Re: [APD] Suggested tank cycling experiment

[Stuart Halliday <stuart at mytriops_com>]

I believe Paul Krombholz wrote this email section below:
> Why should we have to buy the requisite bacteria.  Soil has millions of
> varieties of bacteria.

True.

>  Try this experiment:
> 
>> Take a teaspoon of topsoil from your back yard or somewhere where plants are
>> growing (Not from some bag of sterilized Œtopsoil¹ from a garden center) and
>> put it in a custard dish or finger bowl and cover with about 2 inches of
>> water.  Add two or three pieces of dried dog or cat food or one piece of dried
>> liver, about the size of a penny.  Wait three days and pour the liquid part of
>> the contents into the tank to be cycled.  You don¹t have to get the soil in
>> there.  Give the tank a day and then test for ammonia.  If there is some, see
>> how long it takes for it to go away.  If there is none, add ammonia to reach
>> 2ppm and see how long it takes that to be oxidized to nitrate.  Compare with a
>> control situation where no bacteria have been added.
>>
> I would do it except that I don¹t have any tanks free now and I also don¹t
> have the time to do it.  

Great idea.

I'll add that to my list of experiments! :-)



-- 
Stuart Halliday
http://mytriops.com/
200 Million years in the making...

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