Problems With Fishless Cycle

[eaglesaquarium]

Is there a difference in cycles? I thought there was only 1 cycle that had to occur, But if I understand you correctly, There are more than just one  

 
No there's one, just different stages.
 

• The nitrogen starts as waste from the fish as ammonia. 
• During a regular cycling process, the first sign that things are taking place is that the ammonia level will spike.  (This is the 'first stage', commonly referred to as the ammonia spike.) 
• Then, the ammonia processing bacteria grow in sufficient number to deal with that, creating a great deal of nitrite.  (This is the 'second stage', commonly referred to as the nitrite spike.)
• Then, a different bacteria grows in sufficient number to deal with the nitrite, creating nitrate. (This is the end of the cycle as we normally deal with it.)
• (There are other bacteria which under the right conditions can convert the nitrate to nitrogen gas which exits the tank on its own, rather than during a water change - Live rock for marine systems usually contain this type of bacteria.)

 
Does that help?  Its one 'cycle', but during the 'cycling process' there are different 'stages'.
 
 
The Safe Start product is supposed to have sufficient numbers of BOTH bacteria to deal with the ammonia and nitrite simultaneously.  And whatever ammonia is processed by the first group to nitrite is dealt with by the second type and converted to nitrate.

 

[the_lock_man]

 
Everyone has their preffered way don't they I suppose
 

Is there a difference in cycles? I thought there was only 1 cycle that had to occur, But if I understand you correctly, There are more than just one  

There is one cycle just different stages of it

That's what I thought. And the person who posted that said that it went from ammonia right to nitrAte, skipping the nitrIte stage of the cycle. I am in no means pushing any specific product. Everyone has different ways of doing things. I'm just learning myself and been doing alot of reading on cycling a tank. I just thought that that post was interesting to me.

 
If that's true, it's a good thing, because the bacteria didn't eat the ammonia and churn out nitrate directly, they cannot do that. What they are effectively saying is that the nitrite bacteria built up incredibly quickly.
 
But I suspect they have made a mistake in their interpretation of events.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Just the ones to kick start the cycling process

 
Then we are in agreement there.
 
Ammonium hydroxide and baking soda do not "kickstart" the process.  One feeds and the other speeds the process...  I can understand not wanting to use the baking soda... its not necessary to the process.  You could also use calcium carbonate (same stuff that's in chalk, most shells, marble, etc.  This also raises kH and pH to where the bacteria prefer.

 

[dalton93]

I just do my best to keep things pure that's all

 

[the_lock_man]

Nowt impure about pure ammonia

 

[dalton93]

I'm a if it doesn't have to go in the tank then it doesn't kind of person lol

 

[the_lock_man]

I would say, and I know a lot of people here will agree, that bottled ammonia to cycle the filter is a "Does have to go in the tank" thing.
 
Do you understand the principle of it?

 

[dalton93]

I do understand but I've never used it and had no problems

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That puts you squarely in the camp of "Fish-in" cycling.  That's a tried and true method, and I'm not going to say its wrong.  I just don't agree with it for myself, nor would I counsel others to do so. 
 
Adding "pure" ammonia isn't adding anything to the tank that doesn't get produced naturally by the fish, it merely eliminates the need to expose the fish to the ammonia during the cycling process.  Most importantly, it is really only necessary to go through the fishless cycle process once.  After that, stealing a bit (or more) of cycled media to suit your needs in a new tank is all that is needed to start up a new tank, a QT, a hospital tank, etc.