When heterotrophic bacteria process organic matter and create biofilms, the final product they produce is Ammonia. When adding too much powdered microorganisms, the amount of Ammonia will increase. I have tried adding a lot of powdered probiotics (cheap ones for aquarium fish) and watched nerita snails literally burn from Ammonia poisoning.
With pretty much all bacterial powders there is an issue as mentioned; too much leads too excess amounts of ammonia. I usually add one pinch but once in a quarantine tub I added a tablespoon and it smelled like fouled eggs so I had to redo everything. Another thing I realized is that bacterial powders tend to be extremely concreted with bacterias (yeast especially) so that's why I add it at the start of the aquarium and monthly once or twice.
Never had problems with Bacter AE. Most my tanks are small-ish, none over 20G, mostly 10G. I keep my tanks medium to heavyly planted, and never less than 12-15 shrimps and a varying amount of snails, of course. When adding Bacter AE the water rarely gets cloudly, when it does, it clears up in a couple of hours. Surely, if it doesn't clear up by the next day, you will have to assume you did a major overdose.
The directions on my bottle is for one scoop for a 120L (30gal) tank. I wonder how much of the problem is with bad math, or poor reading. I have a 10 gallon and have put in about 1/3 of the spoon/scoop in daily since I got BacterAE (3 days) and have not seen an increase in ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. My tank has been running for about a year and while I have made some changes the substrate and hard scape is original. I am likely to see one after today as I put a shrimp lolly in the tank that the shrimp could care less about. Watched a few eat all around it but saw none eat from it... I have been checking my tanks water 2 to 3 times a day because of a recent event in which all of the shrimp and fish died off in a 12 to 24hr period. The only thing that I have not been able to rule out is a chemical contaminant that somehow made its way into the tank...
I have a question. I struggle with kh getting lower and lower so I need frequent water changes with water with higher kh so I don't go to 0 in kh.. I also dose bacteria EA each day but less than prescribed. Can Baxter EA make the kh to go lower and deplete it?? (yes I also understand that a lot of waste will lower kh. But I try to shyphen up as much as possible and keep it rather clean but not to clean. It is a usage of sulewasi 8.5 salt and white socks plus some elephant snails.)
@@RWAquariumPages Thanks, for the riminder and tips. I got a little bit worried to get ph swings when I measured 1.4° KH (never seen so low level before). I got the info that kh is natural used and declining and in my effort to have stability and not mess around with the tank and just leave it alone. Timeline: 13/7 I had 5.4°kh 20/7 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 16/8 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 10/9 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 22/9 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 29/10 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 2.2° kh. After this point I make little bit shorter intervals of water changes. To get kh up. 1/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. (the new water has 5.4-6° kh.) 3/11 the tank has still 2.2 kh. 5/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 2.8° kh. 14/11 Found/saw my very first chrimplets but also one adult dead. 15/11 1.4° kh! bought another type of drip test to verify but it had low resulution but confirmed that we were in this range.. Did 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 17/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. Cleaned out mulm. 18/11 2.7° kh 24/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 25/11 2.7° kh Seams hard to get the kh up or we can say it seams to be easy to get it very low.. From 5/11 @2.8° kh to 15/11 @1.4°kh.. so in 10 days. So I guess that I need rock like you suggest to prevent a disaster. Feels like no matter how often I do water changes (that is rather big ones) I can only get ~2.7° kh.. And that is the "highest" I get and that is already on the low side. The new water is 5L RO + 0.75g Sulewasi 8.5.
