Fallow tank recycle

[brandon429]

RIght now here in the chemistry forum, that thread from FlipperPups on the microbial measures currently going on... this tank would be amazing to sequence before you starting adding and testing. EMeyer w have lots of normal tank data to analyze, and then these rare outliers for fallow/ true test of microbial preservation/verification/heterogeneity etc

it may not be practical to send off samples just musing for that thread the kind of varying measures that are helpful to see big picture biome regulation etc

 

[ruppertb]

Let me know here in the next couple days if you want water saved for something. Or a chunk of rock. I have never mailed anything before and it is very cold here

 

[brandon429]

mainly if we could get a quick ammonia test in any form that's the biggest best takeaway we can riff from afterwards thanks tons for the post and thread

add just a little ammonium chloride it wont wipe out the tank. take a quick low level ammonia reading and see if it drops back down overnite/ideal

 

[ruppertb]

I will have to buy some from amazon. Won’t be here till Tuesday if I order. Can household ammonia be used? Or won’t work the same way?

 

[brandon429]

that ammonium chloride has been used successfully but as I read it, it must be the non surfactant kind (?) where you can shake the container and it doesn’t froth up like soap, it breaks up fast. Ace was the only brand I’ve seen used, any others that may have soaps or additives ough to be excluded.
*getting a pic of the ammonia test on the undisturbed water is crucial. It's how we calibrate for known zero on your tester so people can see it working, whatever color it reads before we tinker is calibrated zero for that tester. Your tank has no source for ongoing ammonia unless a dead mouse is in it lol

Dose a little bit just barely, turn on circulation and stop when the tester indicates a slight color change. We aren't trying to assess ammonia in still water, we are passing it over suspected fully live surfaces

In 24 hours, should be back to calibrated zero.

ways the nitrifers kept fed the whole time, or if you tested it at fifteen years fallow:

-organics in the live rock alone are likely a permanent source of feed, theyll not breakdown to totally disappear in our lifetime.

-ever sit near a window on a bright early morning, sun rays coming in sideways, and you notice just how much aerial floc is wafting around the room-bacteria air rafts. Incoming vectors, landing in the sample daily and compounding.

-all hydrated media in a non lab setting takes on non aquatic bacteria, fungi, skin cells, gnats, fifty others on a daily basis. Non filtration bacteria form simply because they found moisture. They then die since they’re not reef bacteria, and they degrade into feed right there intertwined with filtration bacteria... alongside them or on top of the slicks that house filtration bacteria. Big source of feed

-bac have their own dormancy options even if you stripped the container clean, but still hydrated. These didn’t have to go dormant

-respiring organisms are alive, worms, excreting ammonia by the minute. Direct feed.

-biofilms are preserved in your description. Those insulate the bacteria from cold effects and heat unlike bac cells teased onto a slide specimen. Those are uninsulated, and weak. Biofilm catches feed and retains it like a net.