Fishless Cycling With Biomature - Daize's Log

[daizeUK]

I've started this thread because there was some interest in Waterlife's product BioMature and whether it might be useful to speed up a fishless cycle.

I will assume some familiarity with the usual cycling process as there are many guides on how to do a fishless cycle elsewhere. But first, some info on BioMature as a product:

What is BioMature?
It's food for filter bacteria. It contains ammonium salts, vitamins and minerals - all the nutrients you need to nourish your biofilter! It does not contain any bacteria.

When can it be used?
BioMature can be used in place of pure household ammonia when starting a fishless cycle to simulate the waste products produced by fish in a tank.
It can be used in marine, tropical and coldwater tanks.
The instructions state that BioMature cannot be used if there are fish, invertebrates or plants in the tank. The ammonia it contains is deadly to fish and inverts. As for plants, in practice I believe it can be used safely with those species of plants that can tolerate high levels of ammonia (some can't), if in doubt then don't use it with your plants.
BioMature can also be used once a week to keep a mature biofilter alive whenever the tank is empty of fish (e.g. a hospital or quarantine tank).

Why use BioMature instead of household ammonia?
BioMature doesn't burn your nostrils when you open the bottle and has no smell and comes with instructions which may make it easier to use. It also comes with its own measuring cap. It also claims to contain extra nutrients to help your bacteria colonies flourish. The bottle is smaller and easier to store than a large bottle of cleaning fluid. Finally, depending on where you live it may be easier to obtain than household ammonia. At the end of the day, both BioMature and household ammonia have been shown to work so it comes down to personal preference.

How much does it cost?
I paid £6.50 for a 100ml bottle from eBay (including postage). Some aquatic stores also stock and will post it. It is more expensive than a bottle of household ammonia and does need to be used within 12 months of opening.

What are the instructions on the bottle?
Tighten cap and shake bottle.
Add 1ml BioMature per 30L of tank water.
Use once a day and test with ammonia and nitrite test kits.
When a reading of 5-10ppm is reached on either test kit, stop the addition of BioMature.
At this point you may add Waterlife's Bacterlife to speed up the maturation process.
After the ammonia and nitrate readings drop to zero, you are ready to add the first few hardy fishes.
Always stock tanks gradually over the longest possible period of time and do not exceed stocking densities.

How should it be used?
The instructions are helpful for getting started but they don't promise that your tank will be fully cycled at the end, as indicated by their advice to add only a few 'hardy' fish. I think the instructions are slightly oversimplified so I will lay out my own advice for administering BioMature to fully cycle a tank. These are the instructions I will be following for my cycle:

1. Add 1ml of BioMature daily per 30L of tank water and test ammonia levels.
2. Stop adding BioMature when ammonia levels reach 4-5ppm. Keep testing ammonia levels.
3. When ammonia reaches 0ppm, test for nitrites. Perform water changes if nitrites exceed 5ppm.
4. After 1 week, add another dose of 1ml of BioMature per 30L of tank water to keep the ammonia-eating bacteria alive, as per instructions for maintaining a mature aquarium. Continue dosing BioMature once per week in this way until the cycle is complete.
5. When nitrites fall to 0ppm, begin dosing BioMature daily for at least a week and test both ammonia and nitrite levels until both consistently fall to 0ppm within 24 hours.
6. Full water change and add fish!

Does it work better than household ammonia?
Unknown but personally, I doubt it. I think it is a different means to the same end, possibly easier to use for a beginner but not much faster. I have seen no claims that it is any faster than household ammonia. But let's try it and find out!

My water parameters
My tapwater after standing 24 hours:
pH 8.2
GH 16
KH 20
Nitrates 50ppm

65L Interpet tank.
Interpet PF2 internal filter with sintered glass biomedia rings.
Tank temperature initially 26 degrees Celsius, raised to 28 deg after 7 days.

I am also using Filter Start, a bacteria-in-a-bottle type product by Interpet to try to speed the process up. The instructions advise to use this every two days for two weeks, however I will be using common sense and adding it every two days until I can see that both ammonia-eating and nitrite-eating bacteria are active in my tank.

Keep in mind that this is my first tropical tank and I am new to the process of cycling.

RESULTS
The readings were a bit up and down for the first few days while I got used to taking readings with my new API master test kit.

Day 1: Added 2ml BioMature. NH4 tested 1.5ppm.
Day 2: NH4 tested 1.0ppm. Added 2ml BioMature.
Day 3: Added 2ml BioMature. NH4 testd 4ppm.
Day 4: NH4 tested 2.5ppm. Added 1ml BioMature.
Day 5: NH4 tested 2ppm. Added 2ml BioMature.
Day 6: NH4 tested 4ppm.

At this point I stopped adding BioMature and continued testing ammonia levels and dosing Filter Start bacteria. Ammonia levels remained constant.

