Opinions on 'Cycle' - the additive.

[jipps]

Just wondering what your opinions were of this product? It was very very strongly recommended to me and I've gone through about two bottles of it in my tank's 2 month history.

[piberoptikz]

it's a great product! I use them frequently.

[combiemaster]

its a very good product i used it for my two tank my 24g nano cube and my 60g also 2 thumbs up

[Geoff]

why?

the bacteria are already on the LR. you are just asking for a bacterial fog bank.

G~

[VWD]

I agree no need to add that if You have live rock, just let the rock do its thing.

[LiquidLunch]

I just set up another tank(55gal cichlid) and I stumbled across the "fishless cycle". If you scroll down, it gives you another method to cycling. I almost used that method, but in the end I just did the traditional way of cycling with a few hardy fish.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...ss_cycling.php

[reefBoyDc]

IMO, you dont need fish or bacteria-in-a-bottle to cycle a tank with LR. There are lots of products like what you used and LFS just LOVE to sell them to you.

[LiquidLunch]

Yeah, I didn't have the LR option for my freshwater tank. The closest option I had was to use someone else's gravel or filter media but I don't know anyone in my area w/ a fresh water setup. I was never a fan of live bacteria in a bottle. If I had a long power failure or a filter malfunction, I would expect my bacteria in my filter media to die within 24hours. How this "live" bacteria sits on a LFS's shelf for weeks or months and stays alive is beyond me.

[JennM]

You can cycle a FW or SW tank using a piece of dead shrimp from the seafood counter at your grocer. Let it decompose and it will start an ammonia cycle on its own. Takes a bit longer this way, but it works.

Another method - and forgive me if it sounds offensive - is to put urine in the tank. Client of mine had his son pee in the tank a few times and that got it cycled. That particular method isn't for me... but hey, it does work.

IMO bottled bacteria can prolong a cycle - too many bacteria will die off, causing a secondary spike. In most tanks it's unnecessary and unfortunately some stores do like to sell that kind of thing up.

I have to say though, that when Seachem came out with "Stability" I was skeptical. I don't recommend it for SW although it's appropriate for it, but since we use live rock it's unnecessary - however I had a FW customer come in, they'd bought a 10-g tank and 24 fish (yep, 24!) from Walmart and when there were 3 fish left, they came to me for advice. Testing their water yielded predictable results - ammonia and nitrite off the scale. Sold them some Stability, told them to cut back their feedings, do a 50% water change and come back in a week with another sample. One week later, ammonia and nitrite were zero. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. In this case it worked for a "quick fix" in an emergency, but by and large I'd recommend patience any day, over a bottled remedy.

Jenn

[Loverotties]

I'm old fashion too! the natural way!

[jipps]

I don't really use it as a means for cycling the tank, it was just recommended as a harmless additive that is essentially like vitamins for the water and just promotes the health of the inhabitants.

[Geoff]

there are no harmless additives. if they are harmless than why would you need them? another thing to use is a cup of pure ammonia.

additives can mess things up faster than you can think.

G~

[piberoptikz]

It's a great product but you don't have to add any when you are cycling. I'm just adding some of it on my established tanks..just to replenished bio-bacteria but not on a cylcing tank.

[jipps]

Originally Posted by Geoff

there are no harmless additives. if they are harmless than why would you need them? another thing to use is a cup of pure ammonia.

additives can mess things up faster than you can think.

G~

From what I've read you seem to know quite a bit, so I believe I won't be buying another bottle of Cycle.

Thanks