For Miss W....

[jonnyf84]

Oh plenty, it has never failed for me and it is one thing i am always gob smacked by - the fact that people struggle for 5 - 8 weeks with cycling the tank just astonishes me.

OK, For the benefit of maths i will base this on a 100 litre tank.

Set up your tank: gravel/sand, plants, filter, heater, de-chlorinate and de-chloramine and leave it for 24 for hours to settle down (this isn't essential but i think it helps). I can't remember the last time i read the back of a bottle of stress zyme so i can't state what they say you should dose your tank with, if you do read it then just forget it again cos its about as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

So you've got your bottled gold, add three full caps once a day for 7-10 days - this depends on your finances and tank size cos its not the cheapest stuff around, although what is in this hobby!!!! (remember this is for 100 litres, adjust amount accordingly, 200 litre=6 caps etc).

This is where you can fork off in 1 of 2 different directions depending on your morals (fish or fishless).

For fishless fans. Stop dosing for 3 days then add 3 full caps once a day for three days then leave for 3 more days and repeat, do this until the tank is cycled. Time span = 25 days max

For less moralistic aquarists. Get yourself 2 or three baby goldfish (the idea been that they will not have totally acclimatised to certain water conditions) once added leave for three days then add 3 full caps once a day for three days and your tank should be fully cycled. Time span = 15 days (approx)
NB# I've used baby goldfish several times and have never noticed any ill affects as by the time i put them in the aquariums the majority of the cycling is done. Don't forget to reduce the temp if you plan to use goldfish, don't turn off the heater completely though, i always reduce from 79F to 66F then add the goldfish after slowly tipping water into their bag for a hour or so, for the next couple of days slowly raise the temp up to 74F. I have always returned the goldfish to my lfs and have never had any negative feedback on their condition.

Which ever route you take test your NH, NO2 & NO3 after 12-14 days and you will be gob smacked by the progress without using either fish or ammonia.

Miss W, i really hope you try this, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. As for all you pessimists out there, try before you judge.

I hope this helps......correction, i hope you appreciate once it has helped.

Jonny



EDIT: If you have any established media then chuck it in to speed up the process even more.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well thankyou for the details johnny, always nice to hear someone else's POV and if it's worked for you then that's great.

have you tested your water within this 12-14 day period when you added fish after just adding the stress zyme, could you please post the results?

I'm interested to see what exactly is in the stress zyme which miraculously cycles tanks for you, do you know which ingredient it is that does this or anymore science behind it?

 

[jonnyf84]

well thankyou for the details johnny, always nice to hear someone else's POV and if it's worked for you then that's great.

have you tested your water within this 12-14 day period when you added fish after just adding the stress zyme, could you please post the results?

I'm interested to see what exactly is in the stress zyme which miraculously cycles tanks for you, do you know which ingredient it is that does this or anymore science behind it?

your welcome, your first question, yes, almost cycled completely on most occasions with only minute traces of NO2, there does seem to be a fine point between not much action and then, within a day or two, miracles.

Wouldn't have a clue about your second question i'm afraid, to me it's not important, i'll leave that to the boffins

 

[Miss Wiggle]

can you give us a list of what the exact readings were (numbers not 'fine' or 'trace') every day during the 12 day cycling period in one of these tanks?

 

[jonnyf84]

can you give us a list of what the exact readings were (numbers not 'fine' or 'trace') every day during the 12 day cycling period in one of these tanks?

not a chance i'm afraid as i very rarely tested, the only time i tested more than 3 times was my first try at this method and even then i only tested 4 or 5 times and didn't record the levels. I guess your just going to have to do it yourself If you or nobody else does i will be sure to test and record results daily next time i do it although it might be a while as all the tanks are driving the mrs crazy, she's restricted me to one more so i'm saving up for a huge one

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'm in the middle of refurbing my house, got nowhere to set up another tank at present.

be interested to hear the results if anyone else wants to try it, have to say though i'm very skeptical with no real test results and not even an attempt at understanding the process behind it i don't know how you can say that this method works or is safe and recommend it to people.

 

[jonnyf84]

i'm in the middle of refurbing my house, got nowhere to set up another tank at present.

be interested to hear the results if anyone else wants to try it, have to say though i'm very skeptical with no real test results and not even an attempt at understanding the process behind it i don't know how you can say that this method works or is safe and recommend it to people.

haha the pesemist in you speaks. The process behind it isn't important to me, it works, its quick and all my fish since have been well and healthy. I say it works because it does, i haven't done this 2 or three times but dozens with 100% success, i recommend it because it is a far quicker, easier way to cycle.

