Fallow period and biofilter

rtague

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Hi all ,about to start the 76 day fallow period on my 100 gallon after a ich/velvet wipe out,not sure which it was,my question is,how do I keep the biofilter going during this period? should I just feed a little frozen every day?I have a bunch of snails and hermits I'd like to keep alive also,thanks in advance.
 

mdrieder

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In my experience with cycling new tanks or tanks with an absence of fish, feed like the fish are in there but maybe about half. Obviously this doesn't always scale since decaying food is more nutrient dense than fish waste but keep feeding and keep testing to make sure nothings going off the charts and you should be good.
 

vetteguy53081

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For the bio filter, add 1 ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons daily to tank and fallow period is now 45 days instead of 76. Even 60 days sufficient
 
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rtague

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Thank you,would Brightwell aquatics MicroBacter 7 work as a liquid bacteria?
 

brandon429

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A biofilter cannot be starved in the home once set in, that’s handy to know

the environment provides feed every second


youre feeding to support the other animals. We have a three year fallow test on file where unfed rocks still pass immediate oxidation testing, held in an unplugged tank for 36 mos in a garage. Lightly topped off, rot water sat. Cleaned, retested, immediately passed ammonia movement. DJCity’s nano reef.

you wouldn’t dose extra bac, there’s no where for them to attach, it’d be a total waste of money


the current bac do not die off and leave accessible space or they couldn’t pass our fallow oxidation testing. The exact opposite of what you’re planning for is what happens to water bac kept in water.
 

Lost in the Sauce

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For the bio filter, add 1 ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons daily to tank and fallow period is now 45 days instead of 76. Even 60 days sufficient
Is it necessary to continue adding bacteria to an already cycled system?

I was under the impression that once the bacterial net is created, it would cover all available attachment points and should remain there unless something kills it off or it starves off.
 

brandon429

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Team watch out for total leaking of your cash unnecessarily


I’m all for helping the lfs so don’t click and buy the unneeded cycling bac to add into a fully cycled tank from online sources even if peers do this


buy that from a small local pet shop in person, for free cash giveaways don’t hand it over digitally to online sources support local


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/page-10

post #189
Here’s the fallow post proof above

cycles can’t be starved out, the more years you wait the more natural feed gets in, water bac developed their own feed abilities/ humans don’t control em like we think we do. Bottle bac after the cycle is not accurate for the need

dont use bottle bac here
 
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brandon429

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I always feel the need to counter balance the huge surge in bottle bac purchases. its a nerd impulse.

that seems not very nice to bb sellers am aware, there's no harm using the stuff

but we find so many fun redirects where we catch 'em right before the purchase, ask em not to, they post results updates for weeks later and all is happy. I like to press against online buying trends with those types of patterns its just market shaping w good science imo.

the organic reserves are such that your tank can go twenty years and still pass not a joke.

check out this very, very cool inversion of the rules:

Steven started this completed cycle DRY and with no feed and no bottle bac. truly unassisted

rocks had NO organic stores they all vectored in naturally.

only water, and a pump, and sixty days wait.

and it self cycled the whole thing

see how as a reflection/inversion its not possible to starve your tank for any length of time based on what he did? this post from MSteven below is one of the most important microbiology posts this hobby will see in 2021


based on that study and the collective reference of all cycling charts, no cycle can be starved once its set in while using an open topped non sealed reef tank in a home. too dirty. constant feed in and out. leave a glass of tap water on your windowsill 30 days its cycled for a basic bioload relative to the surface area inside the cup. that's sick, mother nature is awesome.
 