I dose around half a scoop of bacter AE every other day to my neo colony of 200+. I haven't had any problems but I think having a thick monte carlo carpet helps
@RWAquariumPages nice! I'm just starting to research is bacter ae a good product and will SL powder replace it well. That ammonia in ae explains how my tanka cycle so well using it with Vin beneficial bacteria, eco powder, and Activator
I use a match head worth in my 5.5g I accidentally overdosed my snail tank when I fist started it caused parameters to drop my kh was down to nothing lucky I test daily and noticed but overdosing it will mess up the tank you need barely any
I only use it when I do something that can disturb/destroy biofilm. Like after adding a chemical that can affect it, or in low flow environment, higher temps. If I see a sudden change is growth mass of my aquarium fish/shrimp which most are biofilm consumers with some algae, I have to dose. I honestly never use the scoop as a guideline and I dose way less than advertised. My fish/shrimp also get very well fed on other things including powdered "pond pellets" that I ran through a coffee grinder. I think it s possible to feel an overdose of that Bacter AE if you don't have massive microfauna diversity ready to respond to it, like a "new tank" would not. When I first started this aquarium stuff a lot of my issues were because I didnt have that population established and things would keep escalating, the needed response was either not ready or not existant yet. I went out of my way to find and collect microfauna before anything else. But if your aquarium cant produce such things consistantly and provide refuge for them, you will ve forced to learn how to supplement products like bacter ae especially if you have an overstocked aquarium. My journey took me to different issues however, I don't have anything that eats seed shrimp lol, my small fishes all spit them out after trying.
lol i just setup a new sulawesi shrimp tank this morning and i put two scoopful under the substate and 1 scoopful after i put in water and it is nano tank with roughly 17 liter of water
@@RWAquariumPages the water is cloudy but doesnt have any foul smell, NH3 is zero, NO2 is 5ppm and NO3 is 5 ppm...i do put bacteria starter around 10ml and a very small scoop of dry photosynthetic bacteria yesterday...today i put around 5ml of bacteria starter..so yeah i hope it would be ok
I regularly use Bacter AE on my 12 shrimp tanks but yeah, the dosage rates on the container seem wild to me. For my 5 gallon tanks, I add about the equivalent to a small grain of rice about once a week. I do like to mix it up with water first and then add it to the tank but I don't use that method as often as I should and usually just sprinkle it on top of the water and let the sponge filter flow stir it in.
Hi! Do you have good experiences with online shrimp sellers or maybe someone in the Ottawa region that i could drive to? Idea for a video: Good groups for shrimp keepers, Facebook and others. Never tried Bacter AE. Only used Mineral Junkie as food for now. I mostly use seeded sponges from other tanks and wait a long time before adding shrimps/fish. I add pests snails though right the way and they always thrive those ones LOL
Hi there, most online stores sells imported shrimp so be careful. Mic shrimp in Montreal I believe has nice home bred shrimp that i personally recommend. Bacter ae, just be careful not to over dose. Let me check to see if I know of any breeders in that area
It seems like it makes more sense to just put in some leaves from a pond already covered in biofilm and microfauna. A dirted sand capped natural tank almost does all the work for you.
i totally agree with you, natural is a great way to go, indian almond leaves are a great addition to shrimp tank and it's safe as long as the leaves are clean
Dude I made the same mistake not even a few days ago. I had 4 dead CRS after giving not even 1/2 recommended dose. My black galaxy kept dying after feeding the powder.
oh man! most people don't realize it until it's too late or research it afterwards. everyone says it's shrimp crack, but got to be careful. hope your crs colony recovers and wish you success!!
Thank you for your support, my friend! Your encouragement means a lot to me and motivates me to create even better content. I'm grateful to have you as a follower!
thanks sir for listening to my rambles, 20 years of shrimp keeping sharing my knowledge, but knowing that an aquarium is a dynamic environment and everyone's tank can and will be different@@thecallofshrimp
oh no! that's terrible. But i'm sure you'll learn from this experience and grow even stronger afterwards. a safer product i like to use is aqualex's enzyme powder, ever over dosed it won't create any harm or ammonia spikes
@@RWAquariumPages I bought some bacter ae then started seeing posts and videos on overdosing it and the negative effects of overdosing it. I don’t have a tank yet but I’m doing as much research as I can before getting the tank setup. 😁
Sorry, i'm not getting it. There seems to be a missing boat in the dock of this subject. Bacter AE and cycling a tank are two different things. By alleviating the ammonia levels, { which are low for cycling.} you are setting yourself up for a crash of the tank leading to death. The ammonia levels NEED to spike to feed the nitrite bacteria...that in turn feed the nitrifying bacteria. i don't think bacter ae is meant to help with this, nor would it affect the whole process. There are only a few cycling bacteria in a bottle to speed up the whole process, after which you may use the biofilm powder.
i really like this channel, in fact i want to love it. but the thanks for watching at the end is so cringe and i dont like the sound of it so i try to stop about few seconds before each video ends... 😢
When heterotrophic bacteria process organic matter and create biofilms, the final product they produce is Ammonia. When adding too much powdered microorganisms, the amount of Ammonia will increase.
