Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

[rkpetersen]

https://www.baybridgeaquarium.com/products/fritzzyme-turbo-start-900-saltwater-free-shipping

https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/aquarium-supplies/bacteria/turbostart-live-nitrifying/

First link says they ship in a cooler with ice pack, not sure about algae barn. (Note never ordered from either place,)

I've ordered from Algae Barn; they ship pods and algae in insulated cooler packaging, so I would hope they do the same with Turbo Start.

 

[Dr. Reef]

From what I have gathered locally and few online vendors by simply calling them, it's shipped in cold pack.

 

[Amoo]

Can confirm as I have ordered from this since the start of this test. Fritz 9K does ship from Algae Barn with cold pack

 

[Manose]

Can confirm as I have ordered from this since the start of this test. Fritz 9K does ship from Algae Barn with cold pack

Same here and very well packaged.
Date on my bottle is good until Jan.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Update:
As of this morning, after repeated tries ATM and Fluval failed to respond and provide sample.
ATM never even bothered to respond back and Fluval responded that they dont provide samples. Then i tried to buy one fresh from Fluval and they refused to let me buy one from them as well.
Anyways to continue with my study i ordered 3 x 4oz ATM colony bottles from pet overstock today and Fluval 4oz x 3 bottles from chewy.
I hope to have them in few days and i will start my Group 2 studies,

Group 2:

1. Instant Ocean Bio Spira
2. MicrobeLift Nite out 2
3. ATM Colony
4. Fluval Cycle
5. Control (no bacteria)

All 5 tanks are going to be the same as group one.
5 gal tanks with HOB. HOB will have fresh/new 3oz filter floss and 25 pieces of ceramic rings. Tank will have 5 gal of fresh made (aged 24hr) saltwater made with Instant Ocean regular saltmix at 78F, 1.023 sg. Inside the tank 1000 g of ceramic rings and 1 cup of reef sand.
Ammonium chloride dosed at 1ppm.

Very excited as this round has bio spira one of the oldest and most commonly demanded bacteria in bottle.
Microbelift has good reviews and been asked by my friend @DSC reef
ATM colony is a well known and widely used brand in Europe and seems to have been reported good
Fluval cycle, i have no idea about and havent found a whole lot of info except for a few people here requested.
Stay tuned.

 

[Manose]

Update:
As of this morning, after repeated tries ATM and Fluval failed to respond and provide sample.
ATM never even bothered to respond back and Fluval responded that they dont provide samples. Then i tried to buy one fresh from Fluval and they refused to let me buy one from them as well.
Anyways to continue with my study i ordered 3 x 4oz ATM colony bottles from pet overstock today and Fluval 4oz x 3 bottles from chew.
I hope to have them in few days and i will start my Group 2 studies,

Group 2:

1. Instant Ocean Bio Spira
2. MicrobeLift Nite out 2
3. ATM Colony
4. Fluval Cycle
5. Control (no bacteria)

All 5 tanks are going to be the same as group one.
5 gal tanks with HOB. HOB will have fresh/new 3oz filter floss and 25 pieces of ceramic rings. Tank will have 5 gal of fresh made (aged 24hr) saltwater made with Instant Ocean regular saltmix at 78F, 1.023 sg. Inside the tank 1000 g of ceramic rings and 1 cup of reef sand.
Ammonium chloride dosed at 1ppm.

Very excited as this round has bio spira one of the oldest and most commonly demanded bacteria in bottle.
Microbelift has good reviews and been asked by my friend @DSC reef
ATM colony is a well known and widely used brand in Europe and seems to have been reported good
Fluval cycle, i have no idea about and havent found a whole lot of info except for a few people here requested.
Stay tuned.

Looks like this will be interesting!! Seems lots of people in EU love the ATM colony, but it will be hard pressed to beat Fritz turbo 900. Even Dr. Tim's could not touch it.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I can't disclose the sources but I have heard ATM colony is a rebrand of Dr Tim. I am not sure of the information but source is credible. Will see how the testing shows the difference.

