[dreamweavr124]

I do not have access to a cycled fish tank so I will have to go the route of cycling the tank with a product from a store/internet. Any preferences or products to stay away from? Thanks in advance...

 

[713J]

*** used tetra safestart on a 180 and a 30 and have had great results on both tanks.

 

[londonloco]

I used Stability on my 125, been 4 weeks, all is ok. I'm old school tho, so not sure it was worth the "breath holding" and I'm still not breathing easily.

 

[Guams]

I prefer janitorial strength ammonia. Check the library for a how-to on fishless cycling. Most store-bought products are just cycle "assistants" for lack of a better word. You still need fish, and when it's done, you need to stock slowly. If you do a fishless cycle, you plop your whole stock in at once.

Just my $0.02.

 

[londonloco]

I prefer janitorial strength ammonia. Check the library for a how-to on fishless cycling. Most store-bought products are just cycle "assistants" for lack of a better word. You still need fish, and when it's done, you need to stock slowly. If you do a fishless cycle, you plop your whole stock in at once.

Just my $0.02.

Not what Seachem and Stability state. I'm not advocating Stability yet, but supposedly you are able to add all your stock day 1.

 

[jkulysses]

The Tetra Safestart is actually the Marineland product that used to be called Bio-Spira which was a great product that I used many times with excellent results. The guy that originally invented the Bio-Spira left Marineland and started his own company called Dr. Tims and he has his own cycling product called DrTim’s Aquatics One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria. I haven't got to actually use his new product yet but I do have 3 bottles of it in my refer now that I will be using in a couple weeks when I finish setting up my 90g, 20g long and 10g tanks. I'll do a review once I've used it. I've heard good things about the Tetra product also and it can be found at places like Petsmart if you have one of those local to you. I ordered my Dr Tims from Drs Foster & Smith when it was on sale a month or so ago.

 

[newforestrob]

jkulysses
I ordered my Dr Tims from Drs Foster & Smith when it was on sale a month or so ago

just curious does this have an expiration date,how do you store it,

 

[fox]

>snip<
Any preferences or products to stay away from? Thanks in advance...

I've had very good results using Tetra SafeStart in the past when up against it for time. Nobody died and no spikes were measured.

Set the tank up and let it run for a day then just follow the directions on the bottle and add the fish. :thumb:

 

[dreamweavr124]

I do not plan on adding all the fish at once, but slowly introducing them. Seems that I will try the Terta SafeStart. I will let you know in a week or so my results. Thanks,

 

[jkulysses]

jkulysses
I ordered my Dr Tims from Drs Foster & Smith when it was on sale a month or so ago

just curious does this have an expiration date,how do you store it,

It actually does have an expiration date thats printed on the front of the bottle if I remember right. One bottle is very hard to read the expiration date but the other two are pretty easy to read. It doesn't have to be stored in the refrigerator but it will last longer if it is and once you open the bottle and expose it to air you need to use all of it.

 

[jkulysses]

I do not plan on adding all the fish at once, but slowly introducing them. Seems that I will try the Terta SafeStart. I will let you know in a week or so my results. Thanks,

Safestart is intended to be used when your adding all your fish at once. You can add slowly like what you said your going to do but just keep in mind that if you treat your whole tank with the safestart but add only one fish all the live bacteria will die off other than the little bit it will take to cycle one fish worth so you would want to add your other fish very slowly or you'll have a mini cycle from the new fish adding more bio load than your tank can support at first.

 

[prov356]

All of these great reviews and experiences will soon be buried and lost in this forum. If you haven't done so already, please consider adding your review here in the Biological Starters section.

Thanks

 

[dreamweavr124]

Good point... this website rocks...

 

[Elijah]

Tetra Safe start is great. Another good product is Cycle by NutraFin. Another alternative is to pick a few, good, hardy fish that you won't mind loosing, and home them in your tank to jumpstart the cycle process. Good fish for this are Zebra Danios, guppys and mollies.

 

[prov356]

Another alternative is to pick a few, good, hardy fish that you won't mind loosing, and home them in your tank to jumpstart the cycle process.

If they're hardy, why would you lose them? Do you mean they could tough it out and survive long enough to cycle the tank before dying of ammonia poisoning or suffocating from nitrite poisoning? Killing fish to cycle a tank is certainly an alternative, but not a good one IMO. The idea that some fish are not affected by ammonia and/or nitrite is a myth. It's toxic to all.

 

[Elijah]

If they're hardy, why would you lose them? Do you mean they could tough it out and survive long enough to cycle the tank before dying of ammonia poisoning or suffocating from nitrite poisoning? Killing fish to cycle a tank is certainly an alternative, but not a good one IMO. The idea that some fish are not affected by ammonia and/or nitrite is a myth. It's toxic to all.

No, if you plan a sickled tank, and you begin the cycling process with a few hardy tropical fish such as zebras, when you finally get around to having it cycled and begin placing sickleds in, most likely they will do away with the zebras. But again, it really depends on the sickled. Of course ammonia is toxic to all. It's like if a few people are smoking in a tiny, closed area. Now 1 person has a really bad case of asthma, so he most likely will get sick. The others are perfectly healthy and can flourish; but eventually that smoke will build up in their respiratory tract and shorten their lives. So a hardy fish is like the avid smokers- they will probably survive, but *might* have ill effects later in life.

 

[dreamweavr124]

Weird turn of discussion. I am not a fan of cycling tanks at the expense of fish. Aren't we all here to create living environments, not experiments??? Even if they survive, I don't think I would want to introduce cichlids into the tank knowing the outcome, or flushing them, knowing the outcome... A lil tree hugger in me... Anyway, trying the Tetra product and will post pics when i am done aquascaping and and again once stocked... Thanks for the input...