"cycle" The Bacteria Solution

[doresy]

Here we go!

THAT Cycle solution that the LFS is always first to promote ('cos it's jolly expensive)....you know the one!

I personally don't use it. At the begining I did until I found that my wife (bless her) blew a good nights beer money by surprising me with a couple of huge bottles for a present!

Actually, what really stopped me using it was something I was told which seemed to make sense......what do you think?

What I was told was, if it is not kept below a certain temperature (very cold) the bacteria would become active and as there is nothing in the solution for it to consume, it would die.
As all the LFS I have been in are very warm and they keep the Cycle on an open shelf would I be, in effect, feeding my tank very expensive and very dead bacteria!

Is this true???

If this is b*****ks, please don't shoot the messenger

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know that to be a true fact but it is what I have always suspected. The temperature in the trucks that hauled it and the warehouses it is stored in can easily reach over 120 degrees. I have never understood how any bacteria could survive that.

 

[WILDER]

All I know is that the stuff crap.

 

[doresy]

All I know is that the stuff crap.

That'll be dead crap then!

 

[WILDER]

Don't rate the stuff at all, never noticed it do anything, just a complete waste of money.

 

[ghostchoir]

I didn't use Cycle, I used one of the similar ones though and it worked for me. I'm not sure why it worked for me and hardly anyone else, but it seriously helped a lot.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah I got some a while ago thinking it would help, but the stuff is total crap. Liquid nothing in a bottle..

 

[andyw823]

It never worked for me when i first started keeping fish, i ended up taking some of my mums filter media from her tank to kick mine into life and it worked a treat!!!

 

[PRW1988]

the bacteria in Cycle doesn't become active until oxygen is introduced. Theres some kind of weird thing with bacteria which won't allow it to live unless it has direct contact with the air. So long as the bottle remains sealed, and the bacteria isn't introduced to the air, your bottle of cycle is safe.

However, this just furthur proves the point that Cycle is crap... once opened, it dies what a waste...

 

[rdd1952]

I didn't use Cycle, I used one of the similar ones though and it worked for me. I'm not sure why it worked for me and hardly anyone else, but it seriously helped a lot.

What product did you use and when you say it worked for you, what exactly did it do?

 

[stargirly1208]

i've never used cycle, but my roommate did and it didn't do anything for her tank. i use something by API called stress zyme because i love stress coat so much! but this stuff seems to work just dandy, put it in my 20 gallon, waited a day and got some fish.. everyone is fine ever since! love that stuff.

 

[rdd1952]

I know for a fact that Stress Zyme doesn't work. I got some by accident once when I though I had picked up Stress Coat. I decided to try it on a tank I was doing a fishless cycle in. After 8 days, the ammonia had not dropped at all and there was no nitrite present. I tried it on 2 other betta tanks with the same results. If you read the label on Stress Zyme, it doesn't say that it contains "live bacteria that enhances the growth of any biological filter." So it doesn't even claim to contain nitrifying bacteria.

 

[vinylman]

We all have something that is much more effective than all those 'miracle in a bottle' bacteria starters for kick starting a filter. It's called flake food.

 

[mark7616]

The only thing out there that is any good is soll bactinets you can put it in your filter and start stocking straight away.

 

[andywg]

the bacteria in Cycle doesn't become active until oxygen is introduced. Theres some kind of weird thing with bacteria which won't allow it to live unless it has direct contact with the air. So long as the bottle remains sealed, and the bacteria isn't introduced to the air, your bottle of cycle is safe.

However, this just furthur proves the point that Cycle is crap... once opened, it dies what a waste...

Where did you hear it needs to be in contact with air? These are waterborne bacteria we are trying to cultivate. The problem is that the bacteria need ammonia as a food source. Without the food source the bacteria will begin to starve. To prevent this the decent ones (bactinettes or bio-spira) are refrigerated to slow down the process.

I also seem to recall that most of the cycle products use the wrong bacteria; Nitrosomonas spp and Nitrobacters spp rather than Nitrospira spp.