Chemicals, Do They Work?

[mac32]

Hi, I'm looking at geting a new tank and am also brand new to fish ownership, looking to get my tank soon and had been looking at what to do to set up a tropical tank. I understand the need to cycle the tank and had found many products such as Nutrafin cycle that claim to make a tank safe in three days! Is this right, do these kind of chemicals work? Seems very good (maybe too good) and of course like every newbie I just want to get a tank and fill it up and it be well established before I've even built the cabinet!

 

[Ifti]

The general feelings here is that these filter chemicals do not actually work most of the time. You are better off buying some Boots ammonia and starting a fishless cycle without other chemicals, and letting the bacteria develop more naturally.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hi, I'm looking at geting a new tank and am also brand new to fish ownership, looking to get my tank soon and had been looking at what to do to set up a tropical tank. I understand the need to cycle the tank and had found many products such as Nutrafin cycle that claim to make a tank safe in three days! Is this right, do these kind of chemicals work? Seems very good (maybe too good) and of course like every newbie I just want to get a tank and fill it up and it be well established before I've even built the cabinet!

Check out the thread on Bacterial Additives... I am on Day 11 of a fishless cycle (using SafeStart by Tetra, formerly Biospira - the original cycling product), and have just entered phase two. I am not going to say that the products don't work, but THREE DAYS is a bit of a stretch, if I had to put my money on one side or the other.

 

[StandbySetting]

Just use ammonia for fishless cycling, and leave the bacterial products on the shelf, the majority of them are useless, only a few have ever been cited as working.

 

[mac32]

Thanks, I'll have a read up. Good luck with your new tank, I've seen safe start in the shop, there seems to be lots of options.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Just use ammonia for fishless cycling, and leave the bacterial products on the shelf, the majority of them are useless, only a few have ever been cited as working.

I started thinking that there had to be some validity to at least SOME of the products. Now I am starting to lean towards the fact that there isn't much to it. Although, before I give my final assessment of SafeStart, I am going to wait it out to the bitter end. I am at Day 11, and have completed phase 1 (My ammonia has dropped from 4ppm to zero in 24 hours). In addition to this, I will add that last night (approximately) my nitrites dropped from 0.50ppm to zero. So, MAYBE there is something going on that will actually SHORTEN the cycling period, but three days is just comical, in my opinion.

Perhaps with only ONE small fish, it could be cycled in 3 days. I wouldn't bank on it, but it MIGHT work for one.

 

[StandbySetting]

3 Days as you say is arbitrary, there are too many factors to control to establish whether or not it is working properly, did you use RO water or Tap water?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

3 Days as you say is arbitrary, there are too many factors to control to establish whether or not it is working properly, did you use RO water or Tap water?

I used tap, because I wasn't going to invest any more money than necessary. It isn't a truly scientific investigation, just a "test case". If I had more money and time, it would be interesting to conduct this sort of experiment though. Maybe when I retire (but that won't be for 25 or more years!). By then, there may actually be some verified products that work.

 

[Kaybear]

I have tried a few different brands over the years and seachems stability seems to make a difference in my opinion. I am doing a fishless cycle myself, it had been a little over two weeks with no sign of nitrites. I bought some stability and added it (over dosed some) to my already ammonia treated tank and two days later I had nitrite. I know my cycle still has a little bit more to go but it seemed to help. It could have been a coincidence but I have used it in the past and noticed it helping.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I have tried a few different brands over the years and seachems stability seems to make a difference in my opinion. I am doing a fishless cycle myself, it had been a little over two weeks with no sign of nitrites. I bought some stability and added it (over dosed some) to my already ammonia treated tank and two days later I had nitrite. I know my cycle still has a little bit more to go but it seemed to help. It could have been a coincidence but I have used it in the past and noticed it helping.

If you had done it from the beginning I would trust the result more. I got nitrite readings after 7 days (trace levels) and a SPIKE after 9 days. That was with SafeStart (again, that doesn't prove anything), but it is different.

***Update, by the morning of Day 11, nitrites have now hit zero after 24 hours (after a dose of 2ppm NH3). I am going to slowly increase the ammonia dosing back to 4ppm, and see how long that takes before I declare that I have reached the end of phase 2. Then it is on to seeing how long before the levels drop to zero in 12 hours. But, since I am testing every 12 hours anyway, it really won't mean much of a change for me anyway! ***

 

[mac32]

OK, I think I understand the point of chemicals like Nutrafin cycle now, it is basically a safer way of doing the fish in cycle. Over a period of three days you add loads of the good bacteria to bump start the cycle but you still need to add only a couple of fish for a couple of weeks to fully cycle your tank / filter before fully stocking the tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

OK, I think I understand the point of chemicals like Nutrafin cycle now, it is basically a safer way of doing the fish in cycle. Over a period of three days you add loads of the good bacteria to bump start the cycle but you still need to add only a couple of fish for a couple of weeks to fully cycle your tank / filter before fully stocking the tank.

With a fish-in process, fully loading the tank means a slow addition of a few fish at a time so that the filter can cope with a larger and larger bioload. You don't want to start by having 3 fish for a fish-in cycle, and then add a dozen or more once the "cycle" is complete. A whole new cycle will then begin - smaller than the first probably, but the bacs must grow and multiply to handle the larger load. It is an ongoing process.

 

[mac32]

Yeh, I'll proceed with caution and only add a couple of fish at a time, giving the tank plenty of time to ajust before adding the next few. Thanks every one for you advice with this