I decided to do a little experiment. I took an extra 7 gal tank, put fresh water in it, and rinsed out a filter i had from my main tank. The mulm you see in the picture is from cleaning my other filter. I then let it sit, and wanted to see what happened. No filter, no heater, no substrate, no plants, no fish, and initially no airstone. Just stagnant water and some mulm from my main tank filter.
So a few weeks later, its full of copepods and microcritters buzzing about. No fish were eating them, they were having a field day. Also had 2 bladder snails, and at least 1 planaria, And some tiny dietritis worms. And another flatworm species, not planaria. All of this was from the filter in my main tank!!!! Hiding out in filter in a micro environment I guess…….Conclusion = theres lots more living in your filter then you realize!!!!
Ok so I started feeding all these guys, and ammonia spiked to 1, then 2, then 4 ppm. No nitrites, no nitrates. Nothing was cycling, even after a few weeks. I was was getting worried for the bladder snails and copepods at 4 ppm ammonia and rising.
But then I added an airstone, and Boom!!!! Tank started cycling. Within 4 days ammonia started decreasing,, nitrites showed up, and cycling well under way…. Conclusion = tank cycling may be severely hindered in a low oxygen, and no water flow environment. ammonia and nitrotes are oxidized, and require oxygen to do this.
Conclusion. You dont need substrate, or a filter to cycle your tank (although extra surface area cant hurt). Im assuming the bacteria was on the sides of the glass, or maybe attached to the mulm.
Also, bladder snails and copepods thrive in 6 ppm ammonia and 1 ppm nitrite. bladder snails were having babies, copepods were all over. The internet says that having copepods is a sign of good water quality, well thats pure BS. Copepods thrive in water that would kill other fish!!!
Ok anyways, tank is now cycled after about 2 months and all the microcritters are loving life. I think Ill use it to raise molly fry. They would probually love eating all the micofauna in here. Ill add some fast growing plants to help stabilize water parameters.
Comments?….. Anyone else ever do this?
Posted by Exciting-Speaker-675
6 Comments
Yep BB need oxygen but do not require a filter. I say this often and people do not believe it.
Nice experiment. The nitrifying bacteria we rely on for the nitrogen cycle for the plants and livestock we keep are aerobic; they need oxygen to go about their duties. In the absence of oxygen, anaerobic bacteria will take hold and create an environment less conducive to the type of aquariums that we enjoy looking at.
I want to do a cycling experiment to as well…I’m glad u posted this Ill comment further , but for now I’m gonna go read a book lol
While you don’t need substrate or a filter to start building a nitrobacter colony, they are limited by surface area. If you were to remove that mulm your current nitrobacter colony would decrease significantly and as a result you’ll have a weaker cycle. Nitrobacter will stick to anything including: glass, substrate, decorations, filter media, spawning mops. The more porous, the more nitrobacter that can colonize. Nitrobacter also only convert nitrite to nitrate when they’re attached. If they’re free floating they aren’t eating.
By the way. The 7 gal tank was $25 USD and the air stone was $6 USD. So for 30 bucks you can have very basic setup.
But what have you proven? That BB can grow in a bare tank? Ok, can it handle a full stock of fish? most likely not
Cool, that has no influence on how we create our tanks, and in my opinion give some pretty bad information, as you started with a seed of mulm.