Nutrafin Cycle Questions

voidstar

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Hiya folks.

I recently ordered a 35L Arcadia Arc tank to put on my home office desk with the intention of putting a few sunset platys in it to keep me company when I'm working. Whilst I'm waiting for it to arrive I've been doing some reading up here and its raised some questions. I've purchased a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle since I was informed this would be a good way of kick starting my tanks eco-system but after reading more about tank cycling I'm a bit confused. From what I can tell from the blurb on the bottle, Nutrafin Cycle claims to include the bacteria needed to metabolise ammonia and nitrites which it adds directly to your tank and that you can add fish immediately to your tank when using this. I'm not very happy about the idea of adding fish until I'm sure the conditions are correct however, I've already got a testing kit for this purpose and would prefer to create a suitable environment first rather than relying on fish to establish the environment. What I'm wondering is whether Cycle also contains ammonia to feed the bacteria you're adding/growing in the tank or does it rely on the addition of fish to create the needed ammonia?

Also if I was to follow the fishless cycling guides here (which is what I will do if Cycle by itself is insufficient), will adding the Cycle as well speed up the process? Also will that effect the levels of ammonia I need to add, particularly if the Cycle already contains some?
 
Hiya folks.

I recently ordered a 35L Arcadia Arc tank to put on my home office desk with the intention of putting a few sunset platys in it to keep me company when I'm working. Whilst I'm waiting for it to arrive I've been doing some reading up here and its raised some questions. I've purchased a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle since I was informed this would be a good way of kick starting my tanks eco-system but after reading more about tank cycling I'm a bit confused. From what I can tell from the blurb on the bottle, Nutrafin Cycle claims to include the bacteria needed to metabolise ammonia and nitrites which it adds directly to your tank and that you can add fish immediately to your tank when using this. I'm not very happy about the idea of adding fish until I'm sure the conditions are correct however, I've already got a testing kit for this purpose and would prefer to create a suitable environment first rather than relying on fish to establish the environment. What I'm wondering is whether Cycle also contains ammonia to feed the bacteria you're adding/growing in the tank or does it rely on the addition of fish to create the needed ammonia?

Also if I was to follow the fishless cycling guides here (which is what I will do if Cycle by itself is insufficient), will adding the Cycle as well speed up the process? Also will that effect the levels of ammonia I need to add, particularly if the Cycle already contains some?

I just tried this product setting up a tank within the last 4 weeks and it didn't work for me. I have read posts with mixed results, perhaps it will work better for you.
 
Hi,

First of all, its great to see you are so conscientious about creating the appropriate environment for the fish before adding them to the tank. Its something that too many fishkeepers ignore in my opinion.

Nutrafin Cycle does claim to contain the appropriate beneficial bacteria, but does not contain ammonia. You would need to provide a separate ammonia source.

I've heard many people who claim that it works and many who claim that it doesn't. Fact is, there are so many variables in cycling a tank, its pretty impossible to tell unless testing it under lab conditions. I'm only aware of one person who has done such a thing, Dr Timothy Hovanec. If you search through my posts, you'll find that I posted a link to his paper in a thread very similar to this one quite recently. I would link to it for you but I'm on my Blackberry just now and it would take me ages to find it.

He concluded that Cycle actually contains the wrong bacteria for cycling an aquarium, however noted that it did still speed up the cycle by having a 'fertiliser effect'.

So to conclude, would I recommend relying on NC to cycle your tank? No. Would I add the stuff you already have to the tank whilst performing a proper fishless cycle with ammonia? Absolutely, because the evidence suggests that it is beneficial, even if it is not to the extent which Nutrafin may claim.

Just for clarification of a point, I wouldn't recommend buying any more, getting some mature media from a friend's established tank is far less costly and far more effective, but as you already have the stuff, it's more beneficial in your tank than poured down the sink.

Hope that helps.

BTT

Edit: Ok, back at home on my PC now, so found the link for you. Have a read of this thread and the scientific paper linked to in it. It's very interesting indeed. :good:

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/349545-nutrafin-cycle/
 
Thanks for the replies its been very helpful and the paper was interesting, a little technical for me but my biomed girlfriend enjoyed it :). The tank just arrived today so I'm going to get it setup and running (sans fish) for 24 hours then start the cycling process described in the guides here with the addition of Cycle. Cheers for the help folks.
 

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