Nitrifying Bacteria in a bottle by Seachem.
One of the few that actually works....

Stability

Hmm that very startling Tom.
I used to use 2x dosages in my 250L and it never caused mass death.

I used 10ml in a 60L. Is that too much? I thought the instructions said 5ml for every 40L.

<looks up bottle>


oh god, I see what's gone wrong.
It says 5ml per 40L for the 1st dosage and thereafter 5ml per 250L!


Well that's me throughly depressed...

Thanks Tom for putting me right.

Just a couple of questions.
1. Water Changes during black out?
2, Excel during blackout for what purpose/can it be left out?

why the extreme water changes? Why not 30% max? If you change all the water you are asking for the tank to cycle again, which means ammonia and nitrite spikes which can easily kill fish ... algae may be unsightly, but it won't kill fish. Also try getting a UV light-filter if you want clean water and have algae blooms often.

unfortunately fishcop, youve misunderstood the nitrification cycle. when you cycle a tank, you dont cycle the water, you cycle the biological filter and the bacteria contained therein.

making water changes wont effect the biological culture in any way, and if anything, would remove NH4 and NO2.

The reason we use large water changes when were following EI, is to reset the water column of nutrients. Feasibly, we could do a water change of any amount of water in the tank and it wont harm anything at all (so long as you get the temperature right and treat the water).

Opps fishcop, me thinks you need to read up on bacteria.

Bacteria grows on surfaces not water.
So I've not reduced the nitrifying bacteria colony.

This algae/diatom seems to cloud the water over time as the tiny particles float in the water at the slightest disturbance. So large water changes are a must to try to remove as much as possible.

My tank still has this after doing 3 blackouts. But at least its not as bad as it was. If I do a water change weekly then I can hit the diatom colony for 6!

I've only got a 9 hour light cycle atm and I've thought about adding Dwarf Otos but this would just increase my bioload which I'd rather not do.

I'm adding daily 2ml of Excel. But its not affecting the diatoms. Not that I thought it would.

my Otos love eating the brown stuffage i think theyre the greatest fish in the world! so much fun to watch also my shrimps can devastate a diatom outbreak pretty well. but this is all treating the symptoms not the cause.

Do you use a sand substate Quatermass? Ive heard that in the early days (not sure how old your tank is) that sand and even glass can leech silicates into the water column, thus triggering a diatom outbreak. Im not sure how true this is though, Tom any thoughts on this? I seem to see this theory quite a bit.

Flora

No, no sand. Its a Walstad style tank. The tank is a Interpet Aq3, that is to say it is U shaped front so the only sealant is on the top, bottom and back.

Shame there is no Silicate test!

Yes, I've often heard that diatom outbreaks are due to silicates in sealant or sand. No real proof though.

1.Yes
2. Yes

Blackout stops algae growth
Excel kills the algae mildly when used as per the label.

It is never been rated to use much beyond the labeled dose.
You can use 5mls per 10 gal after each water change.

Large % water changes are great, this is not and never was an issue of nitrogen cycling, that's why we have plants..............

Plants remove NH4 directly.
Removing organic waste, and a source of organic N via large water changes, helps. A clean tank is a happy tank.

If anyone wants to grow bacteria, simply taking a bucket and running the filter with a few liters of water in there, add some NH3 etc and wait a few days.

A better method is simply add zeolite and wait. By the time the Zeolite is spent(it may be recharged with a NaCl solution- Na+ replaces the NH4+ at the binding sites), the bacteria is well colonized (zeolite last about 1 month).

We/you/no one is exclusively dependent on the bacteria in a tank with plants.
The plants do that job very well.

I'd say add the otto's, they are few good at eating diatoms.

I see the theory of silicates, but in FW, limiting Si is rather tough.
I've not seen any proof that the situation is due to high Si though.

I know plenty of tap waters that are loaded with Si in other words, and have not had a single diatom for a decade.


So is it the high Si or something else that's causing this?
I think that theory is wrought with observational omissions, both in marine and certainly within FW.

It's like high PO4 = algae in FW planted tanks, where the heck is my algae then?

Makes no sense.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom you mean water changes before and after blackout dont you? not during.. or it wouldnt be a blackout.

blackout worked really well for me amazingly effective