Turbo Start Question

Ok I am doing all my research here and visiting lfs and inquiring about my 55 gallon fowlr setup. I asked one of the guys at the aquarium shop about cycling the tank and he said cycling a tank is old school. All I need to do is use something called "Turbo Start" and it will instantly cycle my tank. My question is, is this true? What is Turbo Start?

 

anything that looks or sounds too good to be true usually is. There are alot of products out there that 'infuse your system with bacteria' . This product might help if you have a mini cycle to due die off or minimize your ammonia spike for your initial cycle, but I wouldn't trust anything to skip the tank cycle. you will contiune to have mini cycles for a long time with new additions of fish until your tank is 'mature' start slow, and be patient, this will help start good habits you will need to be really sucessful in this hobby

 

IME things like turbo start will reduce your cycle time by as much as 50%, but there is no way around having to cycle your tank.

 

I found this. http://www.fritzpet.com/files/0O5V3-Turbo_Start_900_msds.pdf

I know why they picked Nitrococcus spp. (although if I was making this product, I would use Nitrospira spp. as that is the bacteria that is most prevalent in our aquariums). However, I don't know why they picked Nitrosococcus spp as well. It's primarily found in brackish waters. They are even storing this bacteria at a specific gravity of 1.012. It makes me wonder if they are considered sacrificial bacteria to get Ammonia down quickly and then as they slowly die at typical reef tank salinity, the regular bacteria that comes in on LR, LS, etc processes this lower amount of Ammonia.

 

Thanks for the info. It just sounded to good to be true and with all the money I am investing I really don't want a quick fix. I figured this was a great place to ask as nobody is trying to make money off of me . Slow and steady wins the race lol.

 

Some of the cycle products out there even prevent your tank from cycling. So once you stop using it, your tank crashes.

Exactly, slow and steady wins the race. The only real way to not have a long or large cycle is to start off with cured rock. If you are buying LR online, unless the price is the same for as uncured don't buy cured rock. A lot of bacteria will die off in shipping and you will have to cycle your tank anyway. If you buy it from someone on CL and take it right from their tank to yours there should be almost no cycle.

 

There is a local distributor in my area and they sale LR for about $4 a pound so I think I will do 1/2 dry rock and 1/2 live rock and skip the turbo start.

 

Good plan. $4 LB is a great price.

 

IME Turbo Start Is a great product, As I used It on my 59gal 100gal total system and never had more than a trace of Amonia or Nitrite. And my tank at about two months old houses around 70+ SPS frags/colonys + 9 Fish and all are doing fine, No Crash or any other problem plus the rock was Marco Rock not live rock, All I added was a couple small pieces of L/R to help seed. The Turbo Start did the rest. JMHO
Bill

 

Thanks for the update, I may add it later on but not going to use it totally as my cycle product.