Cycling with different bacterias

[Mattc904]

Looking for any input on cycling / establishing a tank with multiple different types / brands of bacteria. I feel as though I remember BRS talking about the idea and it makes sense in my head and seems like a good plan but I can’t find the video I originally saw it in. More or less the idea was to dose several bacterias over the course of the cycle to allow the bacteria time to populate every possible surface prior to turning lights on.

has anybody heard this? Even better if you’ve tried it and had success? I’m a few weeks in and I’ve added a few bottles of dr Tim’s and I have a bottle of microbacter clean that I will be using at some point, I was looking into getting some other bacteria but wanted to look for some experience before wasting more money than I need to
Thanks!

 

[lapin]

I cycled my dry rock for 2 months with a bunch of different bottled bacteria.
Dr Tims
Bio_Spira
Microbacter
Bio S
Also to add to the mix I added rotifer water from my cultures that was full of different types of phyto and rotifers

 

[Mattc904]

I cycled my dry rock for 2 months with a bunch of different bottled bacteria.
Dr Tims
Bio_Spira
Microbacter
Bio S
Also to add to the mix I added rotifer water from my cultures that was full of different types of phyto and rotifers

Any noticeable difference? Do you feel it was worth it?

 

[Phistergosh]

It can't hurt.

I used Dr Tim's, microbacter, and some live rock. Hard to say if it worked better or worse than just one because i don't have anything to compare it to. My cycle was done within a week.


I had some uglies. After a bryopsis outbreak (thank God for reef flux) and then a brief bout with dinos, my tank has been looking pretty good.

 

[lapin]

Any noticeable difference? Do you feel it was worth it?

No way to really judge but the tank is 4 years old .

 

[brandon429]

There's no harm in mixed bac cycling, you've all probably seen where in other threads they state one strain will neutralize another

No it won't, if you add mixed sources of bacteria into stewing water then you have mixed strains floating around and whichever implants the fastest wins for initial bioload carry

And then in a year any strain you add now has culled down to what adapts these initial strains aren't found in aquabiomics posts they've population shifted into the same bacteria an unassisted free wait time cycle will produce (meaning if you swirl rocks in common saltwater for 4 months they're cycled just the same as the bottled dosed ones. They move ammonia on api tests and we have the pics.)


So mixed strain initial dosing is fine, no harm, and pure free unassisted wait cycling also confers the same ends if you have months to wait for natural processes. Most don't want to wait go ahead and dose away.


You can't mess up your cycle no matter what you arrange at the start, none have failed when tested accurately. The real planning you need is fish disease control, don't add fish from the pet store right into your ready tank. Your cycle is done after this long, the bottle bac had it ready about two weeks ago. Thats not said lightly just to disrespect old cycling wait times, it’s because you paid to surpass those waits and it’s easy to sell us water bac in water all spun down and concentrated

after about a week Dr Reefs bottle bac thread shows most major cycling strains to adhere to surfaces and be completely immune to 100% water change tests. The cycle never unsticks after a week in any approach I’ve ever seen from a bottle.


neat cycle facts:
-oops I accidentally dosed to eight ppm = still going to cycle

-my nitrites are so high the vial is red, but the compare chart is blue, my nitrites are so high a color shift has occurred= still going to cycle

-I forgot to feed, I didn’t know was supposed to, I just added the bac= still going to cycle


-I didn’t add bottle bac, just feed = still going to cycle and we have fifty live examples handy

-I didn’t feed nor add bottle bac= still going to cycle thanks MSteven1 for your work logs.

-I have input ten strains will they die= still going to cycle


-I have measured and sustained for fourteen days a nontherapeutic level of household bleach in the system, to the point it burns my eyes in the room= finally, an arrangement not going to cycle.

 

[Mattc904]

There's no harm in mixed bac cycling, you've all probably seen where in other threads they state one strain will neutralize another

No it won't, if you add mixed sources of bacteria into stewing water then you have mixed strains floating around and whichever implants the fastest wins for initial bioload carry

And then in a year any strain you add now has culled down to what adapts these initial strains aren't found in aquabiomics posts they've population shifted into the same bacteria an unassisted free wait time cycle will produce (meaning if you swirl rocks in common saltwater for 4 months they're cycled just the same as the bottled dosed ones. They move ammonia on api tests and we have the pics.)


So mixed strain initial dosing is fine, no harm, and pure free unassisted wait cycling also confers the same ends if you have months to wait for natural processes. Most don't want to wait go ahead and dose away.


You can't mess up your cycle no matter what you arrange at the start, none have failed when tested accurately. The real planning you need is fish disease control, don't add fish from the pet store right into your ready tank. Your cycle is done after this long, the bottle bac had it ready about two weeks ago. Thats not said lightly just to disrespect old cycling wait times, it’s because you paid to surpass those waits and it’s easy to sell us water bac in water all spun down and concentrated

after about a week Dr Reefs bottle bac thread shows most major cycling strains to adhere to surfaces and be completely immune to 100% water change tests. The cycle never unsticks after a week in any approach I’ve ever seen from a bottle.


neat cycle facts:
-oops I accidentally dosed to eight ppm = still going to cycle

-my nitrites are so high the vial is red, but the compare chart is blue, my nitrites are so high a color shift has occurred= still going to cycle

-I forgot to feed, I didn’t know was supposed to, I just added the bac= still going to cycle


-I didn’t add bottle bac, just feed = still going to cycle and we have fifty live examples handy

-I didn’t feed nor add bottle bac= still going to cycle thanks MSteven1 for your work logs.

-I have input ten strains will they die= still going to cycle


-I have measured and sustained for fourteen days a nontherapeutic level of household bleach in the system, to the point it burns my eyes in the room= finally, an arrangement not going to cycle.

Thank you for that. A lot of good stuff in there, I had to read it a couple times to ensure I had a good grasp on what you said.
So, I don’t know if I worded it differently than I intended but my original post was less about the cycle typically talked about and more about I guess an extended cycle.
Like I mentioned, I believe it was talked about in a BRS video but I can’t seem to find it. But from what I recall they basically said extending the cycle and using different strains can essentially eliminate an “ugly phase” by more or less not allowing dyno and cyano and such area to populate or stick