FISHIOLOGY

Recently I've suddenly received a lot of this same question regarding: can I put PSB and also BB together? or I've bought PSB do I still need BB? First of all you shouldn't be using PSB or BB product but given us asians we love maximizing our tank and tends to overload it. If you're lazy to read all the technical stuff just scroll down to conclusion ok now Lets break down everything and I'll explain them thoroughly. BB stands for beneficial bacteria, meaning any bacteria that are involved in the nitrogen cycle will be classified under beneficial bacteria. Nitrogen cycle Nitrification - Aerobic - Oxygen environment : Ammonium (NH4) convert to Nitrite (NO2) and finally nitrate (NO3). This is phase 1 of the nitrogen cycle done by the usual nitro bacteria. This will be the typical phase achievable by the common aquarium, the remaining NO3 will be removed by water change or by plant. Energy involved oxygen. Denitrification - Anaerobic - very low to zer

I was really curious of how nature solved the ammonium spike, I've tried my best to duplicate swamp water with the extreme low PH and had ran into a snag. Ammonium spike! So again I've asked my collector for help to test the Terengganu swamp water for NH, NO2 and NO3.                               Shallow Area         Deep Area Ammonium                 1mg/1                 0.5mg/l Nitrite                          0mg/l                     0mg/l Nitrate                         0mg/l                   10mg/l  Shallow Test Deep area NO3 Deep area NO2 Deep Area NH3/4 Now this is interesting, I was expecting plans and trees would have absorb all the ammonium knowing that bacteria could not have survived in such harsh conditions but the reading is there, Ammonium is present in natural swamp water. Perhaps its the amount of decaying plant matter under water and the stagnant water that causes the ammonium spike. 

Lets take a look at the configuration of filter media. Over the years my preferred method is go sponge-less at the inflow. Many people who had seen my sump tank is not convinced it will work. but this has been done for more than 6 years. The reason I go sponge-less is because my inhabitant are most time monsters with very bad eating habits. Debris will be flying everywhere and if they are filtered at the sponge, they will rot there. So to over come this I let the debris go directly into my sump tank, in my sump tank I've a section for live fish and ghost shrimp. These will be my cleaner crew. At the end of the section I do keep a flat sponge to filtered out rubbish leaving the sump tank and food material caught there will be minimal. At the first compartment I've added K-1 since last year. How good is K-1? I'm running spongeless and my cleaning crew used to be all fatty. Since I've added K-1 they will crushed everything to bits and pieces and now I've to re

How to kick start your filtration system (Biological) Ok what do you do after you purchased all your branded filters and medias'? You set up, throw in a few guppies and you let it cycle. In short, you wait for "Bacteria" to move into thier new house. Some shop offers you to buy bacteria booster or bacteria starter. Are there another way around this? well yes infact its free, why spend the money when you can get the real thing for free and guaranteed to work? If you've another matured tank running, just take a  few pieces of the used media or sponge from your existing tank and put into your new filtration system. Tadaaaa.... you've just migrated a few millions bacteria and all the bacteria you need is there. If you dun have an existing tank around, you can get it from your friends (but do make sure the fish is healthy), as for me I get it from lfs, select a tank that you've checked that are disease free and take a piece of sponge, pack it in water with 02 (

Filtration system in our tank is the engine, this is my favorite part of the aquarium. I've spend the last 20 years toying with my filter system. I've had multiple setup with different types of media and configurations. I'll share what I've came out from all these years tinkering under neat the tank. First, allow me to introduce you what is a filter system. It means filter lol. Ok you've the most basic part just add a sponge which it'll do 2 things at once. Remove floating debris (mechanical filter) and later on when the bacteria matures it'll also act as a biological filter. Biological filter is the goal in your filtration, failed this and you failed everything. Please bear in mind this important fact. Beneficial bacteria - Nitrogen Cycle Understand that no matter how many thousands you pay for your filter system be it the latest Eheim or those fancy media like siporex, it all has only 1 job function that is a place for the bacteria to thri