Cycling Additives

[dwarfgourami]

They even have a graph showing a comparison between using CYCLE and not using it. Using CYCLE it takes only 10 days. Not using it takes 20 days.

I would be a little wary of anyone making such a very positive statement about the exact number of days to cycle a tank. In my experience, and in that of other posters on the forum, cycling is a lot more unpredictable than that. Who says it is going to take exactly 20 days to cycle fishless without using an additive? I have done three fishless cycles within the last two years: two with no additions, the third with filter media from a smaller tank. The first two cycles (no additives) took 10 and 14 days respectively, the third took 3 weeks. I do not attempt to explain this, but following a great number of threads on cycling on this and other forums over the last few years, I would suggest that it is quite an unpredictable process as far as the timescale goes- not that I ever felt that mattered, as long as I got there safely in the end.

As for most people not having the luxury of using cloned media- I hope you are all aware that we have a list of members willing to donate- do sign up for it if you are at all able to do so!

 

[PaPeRo]

They even have a graph showing a comparison between using CYCLE and not using it. Using CYCLE it takes only 10 days. Not using it takes 20 days.

I would be a little wary of anyone making such a very positive statement about the exact number of days to cycle a tank. Who says it is going to take exactly 20 days to cycle fishless without using an additive?

Well those numbers I got from a graph and were my estimates from reading the graph not their claims. In fact looking it over it's about 11 days using Cycle and about 24 days without.

In my experience, and in that of other posters on the forum, cycling is a lot more unpredictable than that. I have done three fishless cycles within the last two years: two with no additions, the third with filter media from a smaller tank. The first two cycles (no additives) took 10 and 14 days respectively, the third took 3 weeks. I do not attempt to explain this, but following a great number of threads on cycling on this and other forums over the last few years, I would suggest that it is quite an unpredictable process as far as the timescale goes- not that I ever felt that mattered, as long as I got there safely in the end.

I agree that's why we need to have controlled tests to verify whether or not Cycle works. Same filter, same water, same conditioner, same size tank, same temperature, side by side. This is very easy to do on small 2.5 gallon tanks which I've done.

As for most people not having the luxury of using cloned media- I hope you are all aware that we have a list of members willing to donate- do sign up for it if you are at all able to do so!

I prefer not to risk importing disease into a brand new tank. Using a $7 bottle of Cycle for new tank setups is not even an issue. I don't cycle tanks for a living so $7 is nothing.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well those numbers I got from a graph and were my estimates from reading the graph not their claims. In fact looking it over it's about 11 days using Cycle and about 24 days without.

I think probably that graph should read as an example of how the cycling process might look; not a promise that it will actually take exactly this number of days. At least I hope that's what they mean. Noone can know exactly how long a fishless cycle will take on any given tank.

Should also have mentioned that there is a new Tetra product out which was recently tested by Pracital Fishkeeping Magazine. Their test suggested that it made the cycle shorter but not instantaneous; they therefore had reservations about marketing it as an alternative to fishless cycling- but it seems to me that it might still work perfectly well within the fishless cycle.