Just another gimmick?

[beebop]

I've recently gotten back into the hobby after a couple years. I went with a 7 gallon drop off tank, I added 9.5lb of caribsea "life rock" (question one) and roughly 9lb of live sand. Now I know you don't get a lot from live sand, but the life rock always seemed suspicious and the lfs near me are absolutely horrid. I had no choice but to get this life rock and I haven't noticed much benefit, if at all. My cycle just seemed to start as it usually would, so is this just a marketing ploy?

I know you can't rush anything in this hobby, but I thought I'd help it along by trying out Fritz turbo start 900. My ammonia was .5 ppm before I added it (4 days after setting up the tank and ghost feeding once every other day) and its been at .5 ppm still after a few days. Still at 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate, so it seems like nothing is happening. Is this also a gimmick? No fish in the tank, no skimmer, no UV sterilizer, lights on normal cycle, haven't added anything but the turbo start. When I opened it, it smelled like rancid diarrhea which according to the internet, may or may not be fine? it was refrigerated at the store and I came straight home and dosed 20ml into the tank. After a couple days, I saw literally no change and added the remaining 9ml into the tank. it says you can safely dose up to 5x the normal amount and the entire 1oz bottle is about 4x, so that should be fine. its another couple days and still seeing not even a slight change in any of the 3 parameters. temp is good at 77F and salinity is at a steady 1.026ppm.

I'm just wondering if I paid extra in hopes of a slightly quicker cycle just to be fooled like an idiot, or maybe one or both of these possible "novelty" items were no good? The Fritz wasn't expired and they unboxed the life rock directly from the box in the shipment right in front of me at the store. I would buy seeded live rock from them, but I wouldn't trust either store enough for that. one had ich and aptasia all throughout their systems and the other one I don't even know how they're in business. It was worse than you could possibly imagine, but I wont get into that right now.

I thought this would be an interesting thing to test out a couple things I haven't used before. I didn't go into it with high expectations, but I have to say, i'm pretty disappointed that I spent extra money for seemingly no reason at all.

 

[Llyod276]

You got money??? Get the florida live rock directly from ocean.
Otherwise go beyond the true local fishstore. Or if you got peeps you know borrow a rock from them.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and back to saltwater!

I wouldn't call these products a gimmick, but there is a healthy dose of marketing here, especially with the rock.

The CaribbSea "Life Rocks" I believe is intentionally named so new reefers will think it's real live rock, just my opinion. These rocks are said to have some beneficial bacteria bacteria on the surface of the rock, and sure it may be nice that's it colorful and not stark white at this point, but it's hardly real live rock. The bacteria it may have are basically the same as what you'd find in a bottle of bacteria, such as that Fritz or others.

I would treat the CaribbSea Life Rocks as dry rock for the purpose of cycling your tank.

The Fritz TurboStart is a well regarded product, and often thought of as one of the fastest acting bottled bacteria products you can use.

Both these products contain strains of nitrifying bacteria that help establish a rudimentary biofilter to help with the initial nitrogen cycle, but this methodology can take a few weeks to fully establish a biofilter. There's nothing wrong with that, it just takes some time.

Neither of these products really offer the benefits of a high quality "real" live rock from a quality LFS (and I agree, don't use some awful stuff from a store that doesn't know what good live rock is). Real live rock brings many more micro and even macro organisms that are beneficial to your system beyond just the initial nitrogen cycle, and comes already fully cycled, so your tank will more or less be instantly cycled and ready to go.

If you don't have a trusted LFS in your area and since you are in Florida, you absolutely owe it to yourself to take a look at the rock and sand offered by Tampa Bay Saltwater, this is real, ocean direct, maricultured live rock with all the goodness:
https://tbsaltwater.com/

Even just a few pounds of their rock would go a long way towards getting your tank going (look at their smaller Treasure Chest packs), and if you're anywhere close by they do offer a local pickup option.

