Instant Bacteria

[linda1503]

A friend of mine is setting up a new tank this week. Instead of waiting and doing a fishless cycle he has bought some 'instant bacteria'. It looks like little balls about the size of those silver ones that go in trifles or on top of cakes. On the plastic tube it just says to put these in the new filter and its instantly ready for fish. So he will set it up one day and the next day he is going to the lfs for some fish. Does any one know anything about this stuff, is it ok?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Wierd, never heard of it.

i'd advise you to persuade your friend to do a little experiment, add some ammonia or other waste source to the tank the day after putting the balls in, then test the levels the next day, if ammonia and nitrite are 0 then it's worked fine and it's only taken 1 day more before adding fish, if they aren't then it's a lucky escape for not having the trauma of poorly fish with a cycling tank

 

[The-Wolf]

they are Bactinettes(tm), the UKs equiverlent of Bio-spira.
I would only use them to speed up a cycle in a tank and stock with a few hardy fish
like danios.
provided they have been refridgerated in the shop they should be great

 

[linda1503]

I'm afraid he's one of those people that believe in shortcuts. I did say at the time that i'd never seen anything like it before but he's going to take the advice of whoever sold it to him. It'll be ineresting to see if it works, I just hope its as good as he's been led to believe or some poor fish are going to have a rough time. I let you all know in a couple of weeks if the poor fish he buys this week are still alive.


Sorry Wolf I'd replied before I saw your imput. So maybe it will work, I'll give him your advice too try to keep his fish to a few hardy ones for a while. Thanks Wolf and Miss Wiggle!