Tank Cycling product

[leongreenway]

anyone got an opinion on this item, looks good, the only problem i would possibly have is passing on of disease from their fish.

What do you think ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...382247397&rd=1

[MyraVan]

Sounds suspicious to me. How do they keep the bacteria alive in the bottles?

I think by far the best way to get your tank started is, if you have an existing tank, to run the new filter in your old tank for awhile to let bacteria build up on it, add some fish to the new tank and then put the filter with its bacteria in the new tank. Also, as insurance, add some floating plants (I use hornwort) to protect your fish from ammonia in case you don't have enough bacteria to convert all their waste.

I'm suspicious of all products that say they speed up cycling, unless recommended by someone whose opinion I respect (like OldSalt).

[leongreenway]

Thats a good Idea that, my first tank i did with fish, but it was a bit of a pain as i was doing water changes every other day

[1KoidialDude]

Hey Leon,
gotta say i think it would be very neat but i do like your forethought
with this stuff and i think your right on the disease part and really the only way to use something "NEW" is to follow the "NEW" rule .
Quarintine it for 6 week's and yes i know this takes the speedy part
out of it but it's really the only safe way.
sure the LFS want's to live by the LFS oath of take it home and pop it in but
remember all those horror stories youve seen about people losing all thier sacred fishy buddies, here's another close call to just refamiliarize ya
My sister wanted to get her turtle some goldfish "friends" *burp*
and since she didn't want to put them all in at once they got THROWN into my pond....what a set back it was the day i was going to put my prize Kohaku in with my kin-jin-rin argh well now i get to wait 6 more weeks before breeding time
well you get my point GOD talk about how people can be idiot's
Yes I do mean my sister
"Never argue with an idiot, people watching may not be able to tell who's who."

[Gunnie]

The only true "bacteria in a bottle" is bio spira. I have used it 3 times with complete success, but it must be used exactly according to the directions, and if it's not handled properly by the dealer, you could end up with a batch of dead bacteria. I get mine from The Fish Store, and know his supply is replenished every week. He also ships to the UK, but it's not cheap. Borrowing filter media from another tank is much more economical. I have used it in emergency situations, and it saved me from doing daily water changes, and stressing out my fish. I have some in my fridge right now.

[Gracie6363]

I use product called Cycle in my tanks... it's about $5.00 a bottle I believe and last awhile. It says it has like 20 something active bacterias in it that aid in the tanks cycle process. I hear that BioSpira works in 24 hours, this Cycle product seems to take about 1-2 weeks. less than the normal 4 or more weeks, but not instant.

[TheOldSalt]

Cycle is junk, in my opinion, and so is pretty much everything else except for the aformentioned "Bio-Spira," and in second place, "Stability."

As for "Lord Fishy's Tank Boost".... I have the feeling that this is nothing more than some guy squeezing his filter floss out into a bottle. It might actually work...eventually... but at the risk of infection from diseases in his tanks.

I once thought about marketing the goo from the bottom of my goldfish ponds as an "organic gardening supplement" which I would have called "Amazin' Miracle Muck." This guy is probably thinking along the same lines. Heck, this product may simply be the water he siphons out of his gravel each week.

[sprintguy]

can bio spira really safely cycle in a few days?

[TheOldSalt]

Quite often by the very next day. It's great stuff.
Cycling is the process by which we are trying to grow enough bacteria for the job of nitrification. BioSpira eliminates the need for the wait time by providing enough bacteria from the very start. More importantly, they are the correct kind of bacteria. For the last several decades we have been operating under the false impression that nitrosomanas & nitrobacter bacteria did the job, and we've been using products containing these bacteria to try to cycle our tanks. It took weeks, because since we were dumping the wrong bacteria into the tank, it made life very difficult for the right ones to grow. BioSpira is a specific culture of the correct bacteria, Nitrospira, and when we pour these guys into the tank, we have a viable and large enough population of them literally overnight to cycle the tank. Actually, we pretty much bypass the cycle altogether and jump straight to fish-ready.

[Gunnie]

I'm with The Old Salt. My tanks were instantly cycled with nitrates showing up within 24 hours, and the last time I used it was in a 100 gal. tank that I had killed the bio filter in. I drained the tank and moved my fish into a 55 gal. temporarily until I got my bio spira. I couldn't get it locally at the time, and ordered it from the link I posted previously. When it arrived, I added my full bio load of fish, which at the time were 2 oscars at 7 inches apiece, a 7 inch jack dempsey, a 5 inch jack dempsey, and an 8 inch pleco and immediately added 3 oz. of bio spira, which I might mention is meant to treat 90 gallons (and my tank was 100 gal). The tank never showed ammonia or nitrites! I don't sell it or get a cut for mentioning it, but I know it works!