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So I would have one with b-i-a-b and one with wat? and then the controled one.b-i-a-b = bacteria-in-a-bottle. Things like "stress-zyme", "cycle", "bactinettes", etc.
As per:and:JustKia said:
Posted earlier on in this threadJustKia said:
to your first question its a mixture of both, we have to research our chosen subject then pick something within that topic. Then we have to try to improve on it.
(loraxchick has even got a thread on here about how to make your own - just make sure they are identical if you do that).
Well as an example:
Get 3 types of b-i-a-b. There's Stress-zyme by API, Cycle by nutrafin, SafeStart by Tetra, Bactinettes by Soll, I'm sure there's more but can't think off the top of my head.
Get your bottle of ammonia (often found near the cleaning supplies). It will be aqueous ammonia (ammonia is a gas, you'll be getting ammonia dissolved in water) and should say on there what volume it is - 9.5% is the most common I believe. Make sure that it doesn't contain any surfactants or detergents, etc.
Get an liquid based test kit - either get the API master test kit or at least get a liquid reagent test for Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte and pH.
Get, say, 4 identical 3-5 gal tanks (lets keep it small). You would set all 4 up EXACTLY the same.
Same substrate (from the same bag) or even go with out substrate.
Same filter brand with same media (OK I know that you will still get a bit of variation in the flow here but not so much that it's likely to skew your results).
So, you might choose to use a sponge filter - keep the costs down that way
Then use the same water, dechlorinator, any other treatments EXACTLY the same on each tank - might be worth making one big batch of water in a bucket, adding the treatments, stirring well and then dividing into the tanks instead of trying to measure the same treatments for each one.
So, now you've got your tanks set up.
Label them, use the name of the b-i-a-b that you use on 2, 3 & 4;
For example 1) Control, 2)Nutrafin Cycle, 3)Tetra SafeStart, 4)API Stress-zyme.
The control will not have any b-i-a-b added - that's why it's the control.
Add the b-i-a-b to the appropriate tank in the doseage stated on the label/leaflet.
Add the ammonia to get 5ppm (actually that might be a bit much for such a small tank, maybe work with 3ppm) - there's a thread on here somewhere about how much ammonia you should need to add to get Xppm based on the volume of your ammonia.
Record your results for each tank on Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, and pH (make sure you record the date and time as well).
The link in my siggie for fishless cycling will help you out here.
See which, if any, b-i-a-b quickens the time in which it takes the filter to become cycled.
Do any of them actually result in the cycle in that tank taking longer?
While the project is going on, you could/should back it all up by researching the "Nitrogen cycle" (after all this is what you are doing - this is your "reasearch" part of the project). Remember to include what bacteria you needing to grow in the filters - you can find that out from searching these foums. There's the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrIte and then the bacteria that convert NitrIte to NitrAte.
Remember to include that 1ppm of ammonia should convert into 2.7ppm NitrIte.
Now, that you have seen a control tank and 3 different b-i-a-b additions cycle your filters and researched the nitrogen cycle, you should have a very good understanding of what's happening and why, so hypothesize about what you could do to improve on the cycle. What could you do or add to get the correct bacteria in there more quickly.
We already know taking mature media from an established filter will help - can you find any new suggestions?
Where else might these bacteria be found? Is there anyway of getting them from there to your filter? * This is your "improve on it" part of the project.
Summarize your results, create graphs of them (one for each ammonia, NitrIte, nitrAte, pH) - maybe draw the graphs for all 4 tanks on the same chart, using a different colour for each set-up, so you can see where the differences occurred - if there were spikes, if the spikes occurred at the same time or different times.
So you'd have 1 graph for pH with each tank displayed in it's chose colour. For your ammonia you'd graph how long it took the bacs to process 3ppm. And so on.
* - Actually, if you looked into that bit first you could try that on one of your set-ups.
1) Control, 2) Nutrafin Cycle, 3) Tetra SafeStart, 4) Your own found source of nitrying bacteria... Just a thought.
The you coud summarize whether it was better to go with a no-additive set-up, use a commercial b-i-a-b or to use your own found source of the bacs.
OK that should be enough to kick you off LOL Any more and I might as well be doing the project.
Well as an example:
Get 3 types of b-i-a-b. There's Stress-zyme by API, Cycle by nutrafin, SafeStart by Tetra, Bactinettes by Soll, I'm sure there's more but can't think off the top of my head.