 

[minxfishy]

Im confused, so if you do this with a fishless cycle, where is the source of ammonia coming from to 'grow' the bacteria needed? Is there ammonia in stress zyme? Obviously if you use it with fish, then thats your source, but with no fish, only adding stress zyme, then surely no bacteria will grow as they having nothing to consume in the first place. Or am I missing something?

 

[jonnyf84]

your not missing anything. Try it and be prepared to be amazed. I don't know what is in stress zyme (i'm pretty sure it doesn't contain NH) but like i said it has never failed for me. Sceptisism is expected and warranted but all i am trying to do is introduce a new method that has been superior to every other method i have tried, the theorists will not recommend this because it doesn't make scientific sense but i have many happy fish that beg to differ - if only fish could talk

 

[three-fingers]

Stess Zyme does seem to contain ammonia, test it and the test says it does anyway (not that I would expect the test result to be accurate, no idea what else is in there). If ammonia wasn't in there, it just couldn't do what it claims anyway, not that I think it does.

Stress Zyme never worked for me, I've tried it on two tanks in the past using the instructions and the first time all the fish died, the second time I got loads of ammonia as expected and basically ended up doing a fish-in cycle where most of them die another the other suffered things like fin rot.

I'm happy your method has worked for you, but I find it hard to imagine you recommending to people without knowing how it works or even what's in it.

 

[mark.w.jones]

If it looks too good to be true...

As Miss W says. Post us some numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate over the time the tank is cycling to fully stocked and whilst being fully stocked and I'll be prepared to eat my words.

 

[waterdrop]

I think if a fellow member comes up with a "wacky" (sorry, "different") method of cycling that he says has worked well a number of times, then its reasonable to hope that perhaps someone else will try it and see if there is any merit to it. The fact that the stresszyme instructions are not followed makes it a bit more interesting.

One part that confuses me a little is that if three-fingers is right and StressZyme does contain ammonia (or something that breaks down into ammonia) and the max days for cycling jonny has averaged is 25, then its not clear that this is significantly different than fishless cycling with pure ammonia. Bignose showed why fishless cycling as we do it often takes 21 days (its a progressive calculation he did.) Also the pure ammonia, at least here, is less than a US dollar.

Now, in practice, our fishless cycles often take more than 21 days, but often that is because of pH crashes and other things that might hopefully be avoided with careful prep and testing. I would expect there might be some of the same problems if this stresszyme technique were used widely.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If it looks too good to be true...

As Miss W says. Post us some numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate over the time the tank is cycling to fully stocked and whilst being fully stocked and I'll be prepared to eat my words.

do it again, test ammonia and nitrite every day and post the results up and then people may start to believe you a little bit more.

 

[rabbut]

Think I know where you got the method from. Sounds distinktly similar to one of my collegues directions for tank cycling at work... I do not belive in Stress Zyme, as I have used the method as described before and found it not to have helped with a fishless cycle. This said, when used for my first tropical tanks fish-in cycle it appered to work, though I did not water test and carried out daily waterchanges with a light fish load... It is quite possible under these circumstances that ammonia was up in the tank and I completed a fish-in cycle as per normal, without getting the level of ammonia high enough to do damage...

Last fishless cycle without stress zyme for me took *checks log book for Discus tank* about three weeks (3 weeks, four days to be exact)
The last cycle I did with stress zyme *checks log for a now closed tank* took 4 weeks.

There is only a three day difference in cycling times, out of favor of the tank cycled with Stress Zyme addative. This variation could easily be explained by one of many outside factors for the cycle, but those numbers show no significant difference in cycling times and there deffinately isn't any miracles worked by this product, IME...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[jonnyf84]

Think I know where you got the method from. Sounds distinktly similar to one of my collegues directions for tank cycling at work...

Yes indeed, i won't name the guy or the store cos i'm not sure i'm aloud to but that is the best piece of advice i have ever had and i am eternally grateful to him for telling me. Miss W, i will be sure to record daily results from the next tank i cycle in the hope that i prove your suspicions wrong. Once again, three-fingers, forget the instructions on the bottle.