# Colony Freshwater Profressional Grade Nitrifying Bacteria



## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

> Aquarium Cycling has been an ongoing issue in the aquarium hobby and industry. ATM Colony Freshwater contains all natural, live Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria in a special freshwater preservative solution. These species of bacteria are proven to utilize ammonia and nitrite as a primary energy source, resulting in the removal of these harmful substances from aquarium systems.
> 
> ATM Colony Freshwater effectively establishes biofiltration in days instead of weeks, and helps prevent "New Tank Syndrome" by instantly cycling aquariums with real nitrifying bacteria. Made in the U.S.A.


anybody ever try this stuff for their shrimp tank? i was just browsing BA's website and its my first time seeing it.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

It's the same as Nutrafin cycle stuff or any of the others. Many have questioned how much bacteria can actually live without a food source or O2 levels in a bottle for months and months while they sit on a shelf. The preservation process may help some. I rather just use a filter from an established tank or filter media and then squeeze a sponge filter or two into the water as well, and that never seems to fail. I've jump started about 20+ tanks including my roomies tanks all from 1 initial tanks filter media and never had a problem.


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## df001 (Nov 13, 2007)

getochkn said:


> I rather just use a filter from an established tank or filter media and then squeeze a sponge filter or two into the water as well, and that never seems to fail.


+10 for seeding bacteria from existing sources! filter mulm ftw.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I read a more scientific report on these bacteria and the conclusion was these products work, and they do survive in the package. I can't find it but I know I posted on TPT a few months back. However, I don't see the need for these. 

I set up a tank with Netlea on July 7th, and had an air-driven UGF running, added an Up Aqua EX120 on July 16, and I just tested the water yesterday, it's NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 10. It's cycled in a week (probably instant but I didn't test the water until yesterday). The trick is that EX120 had been running in my garage for about a month with almost daily ammonia fed to maintain NH3 between 2 to 4ppm.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

randy said:


> I read a more scientific report on these bacteria and the conclusion was these products work, and they do survive in the package. I can't find it but I know I posted on TPT a few months back. However, I don't see the need for these.
> 
> I set up a tank with Netlea on July 7th, and had an air-driven UGF running, added an Up Aqua EX120 on July 16, and I just tested the water yesterday, it's NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 10. It's cycled in a week (probably instant but I didn't test the water until yesterday). The trick is that EX120 had been running in my garage for about a month with almost daily ammonia fed to maintain NH3 between 2 to 4ppm.


your house must look like a laboratory.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I vote for the filter squeezing method too, it has worked very well for me. But I have tried one brand of this type of thing. Just trying to remember what it was called.. It did help, slightly, as I recall. But it did not cycle the tank in days, and frankly, for the price, it was not worth the money. I did see minor differences in the test values after using it, but nowhere near enough to justify the price, and I'd not use it again. Not this particular product, but one that makes similar claims. But when I used filter rinsings, kindly supplied by Scotmando, a tank that was going into a fairly steep nitrite spike cycled in less than 48 hours. 30 G tank, that one. A 5 G I needed 'yesterday', also with rinsings from Scotmando, cycled in less than 24 hours. With results like that, I can't see any real reason to spend money on one of these bottle bacterial products. Now I have mature filters of my own, I just use my own rinsings and get the same kind of results with them as I did with Scot's.. but it does take a mature filter to do the trick. I make a habit now of keeping a spare filter and sponge going in at least one tank so if I need to set up a tank fast, I have the means at hand right away.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

chinamon said:


> your house must look like a laboratory.


Not really, I just have the filter running on a 2G bucket. I still have one that's ready but don't need it yet, but only have Seachem matrix in it. If anyone wants to jump start a filter, I can spare some (PM me).


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

randy said:


> Not really, I just have the filter running on a 2G bucket. I still have one that's ready but don't need it yet, but only have Seachem matrix in it. If anyone wants to jump start a filter, I can spare some (PM me).


after reading this thread (mainly fishfur's last post), i just installed a second twin foam filter in my cycling 30gal tank.

is there such thing as over-filtration? i have two twin foam filters and eheim 2213 on that tank.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

chinamon said:


> after reading this thread (mainly fishfur's last post), i just installed a second twin foam filter in my cycling 30gal tank.
> 
> is there such thing as over-filtration? i have two twin foam filters and eheim 2213 on that tank.


Have some reserved filtration power is always a good idea. Those bacteria actually get to a dormant state when not enough ammonia/nitrite in water and can be waken up to work in hours. Just make sure the flow isn't too strong to blow the shrimps around then you should be okay.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

randy said:


> Have some reserved filtration power is always a good idea. Those bacteria actually get to a dormant state when not enough ammonia/nitrite in water and can be waken up to work in hours. Just make sure the flow isn't too strong to blow the shrimps around then you should be okay.


the only flow in that tank is from the eheim 2213. both foam filters are powered by air pumps. i guess i should be okay.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I think the sponges work really well, and my shrimp certainly seem to enjoy picking at them. My very first one was, [not to knock what is really a perfectly good brand that functions well enough ] was Lee's clover leaf shape one. It's bright yellow, very fine textured, which I found I don't like as well as the coarser textured ones. And it looked unbelievably disgusting once it started to get dirty. Frankly, I never did understand the rationale behind the shape.. it takes up a lot of real estate on the bottom. So I replaced it with an upright round one.

