Dark start questions

[AquaJoe69]

Hi!

To my understanding you should wait about 4-8 weeks for a dark start to establish a sufficient microbes culture, my question is, if I supply microbes by taking from an already established aquarium (filter water), how much time do I "save" so to speak?
Or is there any real point in doing this and should I still wait at least four weeks before I start planting?

What are your thoughts/experience with this?

 

[Scaperinc]

None technically, if filter is already cycled, I would still wait 2 weeks atleast, last tank i did dark start on i left it for atleast a month even though i used cycled media.

Test for ammonia nitrites and nitrates and then go according

 

[AquaJoe69]

Ok, thanks for the tip!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

if I supply microbes by taking from an already established aquarium (filter water), how much time do I "save" so to speak?

We have a thread <"Correspondence with Dr Ryan Newton - School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee"> which is well worth reading, and this was what Dr Newton said:

......... If you do need to add nitrifiers the best source is from an aquaponics or aquaculture system that is already running and removing ammonia. Some water or sediment/soil or part of the biobilter (if there is one) is an excellent starter. Without this source as an inoculum then you could add some roots from plants from any other tank that is running - these are likely to have nitrifiers associated with them. A small clipping put into the tank would be enough.......

If you don't have an ammonia rich substrate? I'd recommend planting and then just aim to feed enough nutrients to keep the plants in active growth. Even with an ammonia rich substrate? I would still add a <"floating plant at set up">.

Or is there any real point in doing this and should I still wait at least four weeks before I start planting?

Once you have a reasonable plant mass in active growth your tank is <"cycled">.

Test for ammonia nitrites and nitrates and then go according

That is one of the advantages of the "grown in" or "plant and wait" method, you don't need to make <"decisions based on the results of test kits">. They are all parameters whose values I would like to know, but <"nitrate (NO3-)"> and <"ammonia (NH3)"> are much more problematic to measure than is normally acknowledged.

Although they are very different, and were developed independently, both genesis of both <"Estimative"> and <"Duckweed Indices"> was the difficulties with getting accurate results from water tests and a realisation that techniques that <"didn't rely on water testing"> were more likely to be successful in the long term.

cheers Darrel