What Is The Bacteria Booster?

[Ilya]

If I need to cycle my tank, and I have to do it from scratch, what do I buy that would speed the growth of beneficial bacteria (besides ammonia, duh).

 

[rdd1952]

The only products that seem to work are Bio-Spira and Bactinettes. Both are refrigerated but I'm not sure if Bactinettes are available in the US or not. I know Bio-Spira isn't available in the UK. Don't waste your money on products like Cycle, Stress Zyme, etc as the general consensus is that those don't contain any beneficial nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Gremily]

Try and get some mature media from another tank, most "Cycle" products fail to produce decent results.

 

[andywg]

Bactinettes contains the wrong nitrite oxidising bacteria, so is not the best choice for an instant cycle (though there is little doubt it does a great job on the ammonia spike part of a cycle).

Mature media and cloning tanks is by far the best way to do things.

 

[Ilya]

Bah, I've already got cycle. Yeah, I know.

 

[rdd1952]

It won't hurt to use it but it most likely won't help either.