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Bacteria in a Bottle
Al Sabetta September 12, 2002

Just my opinion, but I think it has some value. I have used it in the past and found that many of these starters do help speed things up. I prefer using an extra sponge from an established tank though, and always keep some going. A Hydro sponge costs about that of the bacterial culture.

I do think they are misleading in what they say, though. Most do not contain active bacterial cultures, which may be why people aren't able to stain any bacteria in them. If they contain anything it has to be dormant. I say this because of the following...

1. I tested it for ammonia and nitrite... there isn't any in the cultures. Therefore, there is nothing for the bacteria to eat. Hard to be active under those conditions.

2. It comes as a sealed container; biological bacteria are aerobic -- they need oxygen.

3. I know from drying out my cycled Hydro sponges for over a week, and then using them in a tank, that they "re-cycle" in about a week, telling me that it is very possible to sell a product that contains dormant bacteria.

4. Bio-remediation companies use this stuff on a very large scale to degrade organic wastes, probably where the concept of biological filtration in a tank came from, and someone capitalized on it (speculation).

5. I have used these products with heavy aeration, and tanks with huge ammonia or nitrite spikes, and watched the spike decrease rapidly over several days.


I think its important to realize that even though they say active cultures, it has to be dormant bacteria. Which means if it does work at all, it will be slowly during the first few days or weeks as the bacteria starts to grow. After several days or weeks the bacteria should reproduce more rapidly.

Also you have to have sufficient temperatures, ammonia, and nitrite in the tank for the bacteria to grow rapidly, kind of a probelm if you have fish in the tank. You'd be better off with lots of water changes, or getting a cycled sponge, rather than hope adding bacteria will solve your probelms.

If the tank is empty, you need to add the ammonia, and then the bacteria that consumes it will slowly grow producing nitrite, then the nitrite-consuming bacteria will follow. It's not a quick process, but I do think it can save you a few weeks in cycling a tank, unless the product has been sitting so long on a shelf that even the resting bacteria is dead as a doornail.


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