Cycling

Jrid1997 · 04/20/2016, 11:36 PM

How do you use products like bio spira do you just fill the tank add bio spira and test the water for a few days? How does this work?

GimpyFin · 04/21/2016, 12:19 AM

Bio spira is basically bacteria in a bottle. It shortcuts cycling your tank normally by adding the necessary bacteria to break down waste/ammonia rather than waiting. Once your tank is setup with sand/rock/water, you can add the appropriate amount and your tank will be ready to add a fish or two almost immediately. You still want to take it slow and not add too many fish at once.

zelie_dad · 04/21/2016, 06:54 AM

You will also need a source of ammonia, be it a fish (not recommended), phantom feeding, raw table shrimp(stinks IMO), or dosing ammonia to the tank.

I started my cycle about 3 weeks ago using the raw shrimp method. At first I just threw it in, but the next day I took it out, chopped it up, and threw it back in. The day after that, I couldn't find it anymore. I was testing and my ammonia spiked at .5 ppm, not high enough for me. So, I went out and got a bottle of Bio-spira, and 10% ammonia, and started dosing. I was dosing my tank to 2 ppm every day for about a week. Over the course of the last few days, I've been letting the ammonia and nitrite drop to 0, and dose it back to 2 ppm. I dosed 5 ml's(amount needed for my tank to get it to 2ppm) on Tuesday , and tested yesterday.

Results:
Ammonia at .5 ppm
Nitrites at 1 ppm

I'm not cycled. I'm going to keep this up until both are 0 after 24 hours.

vashawn · 04/21/2016, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GimpyFin

Bio spira is basically bacteria in a bottle. It shortcuts cycling your tank normally by adding the necessary bacteria to break down waste/ammonia rather than waiting. Once your tank is setup with sand/rock/water, you can add the appropriate amount and your tank will be ready to add a fish or two almost immediately. You still want to take it slow and not add too many fish at once.

what he said but start out with adding adding a cheap fish like a damsel.
test your par

CStrickland · 04/21/2016, 07:31 AM

The directions on the bottle of biospira are accurate.
I wouldn't continually dose ammonia because of how high the nitrates can get. The denitrifying bacteria establish more slowly, so you can get top heavy on their food if you overdo it.
I wouldn't add a damsel first because of how territorial they are. They can kill any fish you add after, and be hard to catch.
Idk what PAR has to do with bacteria

04/20/2016, 11:36 PM	#1
Jrid1997 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 41	Cycling How do you use products like bio spira do you just fill the tank add bio spira and test the water for a few days? How does this work?

04/21/2016, 06:54 AM	#3
zelie_dad Always bring a towel Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Zelienople, PA Posts: 363	You will also need a source of ammonia, be it a fish (not recommended), phantom feeding, raw table shrimp(stinks IMO), or dosing ammonia to the tank. I started my cycle about 3 weeks ago using the raw shrimp method. At first I just threw it in, but the next day I took it out, chopped it up, and threw it back in. The day after that, I couldn't find it anymore. I was testing and my ammonia spiked at .5 ppm, not high enough for me. So, I went out and got a bottle of Bio-spira, and 10% ammonia, and started dosing. I was dosing my tank to 2 ppm every day for about a week. Over the course of the last few days, I've been letting the ammonia and nitrite drop to 0, and dose it back to 2 ppm. I dosed 5 ml's(amount needed for my tank to get it to 2ppm) on Tuesday , and tested yesterday. Results: Ammonia at .5 ppm Nitrites at 1 ppm I'm not cycled. I'm going to keep this up until both are 0 after 24 hours. __________________ "The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without" ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Current Tank Info: 40B/40B mixed reef Last edited by zelie_dad; 04/21/2016 at 06:57 AM. Reason: spelling

04/21/2016, 07:31 AM	#5
CStrickland Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New England, U.S. Posts: 4,595	The directions on the bottle of biospira are accurate. I wouldn't continually dose ammonia because of how high the nitrates can get. The denitrifying bacteria establish more slowly, so you can get top heavy on their food if you overdo it. I wouldn't add a damsel first because of how territorial they are. They can kill any fish you add after, and be hard to catch. Idk what PAR has to do with bacteria __________________ If you're havin tank problems I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a fish ain't one Current Tank Info: 3/2016 upgrade to 120g. Chalk bass, melanurus, firefish, starry blenny, canary blenny, lyretail anthias, engineer gobys, kole tang. Softies / LPS / NPS. <3 noob4life <3

04/21/2016, 12:19 AM	#2
GimpyFin Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 2,032	Bio spira is basically bacteria in a bottle. It shortcuts cycling your tank normally by adding the necessary bacteria to break down waste/ammonia rather than waiting. Once your tank is setup with sand/rock/water, you can add the appropriate amount and your tank will be ready to add a fish or two almost immediately. You still want to take it slow and not add too many fish at once.