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rtague

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I always feel the need to counter balance the huge surge in bottle bac purchases. its a nerd impulse.

that seems not very nice to bb sellers am aware, there's no harm using the stuff

but we find so many fun redirects where we catch 'em right before the purchase, ask em not to, they post results updates for weeks later and all is happy. I like to press against online buying trends with those types of patterns its just market shaping w good science imo.

the organic reserves are such that your tank can go twenty years and still pass not a joke.

check out this very, very cool inversion of the rules:

Steven started this completed cycle DRY and with no feed and no bottle bac. truly unassisted

rocks had NO organic stores they all vectored in naturally.

only water, and a pump, and sixty days wait.

and it self cycled the whole thing

see how as a reflection/inversion its not possible to starve your tank for any length of time based on what he did? this post from MSteven below is one of the most important microbiology posts this hobby will see in 2021


based on that study and the collective reference of all cycling charts, no cycle can be starved once its set in while using an open topped non sealed reef tank in a home. too dirty. constant feed in and out. leave a glass of tap water on your windowsill 30 days its cycled for a basic bioload relative to the surface area inside the cup. that's sick, mother nature is awesome.
@Brandon429,lovin'it,It's amazing how we and I include myself,gofor the marketing ploys
most of which is probably useless and unnecessary.
 

346700984

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Hi all ,about to start the 76 day fallow period on my 100 gallon after a ich/velvet wipe out,not sure which it was,my question is,how do I keep the biofilter going during this period? should I just feed a little frozen every day?I have a bunch of snails and hermits I'd like to keep alive also,thanks in advance.
We are in the midst of the same thing with one of our tanks. We continue to feed the coral, anemones, inverts and copepods. I use Hikari Crab Cuisine rapidly sinking sticks for all the different inverts, I spot feed the anemones and coral as usual (which includes my cleaner shrimp who always comes up for a piece of shrimp or clam) and I broadcast feed here and there a little bit of frozen brine shrimp or frozen cyclopods for the filter feeders. Some of the coral, like the duncans, will catch the brine shrimp and eat it. I dose a little phyto for the copepods whom have exploded in population since nobody’s eating them.
 

green behind the ears

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Hi , I’m 2 weeks into fallow period , just to surmise , I don’t really need to worry about the biolode , just keep an eye on parameters, I switched off protein skimmer as I didn’t want the water to be too clean , should I switch it back on
 

ctopherl

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For the bio filter, add 1 ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons daily to tank and fallow period is now 45 days instead of 76. Even 60 days sufficient
Isn't this with the big caveat that the temp needs to be held around 81 F?
 

ctopherl

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I always feel the need to counter balance the huge surge in bottle bac purchases. its a nerd impulse.

that seems not very nice to bb sellers am aware, there's no harm using the stuff

but we find so many fun redirects where we catch 'em right before the purchase, ask em not to, they post results updates for weeks later and all is happy. I like to press against online buying trends with those types of patterns its just market shaping w good science imo.

the organic reserves are such that your tank can go twenty years and still pass not a joke.

check out this very, very cool inversion of the rules:

Steven started this completed cycle DRY and with no feed and no bottle bac. truly unassisted

rocks had NO organic stores they all vectored in naturally.

only water, and a pump, and sixty days wait.

and it self cycled the whole thing

see how as a reflection/inversion its not possible to starve your tank for any length of time based on what he did? this post from MSteven below is one of the most important microbiology posts this hobby will see in 2021


based on that study and the collective reference of all cycling charts, no cycle can be starved once its set in while using an open topped non sealed reef tank in a home. too dirty. constant feed in and out. leave a glass of tap water on your windowsill 30 days its cycled for a basic bioload relative to the surface area inside the cup. that's sick, mother nature is awesome.
Feel free to crucify me, but I bought a $10 smaller bottle of MicroBacter7 for this exact reason because I figured I'm better safe than sorry
 

brandon429

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we cannot resist that. the entire market is designed for that outcome
plus its harmless to add if we want.
 

vetteguy53081

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Isn't this with the big caveat that the temp needs to be held around 81 F?
80.6 deg is said to reduce fallow time in which you could plan on 45 days max. The issue I have with raising temperature is: When temperature increases, oxygen decreases but then again there would be no fish within the tank
 

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