Cycling A Tank - Within A Week!

[Schmill]

I am sure we are pretty much renowned here for 'bashing' the bacteria-in-a-bottle products, but after seeing someone link to this I wondered if it had any truth to it, or possibility of working?

AquariumWiki - 'Hi-Tech' Way

Also the two main links contained within it:

Bacteria In A Bottle
Bacteria Bottles - Do they work?

 

[andywg]

Show me the test results and I will believe they all work. Until then I am somewhat sceptical.

 

[Bignose]

I concur with andy. Even the anecdotal evidence on all of the these products are pretty hit and miss, nevermind the dearth of actual scientific data. There is a perfectly safe way of cycling a tank via the fishless method of adding ammonia everyday -- all it takes is a little patience. While all-in-all people today have a "gotta have it now" attitude on a lot of things, having to exercise a little patience isn't going to kill anyone.

 

[LauraFrog]

It is possible to cycle a tank in about a week, but you won't do it by adding dead bacteria. This takes mature media - a lot of it. It's possible to speed cycle time greatly (but not actually 'clone' the filter) by adding mature media so that approximately 40% of the media in the new filter is cycled. Then you add ammonia to allow the bacteria to grow.

 

[aaronnorth]

easiest way would to get a fair amount of mature filter media, and you can also add some bactinettes (live bacteria)

 

[andywg]

easiest way would to get a fair amount of mature filter media, and you can also add some bactinettes (live bacteria)

There are problems with Bactinettes though. The works of Dr Hovanec show that Nitrobacter spp bacteria are not present in significant numbers and the nitrite oxidising bacteria would appear more likely to be a strain of Nitrospira spp.

Therefore, while there are some anecdotal reports of success with Bactinettes, it is likely that there are still changes going on amongst the bacteria colony as Nitrospira bacteria will still be growing while the Nitrobacter will be reducing (or staying roughly level).

Mature filter media is, however, a very good bit of advice.