How benificial bacteria develope?

Question

how does benificial bacteria work how du i make my bacteria trive was the prosses as well explain other than usin cycle

Answer 1

Well, you must have decorations in the aquarium, and it will grow on those and the filter, in time. Water conditioner will encourage bacterial growth , but some supplies claim to instantly build up that bacteria. I wouldn't trust that. Wait for it to grow for about 3 days and then add some fish. After all, you want whats best for the fish right?

Answer 2

The cycle bacteria need 3 things to survive.

A source of ammonia

Oxygen

A place to live

The ammonia comes from your fish, they excrete ammonia all the time via their gills, and from their waste breaking down in the water. Or in a fishless cycle, you add some pure ammonia (or something that will rot and produce ammonia)

The oxygen comes from the water being circulated in the tank by the filter.

The filter contains some sort of media, thats designed as a home for the bacteria. The water (with some ammonia and oxygen in it) gets pumped through the media. The bacteria will colonise that media, and multiply until they use up all the stray ammonia. The number of bacteria in the filter then stays pretty much constant.

If you add some more fish, there is more ammonia and the bacteria multiply some more to match the amount of ammonia they are getting. Likewise if you remove fish some of the bacteria will die off and the system will find a new balance.

So there is really nothing you need to do except setup the right conditions and wait. The bacteria will then multiply to match the system you have created. You can speed up the process by taking filter media or gravel etc from an established tank. They will be covered with real live filter bacteria and help seed you new tank.

Cycling without fish is a good idea as your tank is starting with practically no bacteria, so the levels can be pretty haywire for those first few weeks. If there are no fish in the tank, they cant get killed. Once you have some live cycle bacteria in the tank it's safe to add some fish and then just let the system find it's own balance.

Ian