I have tried adding a lot of powdered probiotics (cheap ones for aquarium fish) and watched nerita snails literally burn from Ammonia poisoning.
this is great info! thanks for taking time to write this. got to be careful with these products
With pretty much all bacterial powders there is an issue as mentioned; too much leads too excess amounts of ammonia. I usually add one pinch but once in a quarantine tub I added a tablespoon and it smelled like fouled eggs so I had to redo everything. Another thing I realized is that bacterial powders tend to be extremely concreted with bacterias (yeast especially) so that's why I add it at the start of the aquarium and monthly once or twice.
That's true they all smell like yeast. My friend made his own also
@@RWAquariumPages I've done my own one with soybeans and yeast too but again it was very strong so I had to use it very precautiously
@_invertico_ ah this is great info. Thanks for the comment. I ll havr to ask my friend what he used
Never had problems with Bacter AE. Most my tanks are small-ish, none over 20G, mostly 10G. I keep my tanks medium to heavyly planted, and never less than 12-15 shrimps and a varying amount of snails, of course. When adding Bacter AE the water rarely gets cloudly, when it does, it clears up in a couple of hours. Surely, if it doesn't clear up by the next day, you will have to assume you did a major overdose.
Ah great comments and glad to hear it's working for you. Wishing you success. Nano tanks are a lot of fun
Hey!! How much are you using? I have a 10 gallon and am having a hard time figuring out how much to actually give them
I always add some but sudden hydra boom... Now I avoid bacterAE for now. I guess shld b ok if one week dose alittle
quite an interesting comment. I've heard this about 5x, but haven't experienced it myself, so i wondered about it. thanks for sharing this experience!
The directions on my bottle is for one scoop for a 120L (30gal) tank. I wonder how much of the problem is with bad math, or poor reading. I have a 10 gallon and have put in about 1/3 of the spoon/scoop in daily since I got BacterAE (3 days) and have not seen an increase in ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. My tank has been running for about a year and while I have made some changes the substrate and hard scape is original. I am likely to see one after today as I put a shrimp lolly in the tank that the shrimp could care less about. Watched a few eat all around it but saw none eat from it...
I have been checking my tanks water 2 to 3 times a day because of a recent event in which all of the shrimp and fish died off in a 12 to 24hr period. The only thing that I have not been able to rule out is a chemical contaminant that somehow made its way into the tank...
Very good insights
I been using BacterAE in my 40g fancy tiger tank. I been doing about a quarter scoop every other day. Makes lots of snails lol.
40g is perfecr size for that scoop :) great product
I have a question.
I struggle with kh getting lower and lower so I need frequent water changes with water with higher kh so I don't go to 0 in kh..
I also dose bacteria EA each day but less than prescribed.
Can Baxter EA make the kh to go lower and deplete it??
(yes I also understand that a lot of waste will lower kh. But I try to shyphen up as much as possible and keep it rather clean but not to clean. It is a usage of sulewasi 8.5 salt and white socks plus some elephant snails.)
Do you have rocks like crushed coral or seiryu rock in your tank, that raises kh. Remember stability is key, so don't chase numbers
@@RWAquariumPages Thanks, for the riminder and tips.
I got a little bit worried to get ph swings when I measured 1.4° KH (never seen so low level before).
I got the info that kh is natural used and declining and in my effort to have stability and not mess around with the tank and just leave it alone.
Timeline:
13/7 I had 5.4°kh
20/7 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
16/8 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
10/9 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
22/9 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
29/10 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 2.2° kh.
After this point I make little bit shorter intervals of water changes. To get kh up.
1/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. (the new water has 5.4-6° kh.)
3/11 the tank has still 2.2 kh.
5/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. 2.8° kh.
