is it possible to have too much nitrifying bacteria?

[iheartbettas]

I've been cycling a 10 gallon tank fishlessly with fish food flakes for about 3 days. I've been adding a small pinch twice a day, sometimes thrice a day (CONAN!). I measured the ammonia and it was only .25 to .5 ppm.

I want it higher so I added a whole bunch more. OOPS. What I should have done was measure the nitrates. Oh well. My dilemma is that I might have restarted the cycle which more bacteria may or may not populate my tank. I'll measure it when I get home. Anyway, is it possible that I may now have too many bacteria in there?

note: this is for a fry tank.

 

[WeeNe858]

The amount of bacteria present is determined by the amount of ammonia available (loosely). So no, you can't have an overdose of bacteria.

 

[oo7genie]

If you're only on your 3rd day of cycling, you've still got a long way to go before you'll measure any nitrAtes. You won't even see nitrIte for a couple of weeks. The actual bacteria is only in the infant stages of forming right now. Cycling properly usually takes about a month or so.

You should be safe with ammonia readings all the way up to between 3.0 - 5.0ppm, as long as you keep fish out of the tank until the cycle is complete. Above 5.0 is considered to be too much, as it can stunt the cycling process. With no fish in the tank, you don't have to worry about nitrate being too high.

 

[discuspaul]

The bacteria colony will only develop to the concentration necessary to deal with the amount of ammonia being produced by the bio-load in the tank. It will multiply quickly as the bio-load is augmented, in order to keep up. Rick's post above is good advice.