Otherwise, you're fine to keep going with your setup. I think you may want to increase your ammonia level from about 0.5 ppm to close to 2.0 ppm. You can use fish food and ghost feed, some like to put a piece of shrimp from the seafood market in the tank, but I would personally recommend dosing bottled ammonium chloride, it's just cleaner and easier to use, in my opinion:
https://www.chewy.com/dr-tims-aquat...MIhP-X2OuJjAMVWW5HAR0kRxEjEAYYASABEgKtzvD_BwE
I would just follow the steps for a fishless cycle and you should be fine, but you can expect this to take a couple of weeks or even longer sometime. Real live rock would speed that time frame up and offer other benefits as well.

I hope that helped, and good luck!

 

[BryanM]

I've recently gotten back into the hobby after a couple years. I went with a 7 gallon drop off tank, I added 9.5lb of caribsea "life rock" (question one) and roughly 9lb of live sand. Now I know you don't get a lot from live sand, but the life rock always seemed suspicious and the lfs near me are absolutely horrid. I had no choice but to get this life rock and I haven't noticed much benefit, if at all. My cycle just seemed to start as it usually would, so is this just a marketing ploy?

I know you can't rush anything in this hobby, but I thought I'd help it along by trying out Fritz turbo start 900. My ammonia was .5 ppm before I added it (4 days after setting up the tank and ghost feeding once every other day) and its been at .5 ppm still after a few days. Still at 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate, so it seems like nothing is happening. Is this also a gimmick? No fish in the tank, no skimmer, no UV sterilizer, lights on normal cycle, haven't added anything but the turbo start. When I opened it, it smelled like rancid diarrhea which according to the internet, may or may not be fine? it was refrigerated at the store and I came straight home and dosed 20ml into the tank. After a couple days, I saw literally no change and added the remaining 9ml into the tank. it says you can safely dose up to 5x the normal amount and the entire 1oz bottle is about 4x, so that should be fine. its another couple days and still seeing not even a slight change in any of the 3 parameters. temp is good at 77F and salinity is at a steady 1.026ppm.

I'm just wondering if I paid extra in hopes of a slightly quicker cycle just to be fooled like an idiot, or maybe one or both of these possible "novelty" items were no good? The Fritz wasn't expired and they unboxed the life rock directly from the box in the shipment right in front of me at the store. I would buy seeded live rock from them, but I wouldn't trust either store enough for that. one had ich and aptasia all throughout their systems and the other one I don't even know how they're in business. It was worse than you could possibly imagine, but I wont get into that right now.

I thought this would be an interesting thing to test out a couple things I haven't used before. I didn't go into it with high expectations, but I have to say, i'm pretty disappointed that I spent extra money for seemingly no reason at all.

Welcome to Reef2Reef.

I consider anything that is not from the ocean and labelled anything like "life" to absolutely be a marketing ploy / gimmick.

 

[beebop]

You got money??? Get the florida live rock directly from ocean.
Otherwise go beyond the true local fishstore. Or if you got peeps you know borrow a rock from them.

Everything tells me that's very illegal and the only sources I've seen to buy it from are on the gulf side and it would cost more for the rocks, than I've spent on the whole setup so far :loudly-crying-face: I also don't know anyone here that's in the hobby. I mean, my cycle is moving along and its fine. I was just kinda disappointed in the results of the two new things I tried out and was just wondering if they were a waste and I was seeing if this was the usual result with these, or if people actually have good results with these things and maybe I got a bad batch or something.

 

[beebop]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and back to saltwater!

I wouldn't call these products a gimmick, but there is a healthy dose of marketing here, especially with the rock.

The CaribbSea "Life Rocks" I believe is intentionally named so new reefers will think it's real live rock, just my opinion. These rocks are said to have some beneficial bacteria bacteria on the surface of the rock, and sure it may be nice that's it colorful and not stark white at this point, but it's hardly real live rock. The bacteria it may have are basically the same as what you'd find in a bottle of bacteria, such as that Fritz or others.

I would treat the CaribbSea Life Rocks as dry rock for the purpose of cycling your tank.

The Fritz TurboStart is a well regarded product, and often thought of as one of the fastest acting bottled bacteria products you can use.

