# Instant tank cycle drops?



## dave in Iliamna (Aug 15, 2009)

I was doing some reading and I encountered an article that mentioned a product that could be used to cycle a tank over the period of a few minutes.
the article did not give a brand or product name but it essentially said it introduced the bacteria needed to cycle the tank.

Has any one tried this?


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## Chrisinator (Feb 19, 2010)

(My first official posts)

I doubt there's actually a chemical/product that can cycle a tank within minutes. You can make a cycle quicker by putting in established media from a filter or using some of gravel from that tank. 

There are some out there that claim they feature "beneficial bacteria" but I just find that seeding a tank is much better.


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

> a product that could be used to cycle a tank over the period of a few minutes.


That's REALLY hard to believe. Even if you introduce the total amount of bacteria needed for a full cycle, it would take at least several hours for the bacteria to settle and attach itself to the gravel, filter, etc. Since bacteria is a microorganism, it's not affected that well by gravity, so it wouldn't just automatically "fall" to the gravel and attach itself.


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

You could use Cycle or some media from an established tank, as Chrisinator mentioned. But dont plan on it being instant, you still need to add just a few fish and wait until your ammonia spikes and falls, and your nitrite spikes and then falls. Then you can add more fish. This process will probably still take a few weeks.


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

From my experience, Nutrafin Cycle doesn't work that well.


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## flyin-lowe (Oct 3, 2009)

You DO NOT want to use Cycle. It is NOT an aquatic bacteria so it will work for about a week and then the bacteria dies and you have to add it again and again as long as you have the tank. I have done a lot of research and right now Tetra Safe Start is the only product that has the same aquatic bacteria in it that a cycled tank has. That said it still takes 7-10 days for safe start to work. Every other bacteria additive that I have read about does not have the right bacteria in it and it can't survive in fish tank. I looked at a Cycle label and it even says on the bottle that you have to add it every week. I don't think your tank would cycle using this and once you stopped using it you are going to have problems.


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## Guy (Jan 10, 2010)

You can make a loaf of bread in 5 minutes but nobody will want to eat it.

Why not do it the way everyone knows will work every time?


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Personally I like to take a wad of used filter material from an established tank. Ask your local store or someone in your local aquarium society for some.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Microbe-lift's nite out II is the ONLY one that contains true live bacteria that does not die. you get a very small amount for the price. It takes about 24 hours but you can literally sit there and test the entire time and truly watch everything spike and fall within those 24 hours. I used neons for my test fish, guess what, the neons are still alive 30 days later.


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## aspects (Feb 22, 2009)

no bottled product can contain "live bacteria". it just is not possible. anyone who tells you otherwise clearly does not understand the life cycle of bacteria, or is justr out for your money.

beneficial bacteria needs 2 things to live. oxygen and food (in the form of ammonia). neither of these things are available in a sealed bottled product. (unless your LFS is opening the bottles and adding ammonia to them daily. but then they wouldnt be sealed, would they? lol)

as media hound mentioned earlier. adding matured media from another established tank, is the only way to introduce true "live bacteria" to your new tank. and even in doing this, certain precautions need to be taken if you have a long travel between the established tank youre taking the media from, and the new tank youre adding it to.


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## Guy (Jan 10, 2010)

aspects said:


> no bottled product can contain "live bacteria". it just is not possible. anyone who tells you otherwise clearly does not understand the life cycle of bacteria


Spore:
n.
1.A small, usually single-celled reproductive body that is highly resistant to desiccation and heat and is capable of growing into a new organism, produced especially by certain bacteria, fungi, algae, and nonflowering plants.
2.A dormant nonreproductive body formed by certain bacteria in response to adverse environmental conditions.


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## brimac40 (Jan 11, 2010)

There is only one way to cycle a tank ,with time and patience . Seeding a tank with media from an established tank will help but it will still take time for the entire tank to be colonized . As I told my wife's friend who was using an instant cycle product and her fish dying off like flies stuck to a fly paper strip , if a person wants to try and take the easy way out then maybe fish keeping is not for them .


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## Guy (Jan 10, 2010)

brimac40 said:


> There is only one way to cycle a tank ,with time and patience . Seeding a tank with media from an established tank will help but it will still take time for the entire tank to be colonized . As I told my wife's friend who was using an instant cycle product and her fish dying off like flies stuck to a fly paper strip , if a person wants to try and take the easy way out then maybe fish keeping is not for them .


plastic fish
plastic plants
flourescent orange gravel
1/2 cup of bleach
Add water for an instant aquarium

Or even faster, you could print a picture of an aquarium and tape it to your wall.


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## dave in Iliamna (Aug 15, 2009)

Thanks for the replies. I kind of wondered if this was a to good to be true thing.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

aspects said:


> no bottled product can contain "live bacteria". it just is not possible. anyone who tells you otherwise clearly does not understand the life cycle of bacteria, or is justr out for your money.
> 
> beneficial bacteria needs 2 things to live. oxygen and food (in the form of ammonia). neither of these things are available in a sealed bottled product. (unless your LFS is opening the bottles and adding ammonia to them daily. but then they wouldnt be sealed, would they? lol).


This is not true. Bacteria can survive extreme conditions and be aerobic, anerobic, or both. This means they can survive with or withought oxygen. Furthermore, they can go dormant as spores or simply by lowering their temperature or adapting to the "media" they are in. A bottle at room temp is ok, but placing it at 4C would probably be better for long term storage, so I would still look for a bottle with the most recent date and refrigarate after openning once.

The bottle can provide an alternative food source to keep the mostly dormant bacteria alive. Substances like glycerol and sucrose are often used for this purpose in biotech labs and my guess is that some of the products found on the market may contain this as part of their "storage" liquid. I am still fairly skeptical about most cycling products, but I do have faith in one product that I have used in the past called Stability.

Here is a link: Seachem. Stability

Keep in mind that once you add the bacteria to the warmer water, it will become active and require a food source, so ammonia has to be present for them to start their process.


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