What can I do to promote beneficial bacteria?

[DraggingTail]

Any sponge , next sponges I buy, will be natrual real sponge. Picture of crab on sponge car sponge, good size.

Some natural bath sponges have anti microbial properties so they won't grow mold in the shower.

So, I just ordered this....

AQUANEAT Reticulated Open Cell Foam Sponge Filter Media Aquarium Fish HMF Sump 23" Fine

 

[Daniel@R2R]

This is a good discussion. I wanna be sure @AquaBiomics sees this one. He may have some wisdom to share

 

[Midrats]

Squeezing sponges to release particulates into the water column is the same thing as stirring sand to feed corals. It's noted in The Reef Aquarium and The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

Can you dose Beneficial Bacteria to an established tank? I've been battling hair algae for months and am trying to find more ways to combat it

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Step one would be to get your bacteria tested to see where you are at and establish a baseline. Dumping bottle is bacteria in is going to do almost nothing to establish diversity, at least that was one of my take aways from reading results from aquabiomics.

 

[CoralClasher]

True adding bottle bacteria only has few strands. I believe the bacteria method from elegant corals helped to swing the nutrients from being consumed by GHA too bacteria. I’m going to try round 4 now that my nutrients are starting to climb.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

What bottled bacteria have you guys used?

 

[CoralClasher]

What bottled bacteria have you guys used?

Dr. Tim’s one and only, waste-away.

 

[CoralClasher]

I also see some good responses from corals when I used Dr. Tim’s coral color up.

 

[CoralClasher]

I’ve got a question does the nitrifying bacteria need ammonia to grow? I’ve been told and believe GHA will grow with ammonia as a food source. Will green hair algae outcompete the nitrifying bacteria?

 

[MnFish1]

I’ve got a question does the nitrifying bacteria need ammonia to grow? I’ve been told and believe GHA will grow with ammonia as a food source. Will green hair algae outcompete the nitrifying bacteria?

Though nitrifying bacteria has a slower doubling time than say 'e coli', it has a faster doubling time than GHA - so - I would think that hair algae will not 'out compete' the nitrifying bacteria. Though GHA can 'use' ammonia - I would also think they preferentially use other nitrogen in preference.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Algae absorbs ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia is 50x more bioavailable then nitrate and 20x more available than nitrite.

Will alage outcompete bacteria for ammonia? No, because bacteria does not depend on light energy and co2 to assimilate these nutrients like alage does.

Also, skip the bottle of bacteria and get some live rock from a healthy tank. The bacteria in bottles is in a dormant state, not all bacteria can achieve this state, therefore..... bac in a bottle will NEVER take the place of live rock sources from the ocean or another tank with that bacteria.

 

[MnFish1]

Algae absorbs ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia is 50x more bioavailable then nitrate and 20x more available than nitrite.

Will alage outcompete bacteria for ammonia? No, because bacteria does not depend on light energy and co2 to assimilate these nutrients like alage does.

Also, skip the bottle of bacteria and get some live rock from a healthy tank. The bacteria in bottles is in a dormant state, not all bacteria can achieve this state, therefore..... bac in a bottle will NEVER take the place of live rock sources from the ocean or another tank with that bacteria.

Curious - why does the fact that algae photosynthesize have anything to do with out competing nitrifying bacteria? It does bring up an interesting question - do nitrifying bacteria possibly get out competed during the day (i.e. when the lights are on)? As to the bottled bacteria - I agree - its not good for 'biodiversity'. Sand may or may not be?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Algae only uptake nutrients when they are photosynthisizing. Also, and I am certainly going to bother googling journal articles to find the answer because, well, it doesn't really matter in a healthy aquarium...

Bacteria process ammonia VERY quickly. Dump ammonia in an established tank it will be gone the next day. That would not be the case with macro alage. If it was that effective then you would only need a little ball of macro to keep algae at bay.

 

[CoralClasher]

Algae only uptake nutrients when they are photosynthisizing. Also, and I am certainly going to bother googling journal articles to find the answer because, well, it doesn't really matter in a healthy aquarium...

Bacteria process ammonia VERY quickly. Dump ammonia in an established tank it will be gone the next day. That would not be the case with macro alage. If it was that effective then you would only need a little ball of macro to keep algae at bay.

Would adding ammonia at lights off help grow nitrifying bacteria?

 

[lavoisier]

Nothing better than adding some high quality live rock.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Nothing better than adding some high quality live rock.

Per recent articles from @AquaBiomics, it definitely seems live rock is one of the key ways to adding biodiversity.

 

[AquaBiomics]

Can you dose Beneficial Bacteria to an established tank? I've been battling hair algae for months and am trying to find more ways to combat it

This is a question that gets asked a lot, and I think its an important one.

Its often answered from the perspective of anecdotal experience. "I added some, and my tank is doing well". Unfortunately, without a control for comparison, this might reflect a real effect of the product, or no effect at all.

Direct data on the effects of bottled bacteria on the microbiome are few and far between, but I can add a few numbers to this discussion. I recently described how in a dry rock tank with nothing added, the diversity starts low and remain slow for at least a month.

Bottled bacteria (BB), used as directed to start a cycle in these tanks, had little or no benefit for microbial diversity. Dry rock tanks after one month actually had slightly higher diversity (28% difference) than BB tanks. This pattern remained after adding an additional dose of the product and sampling a week later (44% difference in diversity). In contrast, the diversity in live rock tanks was about 3 times higher (almost a 200% difference) than in dry rock tanks.

My impression is that these products do little for diversity... further testing is certainly needed though.

 

[lavoisier]

My question at this point is how much live rock (from LFS) should I add to a relatively new tank (9 months) that was begun with dead rock (trying to avoid pests)? My system is 1100g. I added a very small amount of rock (10lbs) and have had a bout of cyno which I treated and has now subsided. I would be adding the rock to a large refugium (140g) that feeds slowly into the DT.

I know there is not a "correct" answer and I do not want to spend a lot of money at this point but I would be interested in everyone's thoughts.

 

[sixty_reefer]

My question at this point is how much live rock (from LFS) should I add to a relatively new tank (9 months) that was begun with dead rock (trying to avoid pests)? My system is 1100g. I added a very small amount of rock (10lbs) and have had a bout of cyno which I treated and has now subsided. I would be adding the rock to a large refugium (140g) that feeds slowly into the DT.

I know there is not a "correct" answer and I do not want to spend a lot of money at this point but I would be interested in everyone's thoughts.

I think as you mentioned there is no way to mesure, but some, would be better than nothing eventually if conditions are right they will spread over the tank.