Get your bottle of ammonia (often found near the cleaning supplies). It will be aqueous ammonia (ammonia is a gas, you'll be getting ammonia dissolved in water) and should say on there what volume it is - 9.5% is the most common I believe. Make sure that it doesn't contain any surfactants or detergents, etc.
Get an liquid based test kit - either get the API master test kit or at least get a liquid reagent test for Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte and pH.
Get, say, 4 identical 3-5 gal tanks (lets keep it small). You would set all 4 up EXACTLY the same.
Same substrate (from the same bag) or even go with out substrate.
Same filter brand with same media (OK I know that you will still get a bit of variation in the flow here but not so much that it's likely to skew your results).
So, you might choose to use a sponge filter - keep the costs down that way
Then use the same water, dechlorinator, any other treatments EXACTLY the same on each tank - might be worth making one big batch of water in a bucket, adding the treatments, stirring well and then dividing into the tanks instead of trying to measure the same treatments for each one.
So, now you've got your tanks set up.
Label them, use the name of the b-i-a-b that you use on 2, 3 & 4;
For example 1) Control, 2)Nutrafin Cycle, 3)Tetra SafeStart, 4)API Stress-zyme.
The control will not have any b-i-a-b added - that's why it's the control.
Add the b-i-a-b to the appropriate tank in the doseage stated on the label/leaflet.
Add the ammonia to get 5ppm (actually that might be a bit much for such a small tank, maybe work with 3ppm) - there's a thread on here somewhere about how much ammonia you should need to add to get Xppm based on the volume of your ammonia.
Record your results for each tank on Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, and pH (make sure you record the date and time as well).
The link in my siggie for fishless cycling will help you out here.
See which, if any, b-i-a-b quickens the time in which it takes the filter to become cycled.
Do any of them actually result in the cycle in that tank taking longer?
While the project is going on, you could/should back it all up by researching the "Nitrogen cycle" (after all this is what you are doing - this is your "reasearch" part of the project). Remember to include what bacteria you needing to grow in the filters - you can find that out from searching these foums. There's the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrIte and then the bacteria that convert NitrIte to NitrAte.
Remember to include that 1ppm of ammonia should convert into 2.7ppm NitrIte.
Now, that you have seen a control tank and 3 different b-i-a-b additions cycle your filters and researched the nitrogen cycle, you should have a very good understanding of what's happening and why, so hypothesize about what you could do to improve on the cycle. What could you do or add to get the correct bacteria in there more quickly.
We already know taking mature media from an established filter will help - can you find any new suggestions?
Where else might these bacteria be found? Is there anyway of getting them from there to your filter? * This is your "improve on it" part of the project.
Summarize your results, create graphs of them (one for each ammonia, NitrIte, nitrAte, pH) - maybe draw the graphs for all 4 tanks on the same chart, using a different colour for each set-up, so you can see where the differences occurred - if there were spikes, if the spikes occurred at the same time or different times.
So you'd have 1 graph for pH with each tank displayed in it's chose colour. For your ammonia you'd graph how long it took the bacs to process 3ppm. And so on.
* - Actually, if you looked into that bit first you could try that on one of your set-ups.
1) Control, 2) Nutrafin Cycle, 3) Tetra SafeStart, 4) Your own found source of nitrying bacteria... Just a thought.
The you coud summarize whether it was better to go with a no-additive set-up, use a commercial b-i-a-b or to use your own found source of the bacs.
OK that should be enough to kick you off LOL Any more and I might as well be doing the project.
NO NO NO I didn't mean it like that well yah
. . . While thinking about this project it seems easy and not to complicated as well as very important to fish keeping. Now that I think about it the people with cool sounding projects did bad usually.
K cool. So I would set up 4 tanks one with just ammonia and the rest with ammonia and different b-i-a-b. And test them everyday to see which one cycles the fastest and if they actually slow down the cycle.Yes they do - that's the whole point, comparing no bottled bacteria to several different types of bacteria.
What you would do is add a certain amount of ammonia solution to all the tanks and that would be the starting point of your cycle - seens as thats what fish produce as waste, the whole point of fishless cycling is that you add an alternative source of ammonia so that you dont have to put any fish lives at risk from poisoning.
The fishless cycle threads in the beginners FAQ section would be a great place to pick up lots of the info you need for that
