Beneficial Bacteria

[JamieB]

I've seen it sold for aquariums too, but I don't bother with either. I add tank water to the pond, and if I were to ever need to restart all my tanks, I'd use a good splash of pond water.

 

[Mmathis]

@WaterGardener Thank you — interesting and informative! I always say that we need to look at the science behind what we do with our ponds!

 

[WaterGardener]

I completely agree and being the curious person I seem to be, I tend to seek out that information.

One other thing that is often misunderstood, is that although the water from the pond has all the bacteria we need, the bacteria won't colonize in the water. It needs solid surfaces to grow on. That's the reason there is media in filters. Without colonization, there won't be enough bacteria to do the conversions.

So even if you move water from your pond to establish a new tank or pond, the new set up will still have to go through the nitrogen cycle to grow enough bacteria to be effective. Simply moving water won't cycle the tank. Moving established media would be much more helpful since that is where most of the bacteria would be.

 

[Mmathis]

I completely agree and being the curious person I seem to be, I tend to seek out that information.

One other thing that is often misunderstood, is that although the water from the pond has all the bacteria we need, the bacteria won't colonize in the water. It needs solid surfaces to grow on. That's the reason there is media in filters. Without colonization, there won't be enough bacteria to do the conversions.

So even if you move water from your pond to establish a new tank or pond, the new set up will still have to go through the nitrogen cycle to grow enough bacteria to be effective. Simply moving water won't cycle the tank. Moving established media would be much more helpful since that is where most of the bacteria would be.

When we moved our pond last summer, I know I drove everyone crazy, but I had the move worked out in precise stages. One step was to take ALL of my bio media (from the Skippy), place it in multiple 5-gallon Home Depot buckets (it took several buckets), and keep it aerated in pond water until we were ready to transport it. Our new home was only a couple of miles down the road, so not much time elapsed.

 

[Jhn]

Agree with everyone I wouldn’t waste money on bottled bacteria. The only type of bacteria in a bottle I’ve seen that truly contains the nitrosomas and nitrobacter bacteria is Fritz zyme, but I’ve never used it.

I am a patient person with my ponds and tanks, so I see no need to try to rush the maturation/cycling process. Now I am all about lessening the severity of cycling ponds or my fish tanks. With my ponds I don’t really add any media from existing ponds mainly because I don’t have any other than the pea gravel in planters Or the pond bottom , which I could toss into new ponds I suppose. I just add alooooot of plants usually from existing ponds in a bog and in the pond itself before I add fish. Also, I don’t add a lot of fish at once especially big ones that create a lot of waste that could overwhelm the existing biofilter until the bacteria populations have a chance to expand an catch up.