How much benificial bacteria is on decorations ?

onepawnup

onepawnup

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Jan 2, 2006
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how much bacteria is on decor and substrate compared to the filters ?

yesterday switched my sand substrate and removed the decor (mostly rock and fake plants) while things settled down. I put it all back together tonight and tested the water
amonia .25
nitrite .25

tank was cycled before the changes

Thanks
Onepawn
 
I have always understood that most of your bacteria will be in your substrate and decorations. It would make sense since if it were mostly on your filter, wouldnt you send ur tank into a mini-cycle when you change it?

Now you have changed your subtrate and decorations, thats fine. Jumpstart the "colonization" process by either keeping your existing filter in.

Heres an article i found in regards to biological filtration.

Biological filtration

Biological filtration is the term for fostering ammonia-neutralizing
bacteria growth. It is so important to the health of your aquarium
that we should look at how this process works more closely. (There are
other types of wastes that can cause problems, but the regular partial
water changes needed to control nitrates are typically enough to
control other forms of waste as well.)

Mother Nature provides several types of bacteria that break down
ammonia into progressively less toxic compounds, nitrite and nitrate.
These bacteria are not harmful and are quite abundant in nature. They
are so common that we do not need to add them to our aquariums; nature
does it for us.

In the presence of ammonia and oxygen these bacteria will naturally
multiply. The bacteria attach to the tank, rocks, gravel, and even
tank decorations. Note that we have not yet said anything about a
physical filter. This is because biofiltration bacteria require only
1. A surface upon which to attach,
2. ammonia for food, and
3. oxygen-rich water.

This sounds so simple; why do we need a physical filter?

Actually, if you limit the amount of fish to what the natural
biofiltration can handle, you do not need a physical filter.
Unfortunately, you cannot support very many fish with only the natural
biofiltration.

In the last few decades, the hobby has seen many new types of
biological filters invented which can vastly increase the capacity of
the bacteria colony to provide biological filtration to your aquarium.
In essence, all of these types of filters provide additional surface
area for bacteria attachment and increase the available oxygen
dissolved in the water.
 
hondaman said:
I have always understood that most of your bacteria will be in your substrate and decorations. It would make sense since if it were mostly on your filter, wouldnt you send ur tank into a mini-cycle when you change it?
Click to expand...
Nitrifying bacteria are not unlike people in their choice of living quarters; they want to live in the best places. The best place for bacteria will be where the greatest amount of gas exchange takes place: in your filter.

If the tank's bioload is too high or the bacteria haven't fully colonized or the filter is "inhospitable", then they will colonize where they can to try to support it.

And yes, most people *do* send their tanks into mini-cycles when they change their filter media. This is why we tell people not to do that and just reuse the old stuff.

FWIW I've changed out my entire substrate and decor without a burp. I don't overstock.

Roan

PS
Hondaman,
If you are quoting someone you really must cite your reference or you are infringing on copyrights. That's not good.
 
The nitrification bacteria require a surface for attachment with water flow to provide oxygen and nutrients (including ammonia or nitrite, the energy sources for these bacteria) and freedom from being buried by silt/mulm/debris. These bacteria may establish anywhere in the tank initially, such as during cycling. Over time (and even to a large extent during cycling), the majority of these bacteria will be living and growing best where the conditions are most favorable, for water flow, oxygen and nutrient delivery, and where the water is prefiltered. That location is normally (with good upkeep) in the filter. If the filter(s) upkeep is not good, the colonies elsewhere will develop and may even predominate.

So there is no hard and fast location, but in a well operated conventional tank, most will be in the filter(s). There is no magic to modern filtration (as implied in the prior quotation) but modern filters do good job in providing an optimum location for these bacteria. In reality, many "nautral" aquariums (with circulation but no filter media for mechanical and biological filtration) have stocking at full normal to somewhat overcrowded levels - that part of the quote is seriously uninformed. Such tanks do rely more on plant uptake of ammonia and nitrate than on bacterual oxidation of ammonia and nitrite, so their chemistry is not exactly the same as the conventionally set tanks that most of us run.
 
Roan Art said:
The best place for bacteria will be where the greatest amount of gas exchange takes place: in your filter.
Click to expand...

Even though everything said here is true, IMO, there is a slight mistake in the quote above.

Gas exchange takes place at water surface. Although some filters provide built-in gas exchane features, jusr like bio wheels, most will help the gas exchange by providing a way to disturb the water in the tank. For example, the return line of canistrer filters, or the cascade provoqued by a HOB filter. And UGF will not provoque gas exchange in the gravel ion the bottom of the tank.

The filter media becomes the ideal place for bacteria growth because the filter pump ot whatever powers it passes a lot of oxigen/nutrient rich water trough the media.


ONEPAWNUP, what is your filtration system??? If you were using a UGF and change the substratem, you'll DO looose all the bacterial colony.
 
thanks for the help guys. looks like wverything is going to level out ok

amonia is 0
nitrite is 0

guess it just had to catch up

as for filters patoloco
i have a penguin biowheel 250 and anothe HOB that doesnt have a name on it
(came with tank) but its about the same size i just use sponges for media . No charcoal inserts
this is on a 55 gal

Onepawnup
 
Excelent.

Hope everything ruins smoothly from now on.
 
IME, it depends. If you clean your filter change your filter media regularly, most will be on decorations, gravel and on the glass. If you simply rinse your filter media out in tank water, then most will probably be in the filter. When my neighbors gave me their gold fish in their little one gallon tank with no filter I tested the water. It had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and off the charts nitrate.
 
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