Nothin to prove, just a ramble, I find rambling sends me off in interesting tangents. I do find it interesting that the nitrifiers appear to still work though, once the carbon source is removed, not suffocated, maybe.
Indeed. The higher the pH the better as more NH3 is available to gas off. Some freshwater streams are treated to pH 10 and are fully gassed off in 4 hrs it seems. Which raises another tangent to go off in. Lower pH aquariums and such have a tiny fraction of NH3 compared to NH4 available to nitrifiers at any one time, good for fish, not good if you want a solid nitrifying community. Another good reason to have a lot of agitation or aeration I reckon. (I’ve just had a thought, lol), when dosing Kalk at night and the pH increases, all the Stoney coral polyps expand just like folks describe when dosing ammonia, hmmm.from here
Yes - you will aerate out som NH3 - hence lower the NH3+NH4 concentrations with time.
If I read the tests right - you have 2 ppm NH4+NH3 and 5 ppm NO2?
Sincerely Lasse
IMO - there is a myth/misunderstanding that low pH stop the nitrification bacteria. Its true the you have a low to zero nitrification rate in many low pH waters like natural low pH bodies -but IMO and IME - low nitrification rate is not a direct function of low pH but a function of low Bicarbonate/carbonate alkalinity. Low pH is often a function of low alkalinity of this type - hence - IMO - a misunderstanding of cause and effect have lead many to believe that it is the low pH itself that cause low nitrification rates. There is one situation there you can have a low pH and enough of carbonate alkalinity for the nitrification to have a high rate. It is when the pH is lowered by carbon dioxide. I have seen this in fully stocked fish farms there nitrification works well in pH below 7 with alkalinity around 2-3 dKh (around 1 mekv). However - if pH stands still but alkalinity goes below 2 - the nitrification rate goes down. And its easy to understand - the chemoautotrophs need inorganic carbon and IMO - they seems not to be able to use CO2 direct as inorganic carbon source - its seems - IMO - that it has to go through a bicarbonate/carbonate step before they can use it. I have run fully stocked fish farms in pH around 6.9 - 7 (after rissel filters) and with a pH-controller controlling the input of bicarbonate/carbonate (using bot NaH2CO3 and Na2CO3) as sources for inorganic carbon controlling around 6.9 to 7
I also noticed bacterial (presumably) growth in super low pH when I was dosing an algae scrubber with CO2, never did find out if it was the extra algal exudate feeding them or a direct uptake of CO2, or something else.
Didn’t notice anything, at all. I can play with that in a bucket at a later date though because @MnFish1 s concern over the strength of the peroxide and the fact the first cycle was heterotrophic is a valid one.
A further 12 hrs on, absolutely no change in test results. Assuming 0.5ppm ammonia was consumed with the last dose of 1ml vinegar per 10 liters of tank water I’ve added another 2ml of vinegar per 10 liters. Looks like whatever gets used up doesn’t get released back into the water after 12hrs of starvation (probably obvious to most, not to me). I’ll see what happens in 8 hrs. No bloom in the water yet.
so by my reckoning, after you removed the water, the remaining bacteria took 6 days to bring ammonia down from 2ppm to what's pictured.Ok, had a good read up. Seeing as I’m in the UK, and the journey from manufacturer to my tank is fraught with potential nitrifying bacteria killing conditions, I’m going back to heterotrophic. Today’s pic is from before the addition of 1ml vinegar per 10ml tank water. See if I get a bloom, or not;
Well, after 100% water change, the next ammonia dose at 2ppm dropped, nitrite went up for probably 36hrs, then everything stopped for 5 days. After adding small doses of vinegar over 28 hrs or so, the ammonia dropped to the same level as when I overdosed the vinegar as below, the nitrite hasn’t budged though and there’s a slight mist in the water but not a full on storm, like last time.
