Bacteria in a bottle ..

you all know the stuff im sure .. anyway i was given a bottle of cycle a while back , never used it before .

Does it do any good ( even a tiny bit ) , or is it just a load of cack ?

Cycle can be useful in as far as it helps establish an environment in the filter where the required bacteria can thrive. The product does not realistically contain the bacteria required to establish a filter. There is no product readily available which will do this as to keep a colony of bacteria alive in a bottle which is going to sit on a shelf in an lfy / petshop for months or years is not possible.

Cheers,

Bill.

i always found it hand to have a bottle there, when i was keeping fry in bare bottom tanks i had an ammonia spike a couple of times and as soon as i put in some bottled bacteria it was sorted in no time... in certain circumstances like the above its handy to stock a bottle but otherwise, as bill said, the bacteria would most likely go stale before ye get to use it...

Fair enough .


Is tetra safe start the best stuff to add when putting the tap water in the tank ?

I will be running the tank for a good while with nothing in it , as I am putting sandstone rocks in it and i want to make sure it has no ill effect on the water . Therefore do I add the conditioner from the very start , ie now ! with no stock in the tank ?

Best option is to add the water conditioner to the tank now before you put the water into the tank. Tetra Safe is a good product to use, as with most water conditioners, it is designed to remove the chlorine / chloramines from the water. It will also remove any toxic heavy metals from the water too. There is a prescribed dosage of tetra safe, and any other water conditioner, which should be followed. For tetra safe, as far as I can recall, it is 5ml to 10l of water. If you have a water container of known volume, it makes it very easy, add the required amount of Tetra safe to the container and then fill with water, this will ensure the water conditioner is mixed through the water. Then add the water to the tank. Another advantage of doing this is that you can keep track of the actual volume of water you are adding to the tank. This is good information to have if you ever need to dose the tank with medication in the future, as the meds are dosed based on water volume rather than tank volume.
You can add the gravel / substrate and any rockwork, wood etc to the tank before filling it. You can use a plate, newspaper, plastic sheer etc to prevent the water stirring up the substrate material.
The sandstone you are planning on adding to the tank should not have any adverse impact on ph, it is limestone that would give cause for concern.

here is a link to a good post from Seamus on the subject of setting up a tank, gives good details on the steps to follow

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/fforu...-your-first-aquarium

Cheers,

Bill.

thanks bill , your a star ..


its actually nutrafin aquaplus that I have , says it removes chorines etc .. Is this gear ok to add ?

bmcg38 wrote

its actually nutrafin aquaplus that I have , says it removes chorines etc .. Is this gear ok to add ?

Absolutely ok to add this, its fundamentally the same as the tetra aqusafe. The key thing is that it removes the harmful chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals.

Cheers,

Bill.

BillG wrote:

bmcg38 wrote

its actually nutrafin aquaplus that I have , says it removes chorines etc .. Is this gear ok to add ?

Absolutely ok to add this, its fundamentally the same as the tetra aqusafe. The key thing is that it removes the harmful chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals.

Cheers,

Bill.

Thanks Bill , Great .


We have it running now , water added etc . .. Looks great , however there is not too much top water agitation happening . The filter is a Fluval plus 2 , i have it set quite close to the surface . I do have an air bubble line thing . Should I add this , or do I need another filter maybe ? ( hope not ) .

Planning on letting it run for a week as is , will add heater tomorrow ..

Cheers ,

Brian .