cycling my tank. help!

BioSpira. It contains live bacteria. Once you dump it in, you should have a fully cycled tank.

"Cycle" facilitates the speed of the cycling, but isn't a direct substitute.


If you start off heavily planted, you shouldn't really need to cycle.
Plants will happily take up ammonia faster than nitrates. This gives nitrogen-converting bacteria time to catch up.

Biospira is what is mainly used. But my thoughts are, use material from an established tank, it's cheaper. I've always been reluctant from the bacteria starters since they are supposed to be live bacteria. I just wonder how old the bottles are containing them, because you would have to think that bacteria would need food and O2 to survive. Eventually, the supplements in the bottles for the bacteria will be consumed. So if the bacteria starters have been sitting in the shelf long, you may just end up with very few or dead bacteria.

Bio-Spira is the best. Be sure that it comes from a refridgerator. I agree that starting off with a nicely planted tank will keep your ammonia in check. If you want the added insurance, Bio-Spira is the way to go.

Ditto the use of other tank media, if you have access to it. Gravel, filter media, decor, all are excellent sources of the live bacteria you need!

I would try to get some filter media from an established healthy tank. I just set up my aquapod and added a bunch of filter floss from my friend's eheim filter.

dekstr said:

BioSpira. It contains live bacteria. Once you dump it in, you should have a fully cycled tank.

"Cycle" facilitates the speed of the cycling, but isn't a direct substitute.


If you start off heavily planted, you shouldn't really need to cycle.
Plants will happily take up ammonia faster than nitrates. This gives nitrogen-converting bacteria time to catch up.

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On the BioSpira bottle says to use BioSafe to clean the tap water, is that really necessary? I have water conditioner from Kordon and i use that all the time. And it also says to use BioCoat which i dont know what that is..