| ... And, I'll add that there is a third type: bacteria sold in bottles or dry packs for sludge reduction.
The bacteria sold to seed nitrification have not been established in actual practice to speed the initial "cycling" of a pond/filter.
The Lymnozyme/Koizyme bacteria reportedly do work in reducing the aeromonas/pseudomonas population, although there is debate whether the competitive exclusion is sufficiently complete to actually prevent an infection.
The bacteria for sludge reduction are effective and proven in "industrial" application, such as sewage reduction. These are frequently referred to as a "band-aid" (a label popularized by JR on NI threads a few years ago), which should be avoided by investing in a proper pond system.
...I used Lymnozyme as a preventative back when it was the high-hyped product of the day. Pure surrender to the hype. (Which reminds me, there is a fourth of a bottle in the fridge. Been there 5 or more years... so long my wife doesn't even notice it any more. I need to toss it.)
...I've never used nitrifiers in a bottle.
...I won some sludge remover in a koi show raffle last November. I flush filter lines/drain lines at least weekly and the amount of gunk always makes an impression. It has bothered me that there is no practical way to flush the line to the Bakki Shower. So, I used the sludge remover at about 25% the label dosage. Within 48 hours there was a huge increase in 'stuff' settling out in the vortex and in the Nexus units. The EAzy units came closer to clogging than ever before. The mats in the Savio skimmers needed cleaning for three (I think) days in a row. Most of the 'gunk' was algae...?!?... totally unexpected. Why the carpet algae shed filaments is a mystery to me, but there they were. After a week, things were back to normal, except there was somewhat less algae debris than normal. There was never a detectable change in nitrate production (no increase; no reduction) [and never detectable ammonia or nitrite]. There was no change in fish behavior. I have no idea if the filter & drain lines were cleaner afterward than before. I'm glad I did not use it per the label dosage. I don't think I'll use it again. |