Bacteria-in-a-bottle

[lalaoal]

i have bactera in a bottle here and i put it in my aquarium which i will put fish in 5 days but when i was searching if the stuff works ive been reading stuff saying the bacteria dies off after 1 week hence why they put in the instructions "dose after 7 days" is this true? i mostly see this in api quick start

Edit: im very certain that the product i use has nitrifying bacteria based on the packaging and i have people that i know also use it

 

[Colin_T]

Bottles of filter bacteria can help speed up the filter cycle. I normally recommend adding a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. Try to add the bacteria near the filter so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

Bottle filter bacteria should be kept cool and dark. I kept mine in the fridge.

Start adding it on the day you get the fish.

 

[lalaoal]

Bottles of filter bacteria can help speed up the filter cycle. I normally recommend adding a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. Try to add the bacteria near the filter so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

Bottle filter bacteria should be kept cool and dark. I kept mine in the fridge.

Start adding it on the day you get the fish.

yeah i will try the double dose every week and i bought a 400 ml so there should be no problems such as running out of it

 

[C-Monster]

Plants help! The more the merrier!

 

[Rocky998]

Maybe before getting fish add some ammonia in the tank along with the bottled bacteria to see how it does. You definitely don't want it to fail on you if you have live fish in the tank.
And I definitely agree with @C-Monster, plants help A TON!

 

[lalaoal]

Plants help! The more the merrier!

do you have any alternatizes to duckweed? i heard duckweed is hard to control once it starts to suck nitrates and ammonia

 

[Colin_T]

yeah i will try the double dose every week and i bought a 400 ml so there should be no problems such as running out of it

double dose every day for a week, then pour remaining contents into tank.

 

[lalaoal]

Maybe before getting fish add some ammonia in the tank along with the bottled bacteria to see how it does. You definitely don't want it to fail on you if you have live fish in the tank.
And I definitely agree with @C-Monster, plants help A TON!

i actually put a small piece of fish meat as a source of ammonia and a few fish food for additional ammonia before i buy fish

 

[Colin_T]

do you have any alternatizes to duckweed? i heard duckweed is hard to control once it starts to suck nitrates and ammonia

water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta)

 

[lalaoal]

double dose every day for a week, then pour remaining contents into tank.

sorry i meant to say everyday for a week and yes i will pour the remaining contents to the tank
and then i will water change before i put the remaining contents, correct?

 

[lalaoal]

water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta)

alr, ill be sure to buy stems online

 

[Colin_T]

In an established aquarium, you try to do a good sized water change once a week. I like to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every week. Other people do a 50% each week. Generally 50-75% each week is good and helps keep nutrients and disease organisms at low levels.

In any aquarium, you do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[lalaoal]

In an established aquarium, you try to do a good sized water change once a week. I like to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every week. Other people do a 50% each week. Generally 50-75% each week is good and helps keep nutrients and disease organisms at low levels.

In any aquarium, you do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

thanks for the tips but i want to just do a 20% water change every week, is that okay? or do i have to increase it it to 30 since im just going to keep two 5 gallon aquariums for a betta

 

[Colin_T]

You can do a 20% water change if you like but it won't remove many of the bad things from the water. And you will have to do bigger water changes if you get an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

 

[The Dog]

If you do a 90% water change, do you leave 10% of the bad stuff in? Yh i think im getting this now