Faster cycling?

[fishdude]

without a test kit. there is this thing at walmart that said it removed all heavy metals from the water. does this mean ammonia nitrites and nitrates. it's called start right.

 

[smb]

without a test kit. there is this thing at walmart that said it removed all heavy metals from the water. does this mean ammonia nitrites and nitrates. it's called start right.

No. The only way to cycle a tank is to do it right.

I might be in the minority here, but chemicals don't help much at all in this aspect and are a waste of money. jmo.

 

[juliethegr8t]

Heavy metals are not ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. So no, that product won't remove them. They only way to really remove these things is by cycling your tank and growing the bactera that do this.

Fish waste > Ammonia > Nitrites > Nitrates

Thats the cycle you need to complete ^, three types of bacteria have to flourish to keep your tank healthy. You can always use something to lower or make safe the levels of ammonia, etc, (ex: Ammo-Lock), but you really just need to cycle. I don't think that particular product is what you're looking for.

 

[CFC]

The only way to cycle faster is to take gravel and filter media from ready established mature (over 6 months old) tanks and add them to yours,ready made bacteria colonies.

 

[impur]

Startright is only for removing chlorine and heavy metals from your tapwater.

 

[beltdrive]

By time you payed for that you could have got a test kit.

 

[fishdude]

it was only 2 bucks.

 

[jbjnc63]

These guys are all right. The only way to remove ammonia and nitrites is to cycle, however you can detoxify them by adding "Prime". If you don't have many fish in the tank during cycling then they will probably be able to handle the ammonia andn nitrite levels without a problem. But, if you added way too many fish too soon like I did you may want to add some Prime to the tank to help detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. It supposedly will not affect the cycle or tanks PH.I've also had someone tell me to add 1/8 tsp of table salt which helps the fish breathe better during the nitrite spike of cycle. Here is a link to what Prime does.
http/www.seachem.com/en_products/product.../043_prime.html

I also see you a partial to the Gourami's. I have 3 in my tank as well. The blue and gold gouramis will get very large (6") so may want to reconsider. From all my research I have found the pearl gouramis to be the most peaceful and beautiful. They get larger than the dwarfs but not as big as the blue and gold. The gourami's can also be very territorial so have to be careful adding. I had to take a powder blue dwarf back to the LFS because he was chewing the fins off of another dwarf. I would like to get feed back from other gourami fans on this. I started another post for gourami lovers too. Click on my mini profile below to see my tank.

 

[Alia]

That does sound like a lot of gourami for one tank, fishdude. Are you sure? Perhaps if they were all juveniles and you got them all at once, but I would never add that much fish to a tank at once, especially a recently cycled one. My dwarfs are pretty good natured, but I know that many gouramis can be aggressive, and get quite large. Don't let your enthusiasm override your good sense! Take it slow and see how things go . . .

 

[SneakBetta]

if you have anothe fresh water tank that's cycled take some water out of it (eanough to fill about 3/4 of the tank you're trying to cycle) put it in the un-cycled tnak and fill the rest up with new water. then you're tank has cycled water in it.

 

[mrV]

CFC:

The only way to cycle faster is to take gravel and filter media from ready established mature (over 6 months old) tanks and add them to yours,ready made bacteria colonies.

Better way is to take some water from soil (from flower-pot). Put some soil (from flower-pot) and water into pail, stir it, let the soil goes down and pour water into your tank. There is nitrification bacteria too, and you don't need to be worry about bacteria of other tank in that you get gravel.


And it's isn't either good to remove ammonia from water, because those bacteria need something to eat. When cycling tank (usually takes 3-6 weeks) you have to put some ammonia into your tank (NH3, (NH4)2CO3, NH4Cl), so bacteria will increase - without food they don't increase and die.

First NH3/NH4+ is oxidized to NO2-. Then other bacteria get food and start increasing. Now they oxidize NO2- to NO3-. Bacteria are nitrobacter and nitrosomonas..

If you have too much Cl2 in your tap water, buy some chemicals which removes Cl2 - like Tetra Aquasafe or go to the nearest pharmacy and buy sodiumthiosulfate (those commercial products contain same compound).

Edit. sorry about the mesh... The whole msg was "mixed up", quotations where somewhere where I didn't want them to be, the msg was shortened etc...

 

[mrV]

Have anyone other noticed that here is some bugs on this software.. Sometimes this "forum" put quotation like it wants and sometimes it shortens message.. Or am I only one??

 

[cichlid_freak]

The best way to reduce (or possibly eliminate) cycling is to add live plants. These remove the nitrogenous componds before the bacteria have a chance to use them, however this is only possible with a very large number of fast growing plants. So, unless you are going to have a tank chauk full of stem plants, cycling is the only way to go.

Adding substrate or filter material from an established tank will give the population of bacteria a head start, thus reducing the number of bacteria needed to grow (because you added them) and also multiplies the speed at which they grow (each one divides equally ever so often). This is how most speed up the cycling process.

Remember, patcience is a virtue. 8)

 

[impur]

Well i have been looking into this prime stuff jbjnc63 and found that what is does is convert the ammonia into ammonium which is still broken down by the cycle but is not toxic to fish. It will however still show up on your tests. Prime is used for ammonia and nitrites (in a pinch).