Bacterial solution to cycle tanks

[Abhishek]

Hi,

Am about to start a new reef tank with dead and dry reefcleaners rocks . Obviously it has to go through cycling process before stocking .

With so many bacterial solutions available in the market such as Aquaforest Bio S, Fauna Marin Bakto Blend , Microbacter 7 , Dr. Tim's , Prodibio starter - which one have you used and found helpful ?

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[RobBaglieri]

I bought a bag of live sand. That was more than enough bacteria to start with.

 

[brandon429]

All of the bottle bac has the same ends, and adding two ounces of water from an existing tank is the same as the bottle bac. Every surface every area of a running reef tank has nitrifying bacteria, water and surfaces alike, it's full on contamination in there.

I'm sure the bottle bac is more concentrated but same ends using any live media transfer given 30 days and hydration/feed

 

[Brew12]

Hi,

Am about to start a new reef tank with dead and dry reefcleaners rocks . Obviously it has to go through cycling process before stocking .

With so many bacterial solutions available in the market such as Aquaforest Bio S, Fauna Marin Bakto Blend , Microbacter 7 , Dr. Tim's , Prodibio starter - which one have you used and found helpful ?

Regards,
Abhishek

I started with live sand and dry reefcleaners rocks. Added a bottle of Biospira and couldn't keep ammonia in my tank for more than a few hours (had to dose pure ammonia to even get that). Never did get a positive nitrite test. Water was good enough I put in an SPS less less than 2 weeks after adding water and it is still doing great a month later.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Microbacter7 because i've seen it work first hand and it's consistent. Had an emergency type situation with a fish and my QT when I first got into the hobby. QT got contaminated during TTM and I had to bleach it all and recycle before the fish was finished with the transfers. QT was set back up as bare bottom and I dosed MB7 daily per the instructions. From the point I dosed ammonia till it was completely cycled was 6 days, just in time for the fish. Only other one i've tried was Dr. Tim's, and it was 50/50. One bottle worked great and cycled fast, and the next bottle was dead because nothing changed what so ever. I suspect it's batches like this that people try it and scream "snake oil".