 

[MnFish1]

Looks like this will be interesting!! Seems lots of people in EU love the ATM colony, but it will be hard pressed to beat Fritz turbo 900. Even Dr. Tim's could not touch it.

One thing I thought of is that it would be nice to have another fritz turbo - but - who knows...? ie a negative control and a positive control.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I thought of the same but I'm completely out of fritz product. I emailed @mikeyn at Fritz to see if you would get me some more I haven't heard back yet

 

[Manose]

I thought of the same but I'm completely out of fritz product. I emailed @mikeyn at Fritz to see if you would get me some more I haven't heard back yet

I bought my Fritz at Algea Barn and would like to see you use them. I would be happy donate 50$ if you order from them.

 

[Victoria M]

I would really like to see if Fritz Turbo is also effective when used with copper.

 

[Dr. Reef]

ok under pressure (lol good pressure) i am ordering Turbo Start 900 from Algae Barn.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I would really like to see if Fritz Turbo is also effective when used with copper.

This will be a good experiment. But due to limitation of testing kits it would be hard to measure ammonia once copper is dosed.
I think the only kit on the market that can measure NH3 alone is Seachem and without a second kit to counter check, results will have to be just believed by using Seachem ammonia kit. If anyone knows of a kit for NH3 please let me know i'll order it.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Ok so just to test online vendors shipping turbo start 900 in cold packs, i ordered 2 bottles.
1 bottle from Algae barn and 1 from 4fishes.

 

[Dr. Reef]

this will be interesting to see, Algae Barn charged me higher shipping and it mentioned shipping category as frozen food shipping charge and was like $11. while 4fishes charged me a fedex ground at $4.99 but didnt mention anything about frozen/live food or cold pack etc.

 

[Amoo]

this will be interesting to see, Algae Barn charged me higher shipping and it mentioned shipping category as frozen food shipping charge and was like $11. while 4fishes charged me a fedex ground at $4.99 but didnt mention anything about frozen/live food or cold pack etc.

Slightly outside of the scope of your main study here, but since you're kind of went off on a little side study and comparison, can we get an in depth review about how those arrive?

I wonder if the decision to ship not refrigerated has anything to do with seasonal or what.

@mikeyn

 

[Dr. Reef]

@Manose I thank you for your donation. Its so nice of you to support this study. Although alot of this study was donated by major companies, still there are costs to reset tanks and retest. Testing kits, water, saltmix, filters, ceramic rings etc. I took on lot more than i thought it would be but i am not worried about it and more interested in data we get out of it. Again i thank you and any others that donate.
I will keep you posted on how your money is spent and of course keeping the study live and current. much appreciated.

 

[Dr. Reef]

@Amoo this was always on the back burner to test online vendors if they ship cold or regular. Time arrived where i couldnt get hold on Mike at Fritz and i needed to get Turbostart 900 to continue so i decided to buy it from online vendors along with comparing the shipping.
There are many side studies that has come out of this main study like:

1. Fritz shipped cold or not
2. Fritz cold bottle vs room temp bottle
3. Turbostart 900 vs zyme 9
4. Ammonia kits (major brands)
5. Effects of copper on bacteri
6. effects of elements on bacteria (remember i locked up a jar of cycled water with fritz and will test 10 yrs later)

 

[Manose]

@Manose I thank you for your donation. Its so nice of you to support this study. Although alot of this study was donated by major companies, still there are costs to reset tanks and retest. Testing kits, water, saltmix, filters, ceramic rings etc. I took on lot more than i thought it would be but i am not worried about it and more interested in data we get out of it. Again i thank you and any others that donate.
I will keep you posted on how your money is spent and of course keeping the study live and current. much appreciated.

This study is going to help those, who like me, wondered about how these products worked. This can help many people get a real informed decision on how they should spend their money. The more trial and error someone else does, the less the hobbyist has to do which makes for less headaches in a hobby that information is king.

 

[Dr. Reef]

This will be interesting to compare ATM colony and Fluval Cycle against Fritz Turbostart 900 because all 3 of these are bought online and are arriving via mail.