14/11 Found/saw my very first chrimplets but also one adult dead.
15/11 1.4° kh! bought another type of drip test to verify but it had low resulution but confirmed that we were in this range..
Did 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
17/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in.. Cleaned out mulm.
18/11 2.7° kh
24/11 20% water change by 24h drip it in..
25/11 2.7° kh
Seams hard to get the kh up or we can say it seams to be easy to get it very low.. From 5/11 @2.8° kh to 15/11 @1.4°kh.. so in 10 days.
So I guess that I need rock like you suggest to prevent a disaster. Feels like no matter how often I do water changes (that is rather big ones) I can only get ~2.7° kh.. And that is the "highest" I get and that is already on the low side.
The new water is 5L RO + 0.75g Sulewasi 8.5.
@@AmazonasBiotopdude your numbers don't make any sense. I don't think anyone can understand your comments
@@AmazonasBiotopalso you are writing your dates backwards. No one reading these comments will understand
@@AmazonasBiotopI think maybe you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near an aquarium or shrimp or fish for that matter
I really like Bacter AE, even my otocinclus in the shrimp tank love them
Awesome !!!
I fill that scoop to the brim for my 4gal tank once a week
@@dreadz5216 awesome !! Thx for sharing
I dose around half a scoop of bacter AE every other day to my neo colony of 200+. I haven't had any problems but I think having a thick monte carlo carpet helps
good info, thanks
Thanks for the support and watching the video!! I'll post a follow up on a better alternative
I use the toothpick amount for a few years.. but I think i am going to switch ro SL Aqua powder.
Oh man! I should have mentioned that! Great comment. I use sl aqua magic powder but they're called enzyme powder now. Ok let me make a video on this
@RWAquariumPages nice! I'm just starting to research is bacter ae a good product and will SL powder replace it well. That ammonia in ae explains how my tanka cycle so well using it with Vin beneficial bacteria, eco powder, and Activator
I use a match head worth in my 5.5g I accidentally overdosed my snail tank when I fist started it caused parameters to drop my kh was down to nothing lucky I test daily and noticed but overdosing it will mess up the tank you need barely any
ah perfect!
i use bacter ae as a supplement not as a food source. get the bacteriia going and do it once a week.
Awesome! Thx for the comment
I only use it when I do something that can disturb/destroy biofilm. Like after adding a chemical that can affect it, or in low flow environment, higher temps. If I see a sudden change is growth mass of my aquarium fish/shrimp which most are biofilm consumers with some algae, I have to dose. I honestly never use the scoop as a guideline and I dose way less than advertised. My fish/shrimp also get very well fed on other things including powdered "pond pellets" that I ran through a coffee grinder. I think it s possible to feel an overdose of that Bacter AE if you don't have massive microfauna diversity ready to respond to it, like a "new tank" would not. When I first started this aquarium stuff a lot of my issues were because I didnt have that population established and things would keep escalating, the needed response was either not ready or not existant yet. I went out of my way to find and collect microfauna before anything else. But if your aquarium cant produce such things consistantly and provide refuge for them, you will ve forced to learn how to supplement products like bacter ae especially if you have an overstocked aquarium. My journey took me to different issues however, I don't have anything that eats seed shrimp lol, my small fishes all spit them out after trying.
great detailed reply! thanks for this!
@@RWAquariumPages 😧
lol i just setup a new sulawesi shrimp tank this morning and i put two scoopful under the substate and 1 scoopful after i put in water and it is nano tank with roughly 17 liter of water
oh nice! let me know how it goes :) the ammonia is great for cycling!
@@RWAquariumPages the water is cloudy but doesnt have any foul smell, NH3 is zero, NO2 is 5ppm and NO3 is 5 ppm...i do put bacteria starter around 10ml and a very small scoop of dry photosynthetic bacteria yesterday...today i put around 5ml of bacteria starter..so yeah i hope it would be ok
I regularly use Bacter AE on my 12 shrimp tanks but yeah, the dosage rates on the container seem wild to me. For my 5 gallon tanks, I add about the equivalent to a small grain of rice about once a week. I do like to mix it up with water first and then add it to the tank but I don't use that method as often as I should and usually just sprinkle it on top of the water and let the sponge filter flow stir it in.
