Cycling and various seeding cultures, spores and additives

[Tomt37]

Ok so can anyone back me up on this or confirm my understanding ...

I understand a normal cycle process:

Organics enter water and a hetertrophic bacteria bloom occurs .. as they are large, rapidly dividing and easily live in the water column as well as slime on surfaces etc

Heterotrophs turn organics (protein) to ammonia

With a substrate of ammonia smaller much slower reproducing various nitrifying autotrophs begin to colonise and turn ammonia into nitrite and as the nitrite builds eventually a population of autotrophs colonise to break this down into nitrates .. with an understandable lag between the two Types of autotroph populations .. autotrophs also require a medium or surface to spread on..


Soooo

I guess that a 'cycle starter' like fluval cycle seeds a variety of types of aquatic nitrifying bacteria (with a medium and food source like land based bacteria that die after a while etc in the bottle to keep them alive and fed)

A 'cleaner' boosts heterotrophs to break down organic waste

And finally products like bactozym and easy life fluid medium create a suspended dispersed suspension of media that autotrophs can rapidly populate ..(among containing other things .. enzymes spores etc)

Surely then a good cycle enhancer would be a combination of say fluval cycle and bactozym .. and if in a 'with fish cycle' ...a cleaner should be avoided until the cycle is complete

How much this all reduces the 4-6 weeks cycle length is another question and dependent on your aquarium

 

[Drstrangelove]

Soooo

I guess that a 'cycle starter' like fluval cycle seeds a variety of types of aquatic nitrifying bacteria (with a medium and food source like land based bacteria that die after a while etc in the bottle to keep them alive and fed)

I don't work for the companies that do this, but I think it's possible (and potentially much simpler) to place the BB in a medium that has a pH below 6.0, possibly as low as 5.0. At that pH level BB does not grow and bacteria appear to operate simply at cellular maintenance level, which may biologically be conceptually like hibernation.

There may instead a be a chemical they add that simply inhibits growth.

 

[J. H.]

I use substrate from a tank I already have set up. I cycled my goldfish tank in 2 weeks

 

[jaws7777]

I read that Tetra safestart uses sometime of ammonia source in there solution. Thats why they advise against using a dechlorinator for 24 hrs after dosing it

 

[Tomt37]

Sounds about right ..and I think the put them on flocs of sediment that fall to the bottom and stay relatively anaerobic even when bottle is opened .. I think they prob use a combination of restricting replication .. hibernation (as such) and a good source

 

[Tomt37]

I'd imagine you're spot on with ph though

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Ok so can anyone back me up on this or confirm my understanding ...

I understand a normal cycle process:

Organics enter water and a hetertrophic bacteria bloom occurs .. as they are large, rapidly dividing and easily live in the water column as well as slime on surfaces etc

Heterotrophs turn organics (protein) to ammonia

With a substrate of ammonia smaller much slower reproducing various nitrifying autotrophs begin to colonise and turn ammonia into nitrite and as the nitrite builds eventually a population of autotrophs colonise to break this down into nitrates .. with an understandable lag between the two Types of autotroph populations .. autotrophs also require a medium or surface to spread on..


Soooo

I guess that a 'cycle starter' like fluval cycle seeds a variety of types of aquatic nitrifying bacteria (with a medium and food source like land based bacteria that die after a while etc in the bottle to keep them alive and fed)

A 'cleaner' boosts heterotrophs to break down organic waste

And finally products like bactozym and easy life fluid medium create a suspended dispersed suspension of media that autotrophs can rapidly populate ..(among containing other things .. enzymes spores etc)

Surely then a good cycle enhancer would be a combination of say fluval cycle and bactozym .. and if in a 'with fish cycle' ...a cleaner should be avoided until the cycle is complete

How much this all reduces the 4-6 weeks cycle length is another question and dependent on your aquarium

I don't know about the products mentioned, but I've used seachem stability and tetra safestart+ with great results, began showing nitrites and nitrates after 2 days in my 310 gallon tank.