Keeping Beneficial Bacteria Population Up?

[dimik]

Hi All,

I've cycled my new 75G DT tank but I can't put fish in it yet. Reason being all creatures (inverts & fish) are in QT tanks for at least another month. Would dosing ammonia be a good thing so I maintain my beneficial bacteria in the DT tank until fish are ready?

 

[Ippyroy]

Hi All,

I've cycled my new 75G DT tank but I can't put fish in it yet. Reason being all creatures (inverts & fish) are in QT tanks for at least another month. Would dosing ammonia be a good thing so I maintain my beneficial bacteria in the DT tank until fish are ready?

The bacteria needs to be fed. The problem you also need to take of is 1 part ammonia become 3.something nitrates. Not entirely positive on the exact numbers, the longer you feed the bacteria and not the animals, the higher your nitrates will be.

 

[Dolphins18]

Hi I think what I would do is just feed the tank the same amount of food you are feeding the fish in qt. That will keep the bacteria up and allow for a smoother transition once fish are in the tank.
And of course just continue to monitor your levels.

 

[Tired]

Bacteria takes awhile to starve. Another month probably wouldn't hurt anything. But it certainly won't hurt to dose ammonia every few days- you can just do a water change before adding your critters.

Ghost feeding doesn't entirely work that way. Rotting food produces more mess and waste than eaten and digested food. It's better to dose straight ammonia, if you want to add an ammonia source, than leave stuff to rot.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I always had good luck feeding ammonia until I get fish in a new tank. No spike in nitrates and no mini cycle.

 

[dimik]

The bacteria needs to be fed. The problem you also need to take of is 1 part ammonia become 3.something nitrates. Not entirely positive on the exact numbers, the longer you feed the bacteria and not the animals, the higher your nitrates will be.

Bacteria takes awhile to starve. Another month probably wouldn't hurt anything. But it certainly won't hurt to dose ammonia every few days- you can just do a water change before adding your critters.

Ghost feeding doesn't entirely work that way. Rotting food produces more mess and waste than eaten and digested food. It's better to dose straight ammonia, if you want to add an ammonia source, than leave stuff to rot.

Yeah I'll be dosing just ammonia not ghost feeding. If i do it 1x a week do you think it's
A. Enough to keep bacteria population up and B. Not run into a nitrates problem?

 

[92Miata]

Bacteria takes awhile to starve. Another month probably wouldn't hurt anything. But it certainly won't hurt to dose ammonia every few days- you can just do a water change before adding your critters.

Ghost feeding doesn't entirely work that way. Rotting food produces more mess and waste than eaten and digested food. It's better to dose straight ammonia, if you want to add an ammonia source, than leave stuff to rot.

The problem with feeding raw ammonia is that reefs don't run on nitrogen alone - they run on nitrogen and phosphorus and carbon - and tanks that get dosed lots of ammonia early on tend to have a much longer period of 'the uglies' and those sort of problems because of huge nitrogen/phosphorus imbalances which tend to favor things like cyanobacteria that can pull phosphate out of rocks.


So if you're going to dose - dose light. The population doubling time of these bacteria are measured in hours - so you just need to keep some alive - you don't need to be dosing multiple ppm a day. But frankly - in my experience - reefs mature much faster when they're getting nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Ippyroy]

Yeah I'll be dosing just ammonia not ghost feeding. If i do it 1x a week do you think it's
A. Enough to keep bacteria population up and B. Not run into a nitrates problem?

You will just have to do a large water change before you add the livestock. Ghost feeding would also have the benifit of helping to stabilize your PH4.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yeah I'll be dosing just ammonia not ghost feeding. If i do it 1x a week do you think it's
A. Enough to keep bacteria population up and B. Not run into a nitrates problem?

That is certainly plenty often enough, IMO.

 

[brandon429]

agreed fully. if you fed nothing it would survive. if you waited six months and fed nothing it would survive (ways bacteria get food without us/runs nature)

ergo, whatever you feed it for the one or two mos wait won't matter.

 

[blasterman]

I disagree.

If the DT tank has a healthy bacteria colony adding a bit of ammonia will cause no issues. It will be metabolized within a day or so, if not hours. If it's not reduced quickly then you know the DT tank needs some time to cycle.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I agree with blasterman and ime I had no cycling issues. I dosed ammonia for 2 months on a doser daily after my cycle was done so I could add fish all at once with no spikes and keep bacteria growing I didn’t get high nitrates from doing it and po4 was handled fine once fish went in. Honestly I don’t remember any algae popping up.