But it was mature and I didn't want to waste it's bioflim and bacteria colonies, so I removed the bullseye from the Lee sponge and hung it on the tank side wall with a suction cup. I was a bit surprised, but despite the lack of water moving through it, it remained a fave' snack shack for the shrimp. And it still gets dirty, just more slowly. So I use it to squeeze out for a new tank, and even the sponge sock on the power filter intake works really well for that. I'm tempted to just cut that 'clover leaf' sponge into four pieces, which will be easier to disguise, because it truly is butt ugly and huge.

I also squeeze out the floss from the HOB and interior canisters too, right into the new tank and then let it run with the filter for a couple days. Any visible mulm left on the tank bottom gets siphoned off with a WC. Pretty painless and so far, very effective, with no outlay on overpriced bugs in a bottle.

And I don't think you can truly overfilter. My 30 G has an Aquaclear 70, a very large Seapora sponge filter, an interior corner canister that runs on air like the sponge, and just for now, a small Tetra inside power canister I'm charging up for a new tank. And I'm thinking of adding an overhead refugium to it in the future as well.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

A friend of mine set up a Hagen "waterhome" kit that came with nutrafin cycle. He poured in the cycle, waited a few days, and went to get some neon tetras.

Needless to say, the neons died one by one. His tank was well planted too, but it didn't stop him from getting detectable levels of ammonia and nitrite. In the end, he went with somebody's filter mulm.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Fishfur said:


> And I don't think you can truly overfilter. My 30 G has an Aquaclear 70, a very large Seapora sponge filter, an interior corner canister that runs on air like the sponge, and just for now, a small Tetra inside power canister I'm charging up for a new tank. And I'm thinking of adding an overhead refugium to it in the future as well.


Well, filtration is just a way to provide lots of space for bacteria colonies. Having lots of extra spaces will just give you the biggest colony supportable by bioload.

Any rule that tries to give you a filtration amount to tank size is flawed. It's not the tank size that determines filtration requirements, it's the bioload in that tank. Live (and healthy) plants will reduce the need for man-made filtration.

Also, you can't get rid of nitrates with typical filtration, the bioload is still limited by the tank size, regardless of how "overfiltered" you make it.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Solarz, that's got to be true because despite all the filtration I have right now on the 30 g, I still can't get nitrate levels to drop below 20 ppm. I know it's not the worst reading possible, but I'd be happier if it were about 10 instead. But the bioload in the tank is high, it is a bit overstocked, hence the thought about adding a refugium, since I don't have room for a larger tank. I have a tank I'm getting ready to put the Whisker shrimp in, because they're big and there are too many of them. But until then, I just test regularly and do as many WC as I must to keep the nitrates from rising above 20, and add as much in the way of plants as I can that are able to tolerate the low light. Once I have my new hood, I should be able to add a lot more plants and they'll grow faster too.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Fishfur said:


> Solarz, that's got to be true because despite all the filtration I have right now on the 30 g, I still can't get nitrate levels to drop below 20 ppm. I know it's not the worst reading possible, but I'd be happier if it were about 10 instead. But the bioload in the tank is high, it is a bit overstocked, hence the thought about adding a refugium, since I don't have room for a larger tank. I have a tank I'm getting ready to put the Whisker shrimp in, because they're big and there are too many of them. But until then, I just test regularly and do as many WC as I must to keep the nitrates from rising above 20, and add as much in the way of plants as I can that are able to tolerate the low light. Once I have my new hood, I should be able to add a lot more plants and they'll grow faster too.


Here's something you can try in the mean time: cut yourself some willow branches, and stick them into your tank or filter, making sure that a good length of it is above water. Apparently willows are voracious feeders.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Thank you for the suggestion ! I'd never have thought of putting live willow in the tank but they are not only fast growers but heavy feeders as well. For that matter, so is hibiscus, but it won't root in water. I've grown both of them. But you can also use rooting willow branches to make your own rooting hormone. Though it does not smell too good, it will work just about as well as the stuff you can buy for the purpose. You just stuff a container fairly full of live willow branches and keep topping up the water until they are all heavily rooted. Then drain off the water, which will be loaded with auxins. Auxins stimulate rooting in plants, and are found in large concentration in the growing tips of plants as well. Be interesting to see what effect rooting willows would have on a planted tank, come to think of it. I must see if I can get my hands on some that haven't been growing on the side of a road somewhere.. they'd be loaded with exhaust toxins. Anybody got a willow tree they don't mind losing a few branches ??


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I think your best bet would be a park. I wouldn't worry too much about "exhaust toxins". For it to be noticeable in a few branches, we'd have to be suffocating from it in the air.


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