Another Dumb Question about Cycling
- Thread starter herpchat
- Start date
Travis L. Stevens
New member
No, that's not entirely true. The situation is the same that organic compounds break down into ammonia, then to nitrite, then to nitrate, and eventually to nitrogen gas. But the actual species of bacteria are different.
herpchat
New member
I do do that, I was just curious about the FW SW thing because if you look on the Bottle of Stresszyme it states good for starting the cycle of FW and SW tanks. I know in the past I read they were the same bacteria but then again so much has been learned that anything in old books is way bound to be obsolete. Thanks.
Which brings up another question, how long before the seed media kicks in?
Which brings up another question, how long before the seed media kicks in?
Travis L. Stevens
New member
It's good for "starting the cycle", which all it could mean is that it's an organic compound that is easily decomposed. But there is a problem in the aquarium industry about unregulated commercial products. Just because it says that it does something, doesn't mean that it will. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/eb/index.php
The seed media kicks in immediately, but it might take several days to notice a change.
Let me see if I can find where I read what bacteria species were involved in freshwater and saltwater Nitrogen Cycles.
herpchat
New member
I read the skeptical Aquarist and loved it.
I am old school in a number of respects and alot of my practices were learned from my father using the Innes Book of Tropical Fish.
Sometimes when I post old time remedies that work I get lamblasted by people saying these things are archaic and have no basis in "lalala I am not listening to the moron"
You get the idea, sometimes old things work, sometimes they don't and some of the things in that book are downright dangerous to fish.
As a researcher and scientist I am always looking for new ways to do things. One of my aquarist responsibilities is running a Species Maintainence Program for wild Bettas www.ibc-smp.org . We have pushed the envelope there and now have 3 methods for artificial incubation of mouthbrooder eggs. If not for my flirtation with other types of fish I might have never put 2 and 2 together and made it work.
There is always something to be learned and I am forever the student. Probably always will be. Salt has always been one of those things I was afraid to try because of all the old horror stories of what could go wrong. Now that I am doing it its like gee this isn't hard, what was I afraid of?
I am old school in a number of respects and alot of my practices were learned from my father using the Innes Book of Tropical Fish.
Sometimes when I post old time remedies that work I get lamblasted by people saying these things are archaic and have no basis in "lalala I am not listening to the moron"
You get the idea, sometimes old things work, sometimes they don't and some of the things in that book are downright dangerous to fish.
As a researcher and scientist I am always looking for new ways to do things. One of my aquarist responsibilities is running a Species Maintainence Program for wild Bettas www.ibc-smp.org . We have pushed the envelope there and now have 3 methods for artificial incubation of mouthbrooder eggs. If not for my flirtation with other types of fish I might have never put 2 and 2 together and made it work.
There is always something to be learned and I am forever the student. Probably always will be. Salt has always been one of those things I was afraid to try because of all the old horror stories of what could go wrong. Now that I am doing it its like gee this isn't hard, what was I afraid of?
Serra
New member
GB, let me jump in here and tell you that there are all kinds of things that can go wrong with SW that you don't have to deal with in fresh.
I am sure you are doing great so far because you have years of experience as a hobbyist, BUT beware, just when you think it is safe to go into the water...
I know Gerald from the other club and he is extremely knowledgeable but "stuff" happens. Is it Paul B or Travis who says only bad things happen fast in saltwater? Or something to that effect. Well it's very true.
Glad to see you are having such fun with it Ger.
Sheryl
I am sure you are doing great so far because you have years of experience as a hobbyist, BUT beware, just when you think it is safe to go into the water...
I know Gerald from the other club and he is extremely knowledgeable but "stuff" happens. Is it Paul B or Travis who says only bad things happen fast in saltwater? Or something to that effect. Well it's very true.
Glad to see you are having such fun with it Ger.
Sheryl
herpchat
New member
I wish I had more room, you have no idea what it took to get the 70 tanks in here. When I was buying the stock from A & B pets he could not believe I had 70 tanks up and running and thought I was full of it however Kelly was in there too and said yup, if he says he has 70 he does. I later told him that 16 of them were 2.5 gal so they only count for breeding killies and rasboras and such but the majority of them are 30 gal.
My next project when I get some money is to rip out my fireplace and put in a reef tank (oh yeah baby).
My next project when I get some money is to rip out my fireplace and put in a reef tank (oh yeah baby).
Yeah...just wait until you see some of these guys 540 gallon tanks... lol... I think if I am correct in what I have read that there are currently 3 people in here with that large of a setup.. I could be wrong but I definatly know Paul and Phillip and Pamela have tanks that big... I haven't seen Pauls but from pictures and I am wishing I could demolish a wall in my house for something like that!! 
herpchat
New member
Man, my place could not support such a beast (or if it could I don't see how). I did see online where some woman set up a 10,000 gal shark tank.
After my novel sells I plan a lot of really cool things. Hopefully it sells enough so I can have my dream fish room where every wild betta species has its own 240 gal display tank and I can have my 1000 gal reef tank built into my wall, with my glass wall that looks into the pond.
After my novel sells I plan a lot of really cool things. Hopefully it sells enough so I can have my dream fish room where every wild betta species has its own 240 gal display tank and I can have my 1000 gal reef tank built into my wall, with my glass wall that looks into the pond.
Novel huh? very cool. I am curious back on the original topic if anyone has used the marine form of bio-spira to cycle their tanks. I know tons of people whom have had GREAT success cycling fresh water using the bio-spira. I just don't know much about the marine version of it.
herpchat
New member
Now you can say we went full cycle which is how the post started. I really don't know. Did you read the skeptical aquarist yet? If not you need too.
There is still so much to learn, I don't know if you remember the worm outbreak where one of our members scrambled everywhere to get a medicine and never found it so she substituted and discovered another cure.
And then to discover it was an on shelf item at Atwoods.
There is still so much to learn, I don't know if you remember the worm outbreak where one of our members scrambled everywhere to get a medicine and never found it so she substituted and discovered another cure.
And then to discover it was an on shelf item at Atwoods.
Yep I read that thread. I only believe that the bio-spira works because of all the experienced people on cichlid-forum.com who have used it with great results. I used a product called "cycle" which didn't really speed anything up when I cycled my first tank. It took it right at a month to do the fishless cycle using the cycle stuff. But it never claimed to be "live bacteria" and I didn't have to refrigerate it as you do bio-spira before use.
