when to add bacteria to your aquarium there's really only four distinct situations when you
should be dosing bacteria and there's also a time when you shouldn't be wasting any of your money
dosing it when it's not necessary we're gonna cover them all let's go
if you're new to the channel you'll quickly find out that i like to get straight to the point here
but i also like to keep the beginners in mind so bear with me for a sec guys the beneficial
bacteria in your tank is what's keeping your tank functional and habitable for your fish
without this bacteria our fish will die from ammonia and nitrite poisoning every tank must have
beneficial bacteria in it how it naturally gets into your tank well that's a whole other topic
depending on what level of aquarius you are you either understand this fully or you have no idea
what i'm talking about either way that's okay because we were all beginners at one point so
if you're in the ladder then i highly suggest that you check out my beginners playlist that's full of
videos to get you up to speed on the hobby i'll have links in the description and at the end of
this video for everyone else let's start with the most obvious time of when to add bacteria to your
aquarium that's going to be during a tank cycle for the purpose of instruction i'm going to be
using stability as my go-to source of bacteria in a bottle even though this video is not sponsored
by chem they do not pay me to refer their products to you guys even though i think they should i
have to see chem come and seek but there are plenty of similar products that accomplish the
same thing if you can't get a hold of stability like api stress lime or fritz turbostar just to
name a few i'll have links to all of these in the description below another great option is
a product called seed by aqua vitro aqua vitro is owned by seachem this product is exactly the same
as stability the only difference is you cannot purchase this online or in any big box stores
seachem and aqua vitro only supply this to your local mom and pop fish stores because they like
to support the local guys instead of all the big box brand name people so go check out your
local fish store i'm sure they'll have a bottle of seed it's a little bit more cheaper than stability
and it's gonna do just as good of a job shout out to tropical showcase in hicksville new york
adding stability or one of these other similar products is going to help in cycling your new tank
what this bacteria in a bottle does is that it boosts the production of your naturally
growing bacteria and dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to get your tank cycled
now before i get beat up in the comments let me just say something loud and clear you don't need
bacteria in a bottle to get your tank cycle it's completely optional it's just a widely used method
of speeding up your tank cycle some acquirers prefer to not use any chemicals in their tank
and cycle the tank the old-fashioned natural way completely fine to each his own if you're a little
impatient like me it's totally safe to use seeking stability to boost your cycle time it's so safe
that you can even add fish to an uncycled tank on day one by using c-com stability in combination
with c kim prime yeah that's right i said that and this tank right here is living breathing proof
watch this this is what is going to allow you to put fish in your tank on day one combined
with your prime or your safe those are going to detoxify any ammonia that build up in your tank
before bacteria is present to get that ammonia out so by adding prime or safe and stability daily
into your new tank you can put fish into your tank on day one now this leads me into when not
to use stability so you can stop wasting your money when your tank has fully completed the
nitrogen cycle meaning you have no ammonia in your tank no nitrite and very little nitrate
that means you've completed the cycle and you don't have to dull stability or any other bacteria
in a bottle at this point it's unnecessary because your tank has already grown a good amount of
beneficial bacteria that can handle the tank's current bio load so save your money until you're
in situation number two which is adding new fish adding new fish to your tank is going to increase
your bio load more fish more poop more ammonia the current amount of beneficial bacteria in your tank
can only consume the current amount of ammonia so when you add more fish and you add more ammonia
you need more bacteria get it now this additional bacteria will grow in your tank on its own pretty
quickly actually but during this time period your fish are going to be exposed to this additional
ammonia that your current levels of bacteria can't handle and the more fish you added the more new
ammonia there is so just like cycling your tank adding stability or any other bacteria in a bottle
is going to help boost the production of that new bacteria that you need to minimize the
amount of time that your fish are exposed to this additional ammonia i hope that makes sense if i
lost you completely let me know in the comments and i'll help you out similar to the reason for
adding bacteria when you add new fish is going to be reason number three during an ammonia spike
yes an ammonia spike can happen when you add new fish but there's also many other reasons for an
ammonia spike like over feeding your tank or maybe finding dead fish or decaying plants in your tank
or possibly even over cleaning your tank killing off some of your beneficial bacteria now there's
no way to tell when you have an ammonia spike unfortunately the first sign or symptom is usually
death if you were lucky enough to have tested your water and notice the ammonia spike from your test
then yeah you're lucky in this scenario i recommend doing the following in this
order dose your tank with prime immediately in order to detoxify that ammonia while we set up
for our next step which is going to be a big water change now even though we're about to remove water
along with the prime we just put in there you want to add prime right away
because any ammonia in your tank for any amount of time could kill your fish like that and we
don't want that to happen so start your big water change about 50 just to dilute as much of
that ammonia as possible and when we put new water back into the tank we're going to add prime again
just to be sure that we dechlorinate all that new water and also to detoxify any ammonia that still
got left over at this point we're also going to add some more stability this is a great time to
ensure that we have enough beneficial bacteria to handle whatever caused that ammonia spike
some may see this as unnecessary at this point because we removed a lot of that ammonia with the
big water change but i'd rather stay to the side of being safe rather than saving a few shekels and
not dosing with stability it's not gonna hurt anything so why not and why not hit that like
button if you've been enjoying this video so far it's only gonna tell youtube that you like these
kind of videos so that youtube will show you similar videos in the future win-win me and you
smash away number four of when to add bacteria to your tank is going to be during a filter cleaning
or when replacing an established filter like reference before over cleaning can kill your
beneficial bacteria your filters are going to house the most beneficial bacteria of any place
in your entire tank so being diligent and keeping them alive in here is important if any of you
are like me i try to clean my filters the most efficient way without killing off any bacteria
both by using tank water to clean my sponges and also trying not to touch my bio media at all maybe
just a couple of dunks in tank water and that's it if you want more information on how i clean
my filters check that video out right there but there's still a very high chance that some of
your beneficial bacteria can die off not all but some likewise when you replace a filter you should
be transferring all of the biomedia from the old filter into the new one to preserve as much of
that bacteria as possible but some may still die on you which is why this is the best time to add
some bacteria in a bottle to replenish any of the live bacteria that you may have lost during
the cleaning or during the transfer your stability stress time or turbo star seed whatever it is that
you use is going to help replenish the bacteria that you lost again safety over savings i like to
add my stability directly into the filter before setting it up and reinstalling to the tank and
this time i'm gonna add it in the right place if you enjoyed this one two type of video make sure
to let me know so i can make more of them and then subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the
next one now go check out the rest of the series right here and for you beginners as promised
check out that playlist right there wherever you end up i'll see you on the other side you