# Beneficial Bacteria in the Vivarium



## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

I'm asking this from an aquarium background knowledge, but i was just thinking about how harmful chemicals are broken down in a vivarium. 

In an aquarium, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrate are constantly being produced from fish excretions and fish food. The ammonia is broken down by beneficial bacteria (cycle of nitrification) which multiply over the course of about a month after the tank is first set up (cycling a tank). After this, they are able to break down the ammonium to a non-toxic form. Nitrite is broken down into nitrate, which can be diluted with water changes every so often, or by plants if it is a planted tank.

Now for the vivarium. I'm in the process of building a vivarium which will house a waterfall, stream, and pond feature. I was thinking about the ammonia and urea excretions from the frogs, dead ff's and springtails, and any other source of harmful chemicals. I was wondering how this will all be turned into a non-toxic form. I know the plants will surely have a big part in the terrestrial part of the tank, but what about the water.

Should the water be allowed to "grow" beneficial bacteria for a while before frogs are added? Does the bacteria instead grow in the layers of LECA and soil? I'm quite interested in how this works, because aside from the land part, the water part should function just like an aquarium.

Also i realize that frogs are not fish, and they do not "breath" the water, but they too absorb moisture and nutrients from it and therefore are more prone to problems from dirty water than mammals for example. 

I was just wondering about all this, because i saw that Tim's vivarium had a eheim canister filter on it, and i was just wondering if it aided the clarification of the water at all (from the chemical perspective).

Luke


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The concentration of bacteria able to process ammonia and nitrite are very high in soils. 

Ed


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Ed said it best. I said it in a much more windbag manner in another thread a few months back. You might do a search and see if you can find it. Too much typing to repeat.

But really no need to filter and no need to let the tank mature before adding frogs although neither would hurt at all.


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## kleinhanz (Oct 18, 2004)

bbrock may be thinking about this thread. I know I learned a lot!!

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewt ... fertilizer


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