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2,010 Posts
OK, so it's a bottle.
I keep seeing all the talk about surface area and biofilms (more often called bacterial colonies here) and how they need to be maximized in order to be able to handle the ammonia created by the fish that we keep. A while back I did some calculations to compare the surface area of sand and gravel substrates of various grain sizes and various filter media and determined that the filter, as far as biological filtration is concerned, was a small part of the equation.This is sort of an experiment to see if even all that area is really needed in the first place.
Being a planted tank person I believe that plants are the easiest and best option but understand that not everyone wants to deal with plants for a variety of reasons. As a result, I skipped the whole tank cycling process. I understand that it still happens in the background even with a ton of plants and that it effectively becomes a dual system. I have since decided that I want to try creating a stand alone nitrogen cycle and do it in the simplest controlled environment possible, mainly to see what it is all about. I'm even using fish food that I would have otherwise thrown out... so it is a very cheap experiment.
Interestingly, there are more surface square inches of glass per gallon of water in my bottle than in my rectangular tank by a factor of 5 so I consider that compensates for the lack of filter and substrate to a certain degree.
I am using tap water at room temperature, fish food as an ammonia source with no substrate, plants, filter or circulation other than me moving it every once in awhile. I am aiming to keep the ammonia no higher than 1ppm. Water testing will be once per 24 hour period for ammonia and nitrites and nitrates only periodically. I am not concerned with nitrates and I really don’t want to have to do all that shaking anyway. The prime indicators of cycle completion are really the ammonia and nitrites dropping to zero with new ammonia added.
Tuesday I set up the jar, filled it with water and added four medium sized sinking pellets... probably too much for a small volume, but I can adjust as needed. Yesterday I tested ammonia at 0.25ppm. Right on cue. Nitrites were zero or at least unmeasurable with the test kit.
Jeff.
I keep seeing all the talk about surface area and biofilms (more often called bacterial colonies here) and how they need to be maximized in order to be able to handle the ammonia created by the fish that we keep. A while back I did some calculations to compare the surface area of sand and gravel substrates of various grain sizes and various filter media and determined that the filter, as far as biological filtration is concerned, was a small part of the equation.This is sort of an experiment to see if even all that area is really needed in the first place.
Being a planted tank person I believe that plants are the easiest and best option but understand that not everyone wants to deal with plants for a variety of reasons. As a result, I skipped the whole tank cycling process. I understand that it still happens in the background even with a ton of plants and that it effectively becomes a dual system. I have since decided that I want to try creating a stand alone nitrogen cycle and do it in the simplest controlled environment possible, mainly to see what it is all about. I'm even using fish food that I would have otherwise thrown out... so it is a very cheap experiment.
Interestingly, there are more surface square inches of glass per gallon of water in my bottle than in my rectangular tank by a factor of 5 so I consider that compensates for the lack of filter and substrate to a certain degree.
I am using tap water at room temperature, fish food as an ammonia source with no substrate, plants, filter or circulation other than me moving it every once in awhile. I am aiming to keep the ammonia no higher than 1ppm. Water testing will be once per 24 hour period for ammonia and nitrites and nitrates only periodically. I am not concerned with nitrates and I really don’t want to have to do all that shaking anyway. The prime indicators of cycle completion are really the ammonia and nitrites dropping to zero with new ammonia added.
Tuesday I set up the jar, filled it with water and added four medium sized sinking pellets... probably too much for a small volume, but I can adjust as needed. Yesterday I tested ammonia at 0.25ppm. Right on cue. Nitrites were zero or at least unmeasurable with the test kit.
Jeff.