Both these products contain strains of nitrifying bacteria that help establish a rudimentary biofilter to help with the initial nitrogen cycle, but this methodology can take a few weeks to fully establish a biofilter. There's nothing wrong with that, it just takes some time.

Neither of these products really offer the benefits of a high quality "real" live rock from a quality LFS (and I agree, don't use some awful stuff from a store that doesn't know what good live rock is). Real live rock brings many more micro and even macro organisms that are beneficial to your system beyond just the initial nitrogen cycle, and comes already fully cycled, so your tank will more or less be instantly cycled and ready to go.

If you don't have a trusted LFS in your area and since you are in Florida, you absolutely owe it to yourself to take a look at the rock and sand offered by Tampa Bay Saltwater, this is real, ocean direct, maricultured live rock with all the goodness:
https://tbsaltwater.com/

Even just a few pounds of their rock would go a long way towards getting your tank going (look at their smaller Treasure Chest packs), and if you're anywhere close by they do offer a local pickup option.

Otherwise, you're fine to keep going with your setup. I think you may want to increase your ammonia level from about 0.5 ppm to close to 2.0 ppm. You can use fish food and ghost feed, some like to put a piece of shrimp from the seafood market in the tank, but I would personally recommend dosing bottled ammonium chloride, it's just cleaner and easier to use, in my opinion:
https://www.chewy.com/dr-tims-aquat...MIhP-X2OuJjAMVWW5HAR0kRxEjEAYYASABEgKtzvD_BwE
I would just follow the steps for a fishless cycle and you should be fine, but you can expect this to take a couple of weeks or even longer sometime. Real live rock would speed that time frame up and offer other benefits as well.

I hope that helped, and good luck!

Thanks for the reply!

I looked into the Tampa Bay place and it seems like it would be more expensive than I think I wanna do and since I already have my aquascape finished :grinning-face-with-sweat: I was thinking about finding a handful or two of rubble to put in a media bag for the filter maybe. But I've cycled a few tanks and been through the waiting before, I was just curious to check these two things out.

It just seemed suspicious that these dry rocks would magically come to life, once I got them wet :grinning-squinting-face: doesn't seem like that happened. And the turbo start I was kind of believing, so I just let it do it's thing. I was actually surprised that absolutely nothing happened, so i'll just go on with the cycle as I normally would have.

The rocks I didn't have very high hopes for, but the Fritz is what made me decide to come on here and ask about. I guess the point of me posting was to see if other had similar results. I wasn't really expecting a miracle, but I was hoping for more than nothing to happen :grinning-face-with-sweat:

 

[Fish Fan]

Thanks for the reply!

I looked into the Tampa Bay place and it seems like it would be more expensive than I think I wanna do and since I already have my aquascape finished :grinning-face-with-sweat: I was thinking about finding a handful or two of rubble to put in a media bag for the filter maybe. But I've cycled a few tanks and been through the waiting before, I was just curious to check these two things out.

It just seemed suspicious that these dry rocks would magically come to life, once I got them wet :grinning-squinting-face: doesn't seem like that happened. And the turbo start I was kind of believing, so I just let it do it's thing. I was actually surprised that absolutely nothing happened, so i'll just go on with the cycle as I normally would have.

The rocks I didn't have very high hopes for, but the Fritz is what made me decide to come on here and ask about. I guess the point of me posting was to see if other had similar results. I wasn't really expecting a miracle, but I was hoping for more than nothing to happen :grinning-face-with-sweat:

I would just keep going with a fish-less cycle, I'd get your ammonia up a little higher, and give it even as much as two weeks, and by then certainly you should see some signs of a cycle, such as nitrates starting to accumulate.

 

[beebop]

I would just keep going with a fish-less cycle, I'd get your ammonia up a little higher, and give it even as much as two weeks, and by then certainly you should see some signs of a cycle, such as nitrates starting to accumulate.

