The "good" Aquarium Bacteria Options

[hortoholic]

Hi everyone! I am new to this forum. I have just recently caught an interest in fish although my main love are plants an flowers. I was a little unclear and was wandering if someone could help clarify anout some of the bacteria that is found in aquariums.

1. How do the bacteria get in there in the first place?

2. Lets say I wanted to "innoculate" another fish tank that will make the water clear to help with the cycling of the fish tank? I saw In one of TheWaterSnake's videos on youtube but I didnt quite understand.

What are the steps to doing this as it was really hard to see...

Here is a link to the video if anyone dies not know what I am talking about..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E21dIdJLbs

And lets say i clean the filter and I rinse it off, doesnt that remove the good bacteria from the tank? or why doe somepeople advise cleaning the filter in the tank itself. doesnt that put you back where you started from?

I thank you for your replies,

hortoholic

[acestro]

The "Nitrosomonas" and "Nitrobacter" are the two genera of bacteria that are 'good' bacteria for breaking down waste. They exist EVERYWHERE and will naturally colonize an aquarium even without innoculation (but it will be a slower process).

The trick in the video is to take freshly rinsed (and filthy looking) water from the filter from one tank and dumping it into another. This works best is you do it fast, as these are 'aerobic' bacteria that prefer moving water to 'breathe' in. You can also move a dirty filter into the new tank, and this is the best way to do this, because the bacteria will be right where they need to be (where all the water flows through).

Hope this helps and welcome!