Farming Bacteria

[chrisbassist]

Right, So all the information is here on fishless cycling, and you also have members willing to donate mature media.

Great, but even with that, you're not going to get enough mature media that you could call your tank fully cycled the same day as you put it in.

It also seems to be agreed upon that the bio-start or cycle products are next to useless, since the bacteria could not survive, in the conditions.

So how would you be able to make a product which would work?

My guess is that you would need some media to arm it on, which makes sense, since when you then sell/buy the media, you can put it straight into your filter and away you go.

secondly you would need to preserve whatever bacteria you have, during shipping, now most products obviously this is where the issue lies. So my suggestion would be to ship on media, in water with a little ammonia to prolong the lifespan and leave more delivery room, ordered online and shipped direct from farmer to fishkeeper.

While in theory thats great....

Here lies the problem, from what I read too much ammonia concentration will make the wrong type of bacteria form. And if you are farming the stuff, you'll have a lot of bacteria to feed.

How do you get around this?
Anyone willing to setup a tank full of media?

 

[plecostomus-mad]

i have a spare 60l im not using,would be interesting too. how much media would be needed for this experiment?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Are you trying to farm bacteria? First off... cool.. second... it may be a little hard as it would be a never ending process of adding ammonia.

Just stick to the the 5 ppm rule... that is how much ammonia you should add and monitor ammonia levels everyday.

-FHM

 

[plecostomus-mad]

hi fatheadminnow

i was thinking of giving it a head start if i go ahead. i always run 2 filters....1 for just incase. i could pop that in the tank, some fish and a whole lot of media.

what do you guys think?

 

[fatheadminnow]

hi fatheadminnow

i was thinking of giving it a head start if i go ahead. i always run 2 filters....1 for just incase. i could pop that in the tank, some fish and a whole lot of media.

what do you guys think?

Sounds like a plan to me. As long as you have media and water running through it (filter) than the bacteria will colonize on it.

-FHM

 

[plecostomus-mad]

i think i could use eggcrate to section off large parts of media, like dividing walls but with an arch in the middle for the fish to move from section to section to maximize media exposure.

Chrisbassist- as its your overall idea , what do you think? any methods you think would work?

 

[chrisbassist]

okay,

the problem as I see it:
5ppm ammonia, will happily feed enough bacteria for the size of tank you are adding it into. that means that in order to feed enough bacteria, you'll need to have lots of tanks and lots of filters (so lots of space and lots of money)

or would it be enough to feed more often with ammonia? if it breaks down the 5ppm within an hour, could you add another 5ppm hourly? would that allow you to feed more bacteria?

I think the ideal scenario would use that.

Take a tank, fill the tank with media, create a current so all of the media gets exposure, so you're using the entire tank or media and treating it as a filter.

in order to circulate the water in the most efficient way yyou would want maybe 4 of those "fan" things for currents, one at each corner of the tank to create a fully circular currunt.

and add 5ppm ammonia every time it reaches 0. which with that smount of media, and that amount of (hopefully) bacteria, could be every 5 minutes once established. and with that ammount, it should then be easy to take a handful out to add to a filter and not have too much effect on the media still in the tank, since you could add in a handful of fresh media, and have that matured in a matter of days, not weeks, or months.

by doing it like that, you could have a full tankful of mature media, ready to be used, sold or experimented with. I know I'd pay an extra £30 to have been able to fully stock my tank the week i got it, instead of worrying about cycles... (and thats a £1 per gallon)

anyone with more knowledge on the bacteria please point out flaws in my thinking. but please also attempt to explain a possible work-around too...

obviously, as a business a lot of work would need to be done. sustaining the bacteria would cost money, which if you're not selling enough, is just plain bad business...

 

[plecostomus-mad]

basicly what is a sump i think. same thing pretty much.

 

[chrisbassist]

yeah, except no need to attach it to a tank of fish.....

what do you think?

would it be possible to farm in high enough numbers to make it worth while?

I'm assuming it's a yes...

so on the second part, best ways of transporting that media, best temps (or best insulation for packaging to use) etc?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Transporting: Double bag with 1/3 water and 2/3 air. You can throw some fish food in the bag to provide a bit of ammonia.

-FHM

 

[Tolak]

I've always tossed in a bit of frozen bloodworm when shipping media. Creates a little ammonia, easy enough to see & rinse out at the destination.

 

[chrisbassist]

so anyone willing to set-up a tank full of media? it'd look ugly, cost a fortune in media, and probably another fortune in ammonia... to see if it can be done efficiently and give enough mature media?

 

[plecostomus-mad]

i could do it on a small scale,2ft 60l tank.

would anyone here buy some media once ready?lol

 

[chrisbassist]

great, basically if it can be funded you'll do it then?

an i think it's better to do it on a small scale first, that way if it doesn't work, less has been lost.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

not at all, i can fund it, would be nice to sell the end product.lol