So I bought a bottle of turbo-start at eddie's when I was setting up my 20 gal. tank about 9 or 10 days ago...says that you only need to wait a week before adding fish....I brought home 1 astrea snail, 1 boxer crab, and 1 chocolate chip star (and a small brittle star which hitchhiked his way in my tank with some liverock) 2 days ago...everybody seems to be doing great...I was just wondering about everybody else's opinion of turbo-start...good, bad, indifferent?
Turbo-start
- Thread starter Dustin P.
- Start date
I love turbo start for when stuff goes wrong and you need a quick cure for it. I wouldn't recommended it knowing now that waiting is the only eway to go. I was at eddies last night and I had to grab a bottle for my nano cube. last week I set up my 12 galllon nano for my peacock . there was still traces of a cycle going on. put turbo in and in 5 hours the readings were at zero.
yeah...Im thinking about bringing the choc. chip star back...I only have one snail in the tank with him that he hasn't bothered yet, but I know he was eating all of our snails at work. btw, I bought the boxer crab at the HPC ...now if you start with live sand in your tank does it decrease the time it takes to cycle? I only have the few inverts in the tank right now, but would like to add more when possible..
I used half sand from my big tank and love rock from the main tank. so I was having a quick minin cycle. I had a trace of nitrite and convert to nitrate wich you then remove with a water change. it is a mantis shrimp so I am not stressing to much. those things have been known to live in a bucket with no filter and live.
if the brittle star is green with yellow bristles, they are know fish eaters. definately will get way too big for a 20 gallon. Dustin, have a look through the nano tank forums and nano-reef.com for animals that will go well in there. PJ bangaiis, some gobies, clownfish, etc will all be fine. For a seastar, try to find a red fromia star- there are ones that don't get beyond 2 inches or so.
t-bone2
New member
turbo start is great but its like the person at my lfs store said its bacteria that eats the bad stuff if you put it in before you ad the inhabitants most of it will die of because theres nothing to eat my tanks never had any real spikes like i read from other people and i was cheaking my parameters every three days maybe i got luck twice
xian
Premium Member
I have used it in tanks that have been moved, it helps to move the cycle along and minimize the length of time that inhabitants are exposed to ammonia. Helps with a bad situation if you can't get them out.
AS far as starting fresh. You need to add ammonium nitrate to kick off the cycle. This was how they started the system at Eddies.
xian
Premium Member
Some tips from moving my 55
Keep as much water as possible
Seed the new sand bed with live sand from the old bed.
Monitor carefully: the tank should cycle but minimally
If the ammonia levels rise too high turbo start may help to knock it down quickly. I've heard of others using amquel but I never used it before.
Let algae grow in the tank.
Keep as much water as possible
Seed the new sand bed with live sand from the old bed.
Monitor carefully: the tank should cycle but minimally
If the ammonia levels rise too high turbo start may help to knock it down quickly. I've heard of others using amquel but I never used it before.
Let algae grow in the tank.
xian
Premium Member
As I stated, this plan is for moving the whole tank, at one time. Ideally you would set up a smaller system to house them in until you were sure the display tank was cycled. If you did not have that option you may have to move them in existing tank water and place they and that water back into the tank after you move it.
