stable bacterial populations. It's based on the "carrying capacity", which is simply the amount of resources the bacteria have in a biome to survive nearly equaling reproduction with death rate. So if you don't remove or add a resource, such as substrate, food, waste, etc, then once a tank is established, adding additional bacteria will not replace* and/or improve bacterial count. *(if in the rare occurrence you introduce a new bacterium that can out-compete and/or kill another strain of bacteria to take it's place, or there is a niche nutrient that the new bacteria can live on that other strains do not).
The "food curve" represents the nutrient resource that a bacteria would have to live. The part that is missing here is reflected on the next graph.
So if the resource to live (ie food source for the bacteria) is even relatively stable (hence a stable tank with not wildly changing feeding schedules, nutrient spikes and drops, addition of bioload, etc), then the population of bacteria stabilizes overtime.
Now for my counterargument to my current argument. Rarely if ever are tanks SUPER stable. So, if you change your feeding schedule, experiment, add fish, remove fish, change foods, add a filter, take away a filter.. as we all like to experiment, you are in essence moving the line of the carrying capacity. In that case you'll either kill off a few bacteria as they can't find the resources to live.. or you'll provide excess and they'll grow. In which case you can add the bacteria as a safe guard.
Sorry if boring. Even more sorry if wrong.
Thank you for the explanation and graph it was very well put together (short but to the point). I have added quite a few fish over the past couple months and that’s where I’m at. I feel as though i need the boost in bacteria to help with the breakdown of waste and food. I feed a lot to try and get the nutrients up as I’m running very close to zero and don’t want to be there. I would like to be around 10 no3 and .05 po4.
I just did a chemiclean treatment due to a red slime outbreak and I’m sure i lost some bacteria in the process. I like to have a very healthy bacteria base and was curious what other have used and like.
