# Recommend a tank cycling product



## Julian (29 Mar 2015)

I have some Ammonia and I've had success using it to cycle my tank it in the past but found it a little tedious dosing it every day (the smell is horrible and seems to linger for quite a while). Although I will stick to this method if this is best, I don't have any live stock to worry about.

I was wondering if there is a better product/method that people could recommend?


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## parotet (29 Mar 2015)

Plants + patience... That's all you need. In a few days you will be able to add shrimps, in a few weeks fish. 

Jordi


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## Martin in Holland (30 Mar 2015)

Most clay based substrates leaches ammonia which we try to get out with lots of water changes, so don't worry about adding ammonia, just do as parotet stated.


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## Edvet (30 Mar 2015)

Patience and some water from an existing tank, and plants, lots of plants (maybe even throw in some cheapo pondplants, hornwort/cabomba/egeria, to get fast plantmass ealy on)


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## dw1305 (30 Mar 2015)

Hi all, 





Julian said:


> I was wondering if there is a better product/method that people could recommend?


 Like Ed and Jordi say plenty of plants and then wait. Floating, or emergent, plants are really useful, because they aren't CO2 limited.

cheers Darrel


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## alto (30 Mar 2015)

You might also just add some frozen brine shrimp (decomposes nice & fast ) every couple days ... you can still check for ammonia etc

A portion of sponge or filter media from an active tank is more efficient than water at transfer of "bacteria of interest" but tanks will "cycle" even without any of these additives.
When going with the commercial products, most will slightly shorten the "cycle" time (not sure if the product developed by Hovanec _et al_ is still available, it was shipped cold etc & allowed instant stocking of significant fish levels re African rift lake tanks))

Mr Saltwater Tank has a video interview with Dr Tim Hovanec


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## Jay1 (31 Mar 2015)

Things I've learned over the years!
Running two airstones at full wack bacteria do better with plenty of oxygen.
Dropping dead carcuses like a cooked prawn or crushed snails.
Sticking a heater and raising the temperature bacteria like heat.
Blacking out the whole tank helps the bacteria to spread they don't like light!
Why do you think Eheim use dark green plastic on canisters it blocks out light for bacteria culture!
You know when its working really well when there is whitish scum floating on the surface loads of Bio film forming to speed it all up!
I don't like the idea of dropping Ammonia into tanks don't get me wrong it works, but just don't like it!


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## Daneland (2 May 2015)

I used Tetra SafeStart and it worked so well,it was a fish in cycling, amonia was near nill for 2 weeks and started to raise,it was 4 ppm when I added Tetra SafeStart and with a few days it has greatly reduced  to 0.25 ppm and the following week it was 0. Nitrite did not peak neither and it was 0. I know  bacteria in bottles have a bad reputation but it woked so well for me.


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## Mortis (7 May 2015)

+1 for Tetra Safestart. Even though I know better a Marine expert told me to use it to cycle a new Marine tank. I tried it and it worked great ! I also tried the freshwater version and it worked very nicely too. Most of the other bacteria products might not be that effective but Safestart did a decent job.


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