Day 7: NH4 4ppm
Day 8: NH4 4ppm

At this point I started to get jittery that nothing was happening and increased my water temperature from 26 to 28 deg Celsius. I performed a strip test to ensure that my tank water was dechlorinated and water parameters hadn't changed - it was fine. I then went online to find out how long it usually takes for ammonia levels to start to drop and reassured myself that several weeks is not uncommon! I then resolved to stop worrying and only test ammonia levels every 2 days.

Day 10: NH4 4ppm
Day 12:

I will continue to update this thread with my cycle as it progresses.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

What's your pH? The bacteria we are trying to culture generally prefer high levels of pH. Some people (including me) use baking soda to raise the pH during a fishless cycle. The optimum pH, I believe is 8.4. Obviously, you'll need to do a complete water change before adding fish after the cycle is complete, and maybe even twice, but it does increase the speed of the cycle. Also, you can boost the temp to 30C and get slightly better results in the cycling process that way also.

I find this very interesting, and helpful. If there were an ammonia product available at the pet store to cycle a tank, I think more people would be inclined to do a proper fishless cycle. Although, generally, there would still be tons of people who would be so focused on getting fish, that we'd still have thread after thread of people dealing with ammonia poisoning in their tank. Most folks (myself included when I first started) don't understand all that goes into setting up a fish tank. Many don't do their proper research, and end up with a serious problem on their hands.

If, on the other hand, pet stores offered some help in a fishless cycle - offering products like these for easy dosing of ammonia, and advised people to use the cycling time as a chance to research fish compatibility with your water parameters, tank size, tank mates, etc and even lighting and real plants, then I think more folks would do it. As it stands right now though, I think most are more interested in the quick buck.

Honestly, unless a good fishkeeper gets addicted and starts setting up tank after tank after tank, most pet stores aren't going to make a ton of money off of us. I spent very little on fish supplies this past year on my tank, because I bought what I needed in economy sizes, and don't overfeed, I don't have disease, I don't even buy plants anymore. My current plants are doing so well that I am actually giving some away to friends for their tanks now. I browse from time to time, but I generally have nothing to purchase. The last buy I made was at the behest of my son, who wanted to add a decoration. We certainly didn't "need" it, but it did give me another spot to tie on some java fern. ;-) Heck, the last 6 additions to the fish population in my tank have come from my panda cories breeding and the fry surviving - I might add, I did nothing to promote nor protect the fry. I just let them be, and I've successfully reared 3 pandy cory fry twice in 6 months.

 

[techen]

Are you testing your tank with test strips?

 

[CezzaXV]

This product looks interesting. It contains ammonia so there's no reason it won't work. My only concern is whether it will be any quicker than just cycling with bog standard ammonia. Shame you don't have a another filter to cycle alongside it to test. Your pH should be ideal for cycling

 

[the_lock_man]

Nice one Daisy!

I have to agree with Eagles, if this product finds a place on the shelves of the LFS then it should encourage people to fishless cycle. The LFS have embraced "bacteria-in-a-bottle" products quite happily, so why shouldn't they embrace this? It's an extra sale. Fingers crossed.

 

[daizeUK]

I have read that some pet stores don't stock it because they feel it over-complicates the process for beginners. A lot of beginners walk into a shop expecting to come home with some fish straight away and some shops fear that having to explain fishless cycling might put them off. Having said that, I'm sure this isn't true for all shops, perhaps the demand just isn't there yet, I'm sure if enough people walked into their LFS and asked for BioMature then they would eventually stock it!

Are you testing your tank with test strips?

Only to test chlorine and water hardness, I use the API master test kit for everything else.

What's your pH?

8.2; so in theory it should be a pretty good breeding ground for bacteria *fingers crossed*
I had seen a lot of sources recommending 27-28 deg C for a fishless cycle but I can certainly turn it up to 30 deg if that's the recommended optimum?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I haven't looked into cycling in a few years, but when I did, I believe 84F (30C) was the preferred temp for optimum growth. It was easy to remember for me, the optimum pH was 8.4, and the optimum temp was 84. Things might have changed, or new research, etc. I think it is generally kept in the 27C-28C degree range because it can be hard sometimes to get the temp to stay at 30C without a really good heater, and unless you plan to keep Discus or something like that, you'd never need that temp normally, so some don't invest in a stronger heater. For me though, for only a few extra bucks, I'd rather have a heater that was working at 30% of max for the majority of the time, and capable of much more than I ask of it, than a heater working closer to max all of the time. I think the longevity of the better/stronger heater will more than pay for the price difference in the long run, but that's just me.

 

[daizeUK]

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Four NH4, zero NO2 and fifty parts per million NO3.

All I wanted for Christmas was some nitfifying bacteria.

Well, and some new oven gloves, but I didn't get those either!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, these things take time. How easy to use is the Biomature?


If I were you, I'd just test every other day or so until you actually see the ammonia starting to drop. You are getting close. By New Years Day you should have something happening. These things take time. Don't worry. If you have a friend with a tank, they could give you a Christmas present in the form of a bit of mature media...

