Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone every tried pond-zyme?

The fish guy at Petco told me that pond zyme heps to build beneficial bacteria in 2 weeks.

Any comments on this and if it would be safe for food fish and plants?

http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx? ... lyID=2706&

Hi Absolut, Welcome to the forum.

The Pond-zyme would be fine to use. Safe for fish and plants. However, you don't need to pay money! If you have a friend with a freshwater aquarium, beg some dirty gravel, a used filter pad, or the first bucket of -yuck- they get when they clean the tank. That will also contain the beneficial bacteria that are dried and sold as Pond-zyme. I did use a product -- either Pond-zyme or a competitor -- many years ago. I don't recall that it was anything amazing, but if you are struggling to establish the bacteria, maybe it would be.

Can I suggest not wasting money on bacterial additives?

Seed your system (as Janet suggests) using something from an existing system.

If starting from scratch then all you need to do is add a food source for the bacteria and they will multiply. In the marine aquarium hobby it is commonplace to add a prawn (dead) for that exact purpose.

Bacterial colony growth is exponential, so after a short amount of time you’ll get to the same end-point anyway. You can then spend the money you would have used on the additive for something else.

AJ

pity they don't multiply at the rate that nasty disease bacs do

the nitrifying bacs have somthing like a 28 hr divsion time. i think i read somewhere that an e.coli bac in the same time would have divided into something like 1.5 tillion units

Their slow division rate is linked to how little energy they have left after their oxidising reactions, I think. Sort of off topic, but interesting little tidbits of info!

I used both methods - water + sludge from a pond, as well as a similar additive. I wanted to have maximum bacteria in there when the ammonia started to build up because of the slow multiplication of the nitrifying bacteria. I cant tell you if it helped but the water cycled pretty quickly.

Most 'respected' (i.e. non-commercially aligned) research indicates that these additives do not add nitrifying bacteria. There are some research reports that indicate an in increase in numbers, but that this is more likely dues to the nutrients added when adding these additives.

Just because they have a comparatively slow reproductive rate does not mean adding more will enact a faster cycle.

Remember each system is unique in its water parameters and will need to develop its own population of bacteria that are most suited to those parameters.

Seriously, if you want to help the cycle along before adding stock, throw in a bit of raw fish (whatever you eat) and that will provide the food source to kick your cycle along.

AJ

cool.

I think after much controversy with these products, the labels on some are a bit more honest! The one that i tried stated that it contained many hetrotrophic sp? bacteria that were also nitrifiers, along iwth the nitrobacter and nitrosomonas. the HT's were more motile and stored better, and could help with transient ammonia and nitrite spikes during cycling.

Having tried the products in my early AP days i'd say..................go large volume to fish ratio on startup, feed minimally, and beg borrow and/or steal another persons water/substrate. The products aren't cheap I'll give anyone 20Lt of my AP water and 2lt of gravel for $20

Oh, and good call on the following!