Is adding Beneficial Bacteria truly helpful?

[tanyaclick]

What is your favorite beneficial bacteria to add to a pond?
I haven't seen any changes to adding beneficial bacteria in the past so is there one that you have used that does work? or is this a snake oil product?
Now that I've cleaned my temporary pond the Ammonia is back up to 2 PPM. I added SAFE powder for the time being after a 70% water change made no difference. This was the same experience I had going through winter waiting for this to cycle initially. I'd do back to back water changes for a few days- it would remain at 2ppm no matter what I did. I went through various products to protect from the Ammonia: Prime, SAFE, Ammo Lock (the ammo lock did the best). Ultimately I just gave up and eventually it cycled.

I recently added fish and then they all started looking rough (see other post https://www.gardenpondforum.com/thr...parasites-fungal-bacterial.33358/#post-524952 AND https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread.php?174711-No-slime-coat) so I had to clean all of the filters and such. They look better and happier but now the ammonia is back up to 2ppm. Nitrite 0. PH 8.5. KH and GH is good.

And what is the minimum I can get away with feeding them while they are in this temporary pool, which could be all summer???

Thank you!!!

 

[WaterGardener]

With Safe and Prime, the ammonia test will still show the TOTAL amount of ammonia in the water. That means that the ammonia bound by those products will still be seen with the tests, along with any unbound ammonia. It doesn't mean that it doesn't work.

As I have said before, you don't have enough filtration for that many fish in that small an amount of water. You have a small box filter in the pool and a small trickle filter. You need enough filtration for several thousand gallons, not several hundred.

Even though your filters may have cycled, there is simply not enough for the fish load you have.

You added even more fish than you had originally? No wonder your ammonia is out of control again. Did you quarantine the new ones?

You need to add some considerable filtration and/or greatly reduce the number of fish. If neither of those things is done, you will keep having problems.

 

[WaterGardener]

The beneficial bacteria you buy in the store is not the type you need to establish filter bacteria. As far as I know, there are only 2 companies that sell the right bacteria.

It is live and has to be shipped fresh, so it is expensive. Those bacteria don't live long sealed in a bottle so they have a very short shelf life. You have to order them and have them shipped overnight and use them ASAP.
.
But no amount of the right bacteria will help if you don't have the enough media for it to get established on. That means filter media primarily.

One product is FritZyme. The other is Ki Nitrifier.

 

[Mmathis]

Nope. Just a way to take your money. You need good filtration and surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to grow. Mother Nature takes care of the rest. Test you water and don’t overstock…..things will stay in balance.