Bottled Bacteria Put to the Test.

Renee is not cycling tanks, per se- she's testing bottled "instant cycle" products to see if they work like they claim. Some people claim to have used them (some more than once) with great success.

With using x-amount of pure ammonia, one may actually see a spike which would be misleading. With adding a fish per the developer's recommendation, the ammonia is "time-released" as it comes from decaying organics, which would give the bacteria time to feed and multiply, and therefore, one should see no measurable spike. However, I do understand the arguments against using fish, hence my suggestion to ghost feed.

 

I'm going to roll with fish first. If I went with the ammonia first, what would be the elimination factor for the next round?

Once we see what products don't register any ammonia with the presence of the fish, then we can test for how much ammonia that is exactly.

If I throw a damsel in there and the ammonia spikes, then I don't need to go any further, as it will also fail attempts by the hobbyist.

Guess I better make some spreadsheets.

 

:thumb_up:

FWIW, I have been very passionate about discrediting these products based on early reports of failures, but it has been brought to my attention recently that they (at least some) have been improved, so I am passionately awaiting your results.

 

I am skepitical about some of these and I had no idea that "everyone" had their version of it. I can't wait to see what pans out either!

 

Some people will probably shoot me for saying this, but, I started of cycling my tank with a shrimp, and oddly, I did not see any spike in ammonia or nitrates for a week and a half (I did not test in first week) So I got two small reef chromis to try and cycle the tank further, a week later, I have not seen any ammonia or nitrates. I then got two small ocellaris clowns which have been in my tank for 3 days, and still not sign of ammonia or nitrates. I used SeaChem Stability and some other specially formulated NitroSpira for the first week and a half of cycling the tank. Nothing has been added since then, and I have just been doing 10% weekly water changes and still no ammonia or nitrates.

So IMO SeaChem Stability is a beast of a product . Im am still yet to determine whether my tank cycled in the first week I did not test levels, or whether it is still yet to be cycled.

Regardless, I have no ammonia or nitrates and my fish are happy, eating and swimming actively at all levels.

 

I'm not sure why you say we'll shoot you. Please elaborate.

 

What confuses a lot of folks is the wide-spread, long-standing myth that you MUST see an ammonia spike and wait for weeks regardless, and this is simply not true. If you start your tank with live sand and fully-cured live rock (or in your case, a quality bottled bacterial supplement), you already have your bio-filter ready for livestock. No ammonia spike, and no cycle. It's good that you tested with the shrimp first, but it obviously wasn't necessary.

 

Renee, I asked a few questions when I first got my tank about how to cycle the tank, and whether not it was ok to use fish to cycle it.

Many people had ethical issues about whether or not it was OK to cycle your tank with a fish. And it seemed to be the majority that it was not OK to cycle your tank with a fish. Thats why I went the shrimp first, and then fish second, but I thought the same people might pop up when I mentioned that at some stage I was cycling the tank with a fish.....

And Dr Bill, I actually did both, I had fully cured live rock, live sand as well as the bottled bacterial supplement. . Im just happy that my fish are happy .

 

It's not necessary to cycle a quarantine tank. In many cases, the items being used to treat the tank are likely to either stunt or kill the nitrifying bacteria. I run a 40 breeder at all times, uncycled, as a quarantine. A good test of the products, nonetheless. However, for anyone truly interested, I wouldn't waste my time on these products. Dr. Tim's all the way. He's provided an explanation why other "bacteria's in a bottle" do not work. They contain the wrong bacteria.

 

Interested to see the findings. I used multiple products in FW with almost no success, including stability and Dr Tims, and used Dr Tims for SW with no success. I did use Dr Tims refrigerated bacteria awhile ago when it was shipped cold and stored cold and that works, but since it switched to a shelf product multiple used showed no results on multiple tanks.