anyone use "cycle" to cycle tank?

[mrsgoose]

Hi - I used a product called "cycle" to help my 55g FW tank along. Has anyone used this for SW? I don't know if my tank still needs to cycle. I set it up (29g) with local lr and had no die-off. I have tons of tiny featherdusters, lots of coralline, little pods, and a small crew of snails and hermits. It's been running almost 3 weeks and all my levels are 0. Should I still throw in a cocktail shrimp or use the "cycle" stuff to force a cycle?
thanks...

 

[mrsgoose]

anyone? I want to do things right, and would love some tips! :notsure: :notsure: thanks!

 

[ophiura]

You just want to use an ammonia source. Save the money on the cycle, it is no where near as useful as the LR.
Get some excess fish food, or a raw shrimp, or something to produce ammonia and cycle.

 

[mopar9012]

Have you seen a rise in levels? I wouldnt use cycle, just throw in some fish food, like shrimp. That should do it.

 

[kayak385]

I used it just like the bottle said. I have heard mixed reviews but I did see progress from a empty tank to adding cycle. Then I added some live rock and the process went 10x as fast. From what I saw in my setup, not everything can come in a bottle, and even though it can, it isn't all that it seems. My LR did a lot more.

 

[mrsgoose]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I DO have 30 lbs of live rock in there that I got right around the corner and put it right into my tank, so I had no die-off. I also used live sand. COuld it be that I don't need to cycle because there are already enough beneficial bacteria? BTW, I had one of 8 hermits die and he got eaten up. Could that have produced some ammonia??
Thanks again for the replies. I'm new at this, totally addicted and love this forum!

 

[ophiura]

I would not add any fish without "testing" the tank. Even just feed the tank fish food as if you had fish in the tank, and do that for a week. You want to be sure that you won't get ammonia when you have fish. IMO, no, a dead hermit would not make much of an impact at all.

 

[scubaguy]

I used cycle once on a 35 gallon tank and a 10 gallon tank. It seemed to take my tanks two weeks to cycle. I had LR in both tanks but used dead sand. I had my Ammonia get to 2 ppm and Nitrites .50 ppm but they both came down after using cycle for two weeks. I also still used the raw shrimp.

 

[renogaw]

a shrimp will cost you about 25 cents. just do it you wont regret it
forgive me if i am wrong, but you really seem to be in a hurry. PLEASE realize that you need to go slow with this hobby or you will kill a lot of animals.

 

[ophiura]

IMO, you are totally wasting your money on cycle if you have LR (ditto for the pricier - but probably actually useful - biospira).
You are buying bacteria in a bottle that you ALREADY have on the rock. Either way, if you have an excess ammonia source, there will be a lag period before the bacterial populations can use it and convert it. Cycle is totally redundant, and probably, IMO, not a particularly useful product for what it is. It can sit on a shelf for ages, and I have a hard time seeing how much of the bacteria lives. Biospira at least is refrigerated, with a shelf life. But live rock is the best investment of them all.

 

[symon]

Originally Posted by ophiura
IMO, you are totally wasting your money on cycle if you have LR (ditto for the pricier - but probably actually useful - biospira).
You are buying bacteria in a bottle that you ALREADY have on the rock. Either way, if you have an excess ammonia source, there will be a lag period before the bacterial populations can use it and convert it. Cycle is totally redundant, and probably, IMO, not a particularly useful product for what it is. It can sit on a shelf for ages, and I have a hard time seeing how much of the bacteria lives. Biospira at least is refrigerated, with a shelf life. But live rock is the best investment of them all.
I agree that you can not hurry a cycle, But with having good LR you can see a full cycle in a couple of weeks, I think that magic in a bottle is a waste of time and money! But everyone has thier own way of doing things! Guess i am more hands on, it takes me longer to get there But i have learned alot along the way!

 

[craig7220]

I agree not to use Cycle.. I tried it once and it made absolutely no difference in the cycle time of one of my tanks. Like as already said, best to use a raw shrimp or just throw in some fish food.

 

[mrsgoose]

Great, thanks for all the input. I just have one question still... maybe I'm a bit dense! :thinking: If the purpose of a cycle is to allow the beneficial bacteria to accumulate in order to take care of ammonia etc., then if my lr was already full of those bacteria and I had no die-off on th rock, then would I still need a cycle? I'm confused :notsure: . Wouldn't I have skipped over the cycle by using lr w/o die off??
please help me get my head around this. I'm an intelligent person, but just don't get it!! Thanks

 

[mrsgoose]

here's an attempt to anser my own question:
does lr not HAVE the right kind of bacteria to begn with? the rock I got hadbeen in my dealer's tank for 6 months with anenomes, snails, crabs, etc., a few damsels... so I'm thinking it had the bacteria, but in general, if you get cured rock, do you still need to cycle it if it came from a tank w/o much else in it?

 

[ophiura]

If you have LR, you have bacteria.
The question is, how much bacteria. In tanks with not a lot of bioload, that bacteria will die back as the population does not exceed the food (ammonia, nitrite) available.
If that has happened, and you suddenly increase that load, you will get excess ammonia which is highly stressful to fish.
So you are FAR better off to "challenge" the biological filter by adding excess food or a raw shrimp. If the bacterial populations are enough to meet that demand, you will see no ammonia or nitrite production. If it is not, then you will, and the tank will "cycle." It is far better to find it out this way, then with costly animals.

 

[xdave]

I tested cycle before it was available. We found that although it got the cycling process started quicker, the overall time to fully cycle was not changed.

 

[mrsgoose]

Originally Posted by ophiura
If you have LR, you have bacteria.
The question is, how much bacteria. In tanks with not a lot of bioload, that bacteria will die back as the population does not exceed the food (ammonia, nitrite) available.
If that has happened, and you suddenly increase that load, you will get excess ammonia which is highly stressful to fish.
So you are FAR better off to "challenge" the biological filter by adding excess food or a raw shrimp. If the bacterial populations are enough to meet that demand, you will see no ammonia or nitrite production. If it is not, then you will, and the tank will "cycle." It is far better to find it out this way, then with costly animals.
Thanks! I think I've got it now. It didn't occur to me that the bacteria would die back w/o something to eat.

Thanks for your patience - and everyone else for helping me see the light! I'll drop a shrimp in there. Of course, I have 6 hermits in there now, so I'm afraid they'l eat the shrimp before it has a chance to do anything. Maybe if I keep it out of their reach...
thanks again - I'm really not trying to hurry along, I was just confused.