So I'm going to get a puffer fish...

What I've been curious about is if it's actually possible to make the bacteria colony grow by slowly, very SLOWLY adding more bio-load that won't release too much ammonia (e.g. ghost shrimps, snails, ect.) . If so, how? I would like to try this. And I'm not actually going to do this, just asking. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
 
Before the concept of fishless cycling was thought up, people were encouraged to do just that. Add fish very slowly, allowing the biofilter to catch up between every addition. It's actually what you are doing. It's just that adding the puffer is a large addition to a relatively small tank.
 
Hebily said:
Before the concept of fishless cycling was thought up, people were encouraged to do just that. Add fish very slowly, allowing the biofilter to catch up between every addition. It's actually what you are doing. It's just that adding the puffer is a large addition to a relatively small tank.
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I know. But adding a bunch of snails and shrimp slowly over time would also be great because at the end, it would provide food for the gobies and the puffer eventually. And it would grow to be able to handle ammonia from a small f8, but I could still use the safestart to make the bacteria colony a little bigger. How long would it take to enlarge the bacteria colony in that method btw?
 
The bacteria colony grows as large as its food source. If you slowly add a bunch of inverts to increase the bacteria colony size, you would have to remove them when you put the puffer in, effectively trading the bioload of one for the other.
 
It's vary variable. You would have to add one or two, and then keep testing until everything is stable, and then add on or two more.
 
Okay, I was thinking for a while that I'd have to add 1 ghost shrimp/snail and wait for the bacteria to reach it's bio-load for 1 day to 1 week. Would that work? I was just asking how long it would take for the bacteria colony to grow to the bio-load that is in the tank after I put in the shrimp.
 
That is what you would have to do - but how long it takes for the bacteria to multiply to that point depends on a lot, and the only way to no for sure is to test for ammonia and nitrItes.
 
Chatted with Sploke just now. Instead of adding small bio-load one at a time, which would take too long, when I get the puffer I will get as much bio-load from my pond as possible. It is stable and it also has a lot of animals living in it so it probably has a good amount of bacteria.
Also: Some good news. My LFS's next sale is sometime in October, so that gives me at least a month and a half to do any cycling method I please.
 
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