Hi! Do you have good experiences with online shrimp sellers or maybe someone in the Ottawa region that i could drive to? Idea for a video: Good groups for shrimp keepers, Facebook and others.
Never tried Bacter AE. Only used Mineral Junkie as food for now. I mostly use seeded sponges from other tanks and wait a long time before adding shrimps/fish. I add pests snails though right the way and they always thrive those ones LOL
Hi there, most online stores sells imported shrimp so be careful. Mic shrimp in Montreal I believe has nice home bred shrimp that i personally recommend. Bacter ae, just be careful not to over dose. Let me check to see if I know of any breeders in that area
i use amazon, got mine free of deaths and an extra 1 for free
I notice that when I over do it the shrimp become lethargic
Thx for the comment. Yep got to be careful of this stuff. From my contacts, 50% love it 50% hate it
It seems like it makes more sense to just put in some leaves from a pond already covered in biofilm and microfauna. A dirted sand capped natural tank almost does all the work for you.
i totally agree with you, natural is a great way to go, indian almond leaves are a great addition to shrimp tank and it's safe as long as the leaves are clean
Dude I made the same mistake not even a few days ago. I had 4 dead CRS after giving not even 1/2 recommended dose. My black galaxy kept dying after feeding the powder.
oh man! most people don't realize it until it's too late or research it afterwards. everyone says it's shrimp crack, but got to be careful. hope your crs colony recovers and wish you success!!
@@RWAquariumPages thank you very much my friend. I will continue to follow you.
Thank you for your support, my friend! Your encouragement means a lot to me and motivates me to create even better content. I'm grateful to have you as a follower!
@@RWAquariumPages please keep making your videos. It’s soothing.
thanks sir for listening to my rambles, 20 years of shrimp keeping sharing my knowledge, but knowing that an aquarium is a dynamic environment and everyone's tank can and will be different@@thecallofshrimp
Thanks for sharing this! Btw, what's the shrimp name at 4'30''? first time to see this type.
Thanks for the kind words. Those are ghost bee aka crystal white shrimp. Quite nice and unique
I have been using it for 10 years in my shrimproom.
I dose it at 10% of the recommended dose.
I made a video on my channel to show how I do it.
Thx
I don't understand why the company recommends such a large amount. I have a 29G and use a grain of rice once a month or so.
Very true! Just need a little that's all, thanks for taking time to comment
I overdosed Bacter AE and lost one of my "24K Sunkist" Neos 😢.
oh no! that's terrible. But i'm sure you'll learn from this experience and grow even stronger afterwards. a safer product i like to use is aqualex's enzyme powder, ever over dosed it won't create any harm or ammonia spikes
Definitely! And I will check out Aqualex enzyme powder.
Yea I’ve heard you can overdose bacter ae very easily and not only that but it also can suck all the air out of the water and suffocate the shrimp .
Acutally that's a great point about the oxygen I forgot to mention. Thanks for the great comment
@@RWAquariumPages I bought some bacter ae then started seeing posts and videos on overdosing it and the negative effects of overdosing it. I don’t have a tank yet but I’m doing as much research as I can before getting the tank setup. 😁
@@Wulfenite295 great you're doing research. Be safe:)
Sorry, i'm not getting it. There seems to be a missing boat in the dock of this subject. Bacter AE and cycling a tank are two different things. By alleviating the ammonia levels, { which are low for cycling.} you are setting yourself up for a crash of the tank leading to death. The ammonia levels NEED to spike to feed the nitrite bacteria...that in turn feed the nitrifying bacteria. i don't think bacter ae is meant to help with this, nor would it affect the whole process. There are only a few cycling bacteria in a bottle to speed up the whole process, after which you may use the biofilm powder.
great comment!
i really like this channel, in fact i want to love it. but the thanks for watching at the end is so cringe and i dont like the sound of it so i try to stop about few seconds before each video ends... 😢
thx for the support and feedback
That's his son, that's so rude
why did you feel the need to share this? It's a father and his son having fun. Are you jealous? Be nice or shut up.