Bacteria in a bottle: snake oil worth trusting ?

[427HISS]

I watched a video on youtube hosted by "Mr. Saltwater Tank", talking with Dr. Tim. He and other company's have bottled bacteria.
I would like to chat with people that have actually used this method to cycle a new tank.

Live rock has it's pro's & con's, as we know, but is this bottled bacteria great or snake oil ?

 

[jackson6745]

Definitely not snake oil. Most of the bottled bacterias will help a cycle along, or just aid in improving water quality.

 

[Eienna]

I can speak from experience - Dr. Tim's One and Only works and works well!

 

[.AcroKiller.]

I used continuum bacter m and it does work. Specially on cyano

 

[Reefing Madness]

Dr. Tim's items are pretty well touted in the SW community.

 

[twelvefive]

I can speak from experience - Dr. Tim's One and Only works and works well!

Same here.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Brightwell B7 works great used it many times

 

[.AcroKiller.]

Brightwell B7 works great used it many times

This is now continuum bacter M

 

[TJ's Reef]

Hey Kevin, definitely a plus on the speed of cycling and have witnessed it several times now with positive results. Personally I haven't used from scratch but did use the Brightwell product when upgrading to the 125g from the 75g. Because of using all new sand/substrate in DT and having to place LR with most having encrusted corals attached, thought it might need the extra boost. Perfect transfer with no casualties or water chemistry spikes.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Greenstreet.1]

This is now continuum bacter M

I still get it from brightwell. But thank you for the info I have been hearing about the change.

 

[general0]

I've used Dr. Tim's and just recently tried Microbe-Lift Special Blend because I couldn't find Dr. Tim's locally and it did appear to help move the cycle along faster than normal. I did a complete reset of my tank with new sand and acid washed the rocks and it took about 3 weeks to get everything cycled and ready for reading my live stock. When I setup my 165g previously I used Dr. Tim's and it took all of 1 1/2 weeks to get it ready!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I used Dr. Tims and had fish in my new tank within 3 days as well as some mushrooms. Had an anemone and picasso clowns in the tank at day 6. This tank was completely new from water, sand, rock, and all.

I do NOT recommend anyone inexperienced in reefing to try this.

 

[Eienna]

A note, if your rock is not cured (not a problem with clean dry rock) you WILL end up with excess nitrates, assuming you don't have a super skimmer. The bacteria will turn the excess ammonia from the die-off into nitrate but the second step (nitrate into nitrogen gas) will not yet be ready to take this on.

 

[kv2wr1]

I think it can help shorten a cycle, but your tank will still cycle. I had a sterile tank and it took about 2 weeks to completely cycle, but it took longer for that bacteria to colonize on my dry rock and sand. You can cycle a tank fast with it, but the downside is it can take a long time for that bacteria to grow in the rock and sand to support additional life. Hence you have to stock really slow if using dry rock and sand.

 

[427HISS]

I agree it's not an instant, solve your long time cycle and add a load fast system, just to shorten it a bit. It's better to let mother nature take it's course and add fish slowly. Being dry, dead rock, I will add one of the bottled bacteria's. It might be Dr. Tim's and follow the instructions exactly.

 

[tyler1503]

I've used BioAid before with great success. It's the only thing I added to my tanks to get my cycle started. I eventually started ghost feeding the tank, but the bacteria in a bottle worked for me. And even if you get a dud bottle where all the bacteria died out somehow, you atleast have a bottle of ammonia to cycle with