 

[daizeUK]

Don't worry, I am relaxed, I just needed an excuse to post my little Christmas cycling song! It rhymes if you spell out the chemical abbreviations and sing it to the tune of Twelve Days of Christmas. Both festive and fishy! Ahem, well... I will update when anything interesting starts to happen!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A fishless cycle is a challenging thing for the patience of a new fishkeeper. Personally, I'd never do it again. I have the mature media now, so I don't have to worry about that. ;-) In fact, I'm starting a new tank right now (going to be getting fish for it after the first of the year) and I don't have to worry about that whole cycling thing. I have the same filter material in my filters at home as we are using in the new tank at school. All I need to do is bring the used media to school, drop it into place and refill the media in my home tank. (I have two filters running in tandem, and will only be taking about 1/2 of the media from the one filter. Roughly 25% of my bacteria. That should be sufficient to get my tank cycled for the first installment of fish... 20 bloodfin tetras. We'll give them 2 weeks to settle in before the next installment of fish. Fortunately, our supplier is a friend of ours and he's going to quarantine the fish for us ahead of time. ;-) Always nice to have a friend in the business.

 

[novicefishkeeper1987]

Hi have just got the same fish tank as the OP and am looking to start 'fishless cycling' the tank. I have purchased the biomature and bacterlife to do this after reading up about them on the Internet. Have a couple of (probably stupid) questions before I start but just want to get this right!!!

1) When testing the water parameters and leaving the water to stand for 24 hours, does it need to be covered? Should I just stand it in th test tubes with lids on? (I have the API master kit and API GH and KH test kits!)

2) How do people transfer water into their test tubes or chemicals into fish tank? I was thinking of getting a bulk lot of pipettes from eBay, would these be safe to use? (Wouldn't want to mess up test results!)

Sorry in advance if these are silly questions but don't want to mess up with silly mistakes!!!
Thanks

 

[eaglesaquarium]

1 - Leave it sit without a lid. Part of the reason for letting it sit for 24 hours is to allow the gases that are trapped in the water to dissipate. Leaving the lid off allows more of the gas to escape. Lidding it would potentially trap some.

2 - I use a medicine syringe - the same ones used to give babies/small children liquid medicines. They are readily available at your local pharmacy/drugist (chemist in UK) and are very cheap. No need to get more than 2. I keep one for my tests, and one for medicine, just in case. The "medicine" one is the same one I used to dose ammonia during my fishless cycle a few years ago. Secondly, I thoroughly rinsed it before I ever put it back into my fish cabinet. Just rinse it until when you take a deep breath right out of the syringe, your lungs don't tell you there is ammonia in it. ;-) If there is a trace of ammonia, you'll know. Trust me. I inadvertently inhaled while dosing the ammonia in my tank. That was a very unpleasant experience. Pain in my lungs like I've never experienced before. It certainly gives you a great appreciation of what your fish go through with ammonia poisoning.

 

[novicefishkeeper1987]

Thanks for that!!
So question about leaving water with lid on/off not so silly after all lol. I would have assumed lid on and would of messed it up!!
As for the syringes- not sure i like the idea of reusing them just in case. Would rather buy cheap bulk lot and throw away after use. It's like £4 for a hundred so really cheap- just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be an issue with contamination?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, that certainly is an option. But, why create waste where it isn't necessary? Getting two quality syringes that will last you the rest of your fishkeeping life makes more sense to me. Maybe buy 3, and throw away the ammonia one once the cycle is complete and keep the other two are testing and medicine. I'm not a huge environmentalist by any stretch, but I do have a tendency to lean towards pragmatic decision making. And ultimately, the cost over the course of 20-30 years doesn't make sense. Two will do you nicely for that amount of time, and they will never wear out. ;-)

Also, if you are looking to cut costs, you can get away with this:

API ammonia test calls for 5 mL of tank water and 8 drops of solution. You can use the syringe to measure out exactly 2.5 ml and use 4 drops instead. During a fishless cycle, you will go through that stuff REALLY fast.

API Nitrite test calls for 5 mL of tank water and 5 drops of solution. You can use the syringe to measure out exactly 3.0 ml and use 3 drops instead. Also, don't bother to run the nitrite test until you see a noticeable drop in ammonia. That can take up to 3+ weeks sometimes.

API Nitrate test - this one doesn't actually need to be run at all during the cycle. But, it is best to get yourself familiar with it. Its the trickiest one. Bottle 2 specifically! This one needs to get severely shaken for the full minute that they ask for, but I'd say go for 2 minutes. Bash it on a hard surface to free up any of the material that settles to the bottom. (This test actually has two chemicals in it, one of which is not soluble, so you need to thoroughly mix the bottle for best results.)

For ALL tests, be sure to fully invert the bottles before dispensing the solution. ;-)