A radical idea on bacteria in a cup and making my own?

[Oldfishlady]

Once your nitrogen cycle is established you can remove or make as large of a water only change that you want....
Very little of the bacteria is in the water column.....
The bacteria is sticky and adheres to all the surface areas within the tank-like the walls, decorations, plants both fake and real, in the top layer of the substrate and in the filter media....

You could take all the water out of the tank daily and replace with fresh dechlorinated water and the nitrogen cycle will be fine....just don't scrub the non-viewing walls, decorations every day or change the filter media or vacuum more than one time a week.....

But, you still need to vacuum at least weekly and maintain good water flow by rinsing the filter media a couple of times a month so you don't suffocate the good bacteria with a build up of mulm/debris....