Yeah, I figured that I would just go back to cycling normally. I figured there would probably be some sort of die off in the bottle of bacteria, so I didn't dose any ammonia. But i'm just gonna say screw all these money makers and do the cycle like it was meant to :grinning-squinting-face:

 

[Fish Fan]

Yeah, I figured that I would just go back to cycling normally. I figured there would probably be some sort of die off in the bottle of bacteria, so I didn't dose any ammonia. But i'm just gonna say screw all these money makers and do the cycle like it was meant to :grinning-squinting-face:

The bacteria are pretty stable and even if some die they likely won't result in the level of ammonia most of us shoot for here, which is 2.0 ppm. I'd add some more fish food, a piece of shrimp, or again I like the bottled ammonium chloride product for this.

 

[beebop]

The bacteria are pretty stable and even if some die they likely won't result in the level of ammonia most of us shoot for here, which is 2.0 ppm. I'd add some more fish food, a piece of shrimp, or again I like the bottled ammonium chloride product for this.

Yeah, I'm going to keep adding food to get it up some more

 

[Fish Fan]

Good plan! Let us know who it goes for you :-)

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've recently gotten back into the hobby after a couple years. I went with a 7 gallon drop off tank, I added 9.5lb of caribsea "life rock" (question one) and roughly 9lb of live sand. Now I know you don't get a lot from live sand, but the life rock always seemed suspicious and the lfs near me are absolutely horrid. I had no choice but to get this life rock and I haven't noticed much benefit, if at all. My cycle just seemed to start as it usually would, so is this just a marketing ploy?

I know you can't rush anything in this hobby, but I thought I'd help it along by trying out Fritz turbo start 900. My ammonia was .5 ppm before I added it (4 days after setting up the tank and ghost feeding once every other day) and its been at .5 ppm still after a few days. Still at 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate, so it seems like nothing is happening. Is this also a gimmick? No fish in the tank, no skimmer, no UV sterilizer, lights on normal cycle, haven't added anything but the turbo start. When I opened it, it smelled like rancid diarrhea which according to the internet, may or may not be fine? it was refrigerated at the store and I came straight home and dosed 20ml into the tank. After a couple days, I saw literally no change and added the remaining 9ml into the tank. it says you can safely dose up to 5x the normal amount and the entire 1oz bottle is about 4x, so that should be fine. its another couple days and still seeing not even a slight change in any of the 3 parameters. temp is good at 77F and salinity is at a steady 1.026ppm.

I'm just wondering if I paid extra in hopes of a slightly quicker cycle just to be fooled like an idiot, or maybe one or both of these possible "novelty" items were no good? The Fritz wasn't expired and they unboxed the life rock directly from the box in the shipment right in front of me at the store. I would buy seeded live rock from them, but I wouldn't trust either store enough for that. one had ich and aptasia all throughout their systems and the other one I don't even know how they're in business. It was worse than you could possibly imagine, but I wont get into that right now.

I thought this would be an interesting thing to test out a couple things I haven't used before. I didn't go into it with high expectations, but I have to say, i'm pretty disappointed that I spent extra money for seemingly no reason at all.

TurboZyme very good product. I suspect false readings and encourage you to have a water sample tested at an LFS that does not use API test and see what readings they come up with before adding anything and increasing numbers unnecessarily

 

[beebop]

TurboZyme very good product. I suspect false readings and encourage you to have a water sample tested at an LFS that does not use API test and see what readings they come up with before adding anything and increasing numbers unnecessarily

I don't think is a bad reading, I tested in the beginning and it was 0 and then went up to .25 and then .50. I also checked fresh clean salt water and got a 0 reading.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don't think is a bad reading, I tested in the beginning and it was 0 and then went up to .25 and then .50. I also checked fresh clean salt water and got a 0 reading.

And yes turbo start has a horrid smell as does prime and Amquel.
Ammonia - You want < .025

 

[beebop]

And yes turbo start has a horrid smell as does prime and Amquel.
Ammonia - You want < .025

Oh, I know. I've done reef tanks before. This post was just to see other people's experiences with these 2 products I decided to give a whirl and ended up not having any results

 

[KrisReef]

Status update on this cycle?

If I lived in FLA I would get to the coast and collect a sandwich bag of wet sand for a biodiversity inoculation.