What bacteria to pick?

[Notsolostfish]

Im going to my LFS and its 1 hour away. What bacteria should i pick to cycle my tank. Please give me the name. And for calcium, alk, and magnesium should i go with hanna checkers? Thank you.

 

[shakacuz]

good brands that i've also used personally:

Dr. Tim's One and Only
Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7, or XLM (WITH Quick Cycle)
Algaebarn NitroCyle (WITH Fritz Turbo Start)

edit: i've heard great things of Bio-Spira

for the test kits, you could definitely start off with the SALIFERT kits. if you have the extra $$ you should get the Red Sea kit (ALK/CAL/MAG, and NO3/PO4). but if you're dead set on the hanna kits, i recommend only the ALK as the CAL kit is tedious. MAG hasn't been out long enough and they released the product with bad reagents (if i read/remember correctly).

 

[wtdenk]

I like salifert for Calcium.

Hanna for Alk, HR Nitrate, and ULR Phospate. Also use Hanna for Magnesium, but haven't used it enough yet to recommend.

I also had good luck with Dr Tim's one and only and MB7 for bacteria.

 

[LeftyReefer]

1st choice - Bio-Spira
2nd choice - Fritz TurboStart
3rd choice - anything else.

good ol' Bio-Spira still seems to work the best in my opinion.

The Hanna Alk checker is the only one of those three that I consider a must have.
I don't use a Hanna for either CA or MG.

 

[Notsolostfish]

1st choice - Bio-Spira
2nd choice - Fritz TurboStart
3rd choice - anything else.

good ol' Bio-Spira still seems to work the best in my opinion.

The Hanna Alk checker is the only one of those three that I consider a must have.
I don't use a Hanna for either CA or MG.

Does fritz contains ammonia or only bacteria

 

[shakacuz]

Does fritz contains ammonia or only bacteria

bacteria

 

[Notsolostfish]

bacteria

I need ammonia too ?

 

[LeftyReefer]

Does fritz contains ammonia or only bacteria

just bacteria. it will reduce ammonia.
the bottle says it will cycle any tank in 5 days or less.

I was talking about Turbo Start 900. the one with a 4 month shelf life and needs to be refrigerated.
They have other less potent versions too that don't need to be kept in the fridge.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Fritz also makes an ammonia product...add this based on directions...dont add more

 

[Notsolostfish]

just bacteria. it will reduce ammonia.
the bottle says it will cycle any tank in 5 days or less.

I was talking about Turbo Start 900. the one with a 4 month shelf life and needs to be refrigerated.
They have other less potent versions too that don't need to be kept in the fridge.

Im not adding fish i wanna do fishless u need ammonia source

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Im not adding fish i wanna do fishless u need ammonia source

I just posted ammonia source above

 

[melonheadorion]

Im not adding fish i wanna do fishless u need ammonia source

you can simply put a piece of raw shrimp in the tank if you want to do fishless. once it starts to decay, it will create ammonia which then starts your process. if you dont want to wait for that decay, companies do make a straight ammonia source, such as the one that livinlife showed

 

[wonroc]

Liverock

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Liverock

That would definitely be my recommendation too but it sounds like OP already has a plan and decided the route he wants to take

 

[wonroc]

Aquarium chemicals have done me nothing but aggravation. Even the "safe" bacteria bottles will be replaced in your tank by invading and better populating bacteria.