Beneficial Bacteria vs Ammonia

In one of my Youtube videos i was talking about Ammonia reading and being able to measure that. However, what should we do with the readings?

In other words, we may know from a cycling process that ammonia is present in the water column and throughout the cycle, there will be a peak in Ammonia. When there is beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia that is in the water column, it will then be converted to Nitrite and eventually to Nitrate.

The beneficial bacteria is the catalyst to convert the harmful ammonia to less harmful nitrite and eventually to nitrate.

While we can measure the ammonia reading, we can’t really measure beneficial bacteria, or can we? We are able to know if a tank is colonized with beneficial bacteria by measuring Ammonia. If Ammonia reading is 0 then we can safely “assume” there is beneficial bacteria present.

While we are not able to measure the number of beneficial bacteria in the tank we can however measure the surface area or Meter square available in the tank surface for bacteria colonization.

We can consider measuring porosity of filter media such as pads/substrat/ media/ etc to give an indication of how much surface area is potentially available for beneficial bacteria to colonize.

Many manufacturer market their product based on “Great Surface Area” but how great is great?

Hence to get an indication of what surface area are in filter media and sponges:

While this post is not about which media is better for which purpose, as this can be found in other online information.

The table provides an indication of how much potential growth of beneficial bacteria at a given ammonia level.

There are many ways to get to Rome and what i’m trying to share in this post is about ammonia vs beneficial bacteria.

Do you have sufficient beneficial bacteria to shorten the duration of an ammonia spike. There are many causes of ammonia spike, it can be a dead shrimp, can be an over dose of bacteria products and other things. So it is not the ammonia spike that is scary but the duration of the spike that should be looked into.

Reason being is that if the tank have insufficient beneficial bacteria than the ammonia spike will be rather long in duration until the current beneficial bacteria have multiply to cope up with the given ammonia before the spike goes back down.

In other words, it doesn’t mean having a higher porosity filter would mean higher beneficial bacteria count, but it does mean that the potential for higher beneficial bacteria count is possible.

For example if you are using 1600 m2/L filter media vs 400 m2/L both will have beneficial bacteria of the same level if the ammonia level is kept the same. However, as we all know that shrimp breed and with more shrimplet the colony grow giving rise to higher ammonia. If there is insufficient space for more beneficial bacteria to grow than the tank will have hit it’s max capacity.

On the other hand if the ammonia level continue to rise due to more bioload, on the 1600 m2/L filter media, it will then continue to colonize new beneficial bacteria to upkeep with the ammonia changes.

Technically while we measure ammonia, we should also measure the duration of such a spike because the longer the spike the more damage it will do. Now with porosity given in another light, you can now look at why large area of sponge like HMF are working so well because of the large surface area.

If you are a filter media person, you can consider using filter media of good porosity to ensure high surface area. While they do clog up eventually, it is noted that a 10% change in filter media in 6-12 months can be considered to ensure new beneficial bacteria get colonize as sometimes the soil and dirt get stuck in the pores of the filter media rendering them less efficient.

With the thoughts behind porosity vs ammonia, it is important to discern the difference and that ‘getting by’ is ok but having an abundance will be beneficial in the long term. In other words, a larger potential area for beneficial bacteria to colonize is advantageous as you get into the more tricky shrimps.

Ammonia is your best friend in the aquarium because they are the food source for beneficial bacteria to colonize and continue to colonize. The higher the ammonia source the higher the POTENTIAL the growth of beneficial bacteria depending on the surface area. If there is very low surface area such as using 1L of soil for 100L as filter media, than the beneficial bacteria will be much lesser compare to the same with a large surface filter media.

We can prevent ammonia spike by having good water parameters both hard and soft value. Also we can reduce possibility of ammonia spike by not adding too many products into the tank to ‘mix’ it up. The lesser we add, the better and more stable it will be. The more products you add, the less likely you will know what is causing the trouble.

While there are many products on the market, it is important to discern the difference and once the tank is stable, i only use a product to enhance shrimp gut health which is optional.

1. Natto bacteria for probiotic health

other than that, i personally do not add nitrifying bacteria or other things after every water change. The only thing i would add is Natto bacteria occasionally for good gut health.

Can read more here regarding no requirement for nitrifying bacteria after every WC: https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/freshwater/nitrifying-bacteria

Yes the active soil we use for example Tropica and ADA soil are porous in nature since they’re clay and soil but the porosity of the soil if use in large quantity per L of water such as 1L of soil per 16L of water and having it up to 100L of water in the tank would house quite a lot of soil which then i believe can get away from having filter media.

However, any lesser soil would generally mean the porosity vs ammonia may be insufficient to begin with. Hence, it is important to note that if soil is use as a filter media it should also be considered the amount of soil use to per L of water. A general rule is the tank have to be at least 100L with 80L being filled with water. Meaning 1L of soil to 16L of water or 5L of soil. That is then sufficient as a media and buffering.

If there are lesser porosity or surface area for beneficial bacteria to colonize, the cycle will take a long time hence using soil solely for the tank as filtration and in small quantity will not be beneficial to the entire ecosystem.

Probably can get away with the more hardy shrimps but as we advance to more challenging type, every single detail matters.