Best cycling products

[DeeGeeDee]

Hi guys

I plan to use Dr Tim's One and Only Bacteria plus the Ammonia Chloride to cycle my tank but I was wondering if what other people's favourite products are.

I've seen countless cycle products (fluval, aquaplus etc) but just want to know what others think and have used and had success with.

Dr Tim's is expensive to get in the UK (unless I'm looking in the wrong place) so something else would help with some cost.

Thanks

 

[docpark]

Hi guys

I plan to use Dr Tim's One and Only Bacteria plus the Ammonia Chloride to cycle my tank but I was wondering if what other people's favourite products are.

I've seen countless cycle products (fluval, aquaplus etc) but just want to know what others think and have used and had success with.

Dr Tim's is expensive to get in the UK (unless I'm looking in the wrong place) so something else would help with some cost.

Thanks

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Hi DeeGeeDee:

I know fishkeepers who have had success with the product SafeStart Plus, made by the Tetra corporation. In the USA it is less expensive than Dr. Tim's.

 

[Ch4rlie]

There are a number of so called bacteria starters and most are not really worth the money spent on.

Dr Tim's One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria and Tetra Safe Start do contain both the relevant bacterias needed for cycling tanks and filters.

As it happens, both these products were made by Dr Tim himself, a very respected and extremely knowledgable scientist, he started at Tetra then moved to form his own brands. So therefore both these product are almost the same hence why they are known to work well.

But there are a few things you must be aware, the bacterias in these bottles do have a relatively short shelf life that depends on how these bottles are stored and handled.

The bacterias won't survive if theyve been kept in too warm an area in the store by the window in direct sunlight for example, or perhaps left in transportation truck for long periods of time in too cold temperatures.

Also well worth checking the expiration date on the bottles, the newer the bottle, the better.

Bacteria will go dormant when stored in correct conditions and upon being in a new tank and a food source is added, such as ammonia, they will awaken but how long it takes to awaken depends on how long they have been dormant. If left too long in the bottles, they will die off.

So do bear these in mind when purchasing any of these bottles of Dr Tims or Tetra Safe Start, chances are they are probably ok but keep an open mind the bacteria may have not survived the handling, storage and length of time they have been in these bottles.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Just a little update, I have been told on very good authority from a good friend of mine that my statement of :

"But there are a few things you must be aware, the bacterias in these bottles do have a relatively short shelf life"

This is not quite correct.

These bacterias in the bottle will not die off for quite some time, well rather a long time actually.

Bacteria kept in bottles after between 6 to 12 months under the correct conditions, i.e refridgerated, inside the bottle start to become to be less and less viable over time, some will die off but not so much so that one could get an expired bottle, as long has been kept correctly, can work for starting to cycle a tank, just means it may take longer to cycle but it will get there eventually as long as the cycling is followed as per the cycling article with ammonia and testing etc.

These bacterias are actually more resilient than one realises, for example rinsing an established tank's filter pads under tap water for several minutes will not actually do much harm to the bacterias, do remember that there is a coating, or slime if you like, which is covered over the bacterias which protects them from the worst of the elements and this slime is pretty tough to break though.

Not saying you should start rinsing filter pad under tap water, always better to be on the safe side and rinse in old tank water, but if you mistakenly do do this, you should not worry too much in any event, chances are there it is likely to be perfectly fine.

 

[Byron]

To the OP's initial question...I have used Seachem's Stability with success. This was necessary only once when antibiotics killed off the nitrifying bacteria (or so I assume, nothing else would explain the sudden increase of nitrite). Generally I use live plants and "cycling" as such is not an issue. Even though the bacteria in Stability is different from the species believed to be the nitrifiers, it still helps. None of these "instantly cycle," except Dr. Tim's One and Only; the others simply speed things up to some degree, depending. I recommend SafeStart and Stability.

On Ch4rlie's point about rinsing filter media under the tap...I have always done this, for more than 20 years now. Provided the tank is established (= been running for a couple months), this is not going to cause any problems. I have a couple scientific papers that proved this; very technical, but the conclusion is that most of the bacteria will survive chlorinated water. I remember a microbiologist friend of mine a few years ago on another forum advising a beginner to rinse the media in tank water, and in a personal conversation she mentioned that she herself never does this, but with new beginners it is best to be cautious until they know more of what they are doing, and I take the same approach.

Byron.

 

[DeeGeeDee]

Hi

Thanks for all your replies. I thought I had already replied saying thanks but it's not come through properly.

That's very interesting what you say about rinsing filter media under tap water as what I've read so far in my research says to never ever do this as the water will instantly kill of the bacteria. I'll still play it safe after the tank is established and only rinse in tank water until I feel comfortable in what I'm doing. Still, it's nice to know that if it were to happen that they could withstand this.

I've become slightly obsessed with this now and can't wait to get the tank up and running. I was completely daunted by the "cycle" process when I first read about it but I get it now - I'm even looking forward to it (I would never have said that 3 weeks ago). I just need to get the room the tank is going into decorated (it's an old run down house that we're renovating) and then I can get going.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm sure I'll have more questions in the coming months