Bacteria Starter Test

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#1
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#1
I have been reading other posts about the different bacteria starters and if they actually do anything. Some people have said yes they do and some have said no they don't. I use cycle but am still unsure as to if it actually does anything. So here is what I am going to do.

I will get 2, 5gallon tanks. Fill them up with my tap water which contains high amounts of ammonia and chlorine. I'll have the same heater and filter types on each tank. I will put in tap water conditioner to break the chloramine bond and neutralize the chlorine in both tanks. In Tank 1, I will put a capful of cycle in it. In tank 2, I will do nothing. I will take ammonia and nitrite readings every other day at the same time of day and write down the results each time. Does this sound like a good idea or has someone else done this before? I bet your wondering if I have too much free time? Yes your right I do. I'll post the results as they come up. Maybe someone else could do the same thing with another brand of bacteria starter. The cycle I use is made by Nutrafin.
 

Somonas

Somonas

Superstar Fish
#2
Oct 22, 2002
2,061
0
0
46
O-town
www.myfishtank.net
#2
I have a suggestion -

use 4 tanks, with Hagen Cycle, Marineland Biospira, Filter Squeezings from an old tank and Empty Tank.

I'd also throw in a couple drops of ammonia in each tank. you wont get much if anything out of your tap water.
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#3
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#3
I don't have enough tanks to do 4 tanks. But I have the time to do this test twice! There is a little over 1.0 ppm of ammonia in my tap water. I think they have reduced it or something because I remember it being more. I won't be able to get this off the ground just yet. The second tank is no longer seaworthy. It's an old metal frame tank. So I gotta re-seal it :(. All the cycle that i've seen around here is from Nutrafin and I've never seen Bio Spira around here. It will be a very interesting test and I will post the spreadsheet when the test is done.
 

Flex26

Flex26

Large Fish
#4
Apr 21, 2003
627
0
0
49
Delaware County, PA
Visit site
#4
This is a cool test!! :D

I like somonas idea, but you can only use the resources allotted to ya!!

I would throw some more ammonia in each tank though...get each tank up to 5-8ppm. Then see what happens.

As far as the Bio-Spira goes...check www.marineland.com for the availability of Bio-Spira. They have a zip code function that helps you find the nearest Bio-Spira dealer....

Keep us posted. :)
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#5
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
38
43
Colorado
#5
Yeah...I've tried calling so many stores on that marineland website...the problem is that apparantly outside of our circles here apparantly not many people have heard of it.

Sounds like a great test fishman...you KNOW i'll be interested in the results...and I'd help if I thought I could get my hands on a couple more tanks w/o breaking the bank.

Also I'm not sure if I agree with adding ammonia. The point of testing the bacteria starters is to see if they really have bacteria in it. MAYBE a small amount just to keep something measurable running through to be changed from ammonia to nitrites to nitrates so you have something to measure :)
 

Flex26

Flex26

Large Fish
#6
Apr 21, 2003
627
0
0
49
Delaware County, PA
Visit site
#6
Yeah. I jumped the gun a bit. A little is probably the best way to go.

I'm not sure what it is about some stores....some of the people have never heard of Bio-Spira. I've been to stores and asked the question and they look at me like I have three heads. Sometimes they've heard of it, but then they tell me that they don't carry it (or they ran out). Actually, I think they carry it but don't know where they keep it. And they don't feel like checking....
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#7
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#7
Update #1. The old tank is going to take too long to repair and it's not worth it. So I will go to Home Depot and get two 5 gallon buckets to use instead of the tanks.

Flex thanks for the link on their site. I have been to those pet shops listed but never seen it there. But I will call them tomorrow to find out if they have it just to make sure. I think I'll test with that first if I can find it since everyone says that works. Otherwise I will try the cycle by Nutrafin. I'm debating on if I really need the heaters in there or not. I'll probably have to buy another box filter. I only have 1 free and the other one is in my quarrantine tank at the moment. I will write another post soon when I have all the supplies I need and get the whole test started! If anyone else has any ideas or reccomendations please let me know!
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#10
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#10
Update #2. I got the buckets today. I've filled them up with tap water and put in 2 box filters. Not exactly identical but they are roughly the same size. One is old and the other is new. They are both filled with Ehiems substrate and filter floss. I've added Proper pH 7.0 and tap water condiitoner. I will plug in the heaters when I add cycle, which will be when the chlorine is gone and the pH is 7.0. I found out the cycle I have is made by Hagen. I've been told by others to always store it in the refrigerator after opening although Hagen doesn't say to do that. Is that a good or a bad idea because I've always stored it in the refrigerator. It also expires in 2005 so if it's gonna work it should be ok! For heaters I am using two hagen tronic heaters. One is 50 w and the other is 100 w. They are the only two heaters I have not in use. For those not familiar with this heater you just set the dial to the desired temperature! This is the water as it stands right now.

pH = 7.4
Ammonia = 1.5 ppm
Nitrite = 0
Chlorine/Chloramine = 3.0ppm / 2.5 chloramine
GH / KH = 2 / 2

I will post again when I add cycle!
 

S

Super_Fishy

Small Fish
#12
May 27, 2003
33
0
0
Minnesota
Visit site
#12
A lot of lfs don't know what Marinelands's Bio-Spira is because they can't carry it. After reading many reviews and doing some digging around, I believe Bio-Spira is the better product. I have only seen Bio-Spira in one lfs. For a lfs to carry Bio Spira, it must be kept REFRIGERATED. Live bacteria cannot live indeffinitely without food or oxygen. I'm assumming Bio-spira comes with a little food and oxygen inside the contents/container/wrapper. Keeping it at lower temperatures would reduce the bacteria's activity, so it wouldn't consume all the food and DIE before you buy it. Other products that claim to have live bacteria, are placed on shelves for who knows how long. I'm sure the bacteria in them are already dead. I'm going to try to cycle my 55g with bio-spira. I'll let you guys know how it goes.. Wish me luck.
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#13
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#13
What is that supposed to mean? I know the city dumps ammonia into the water because years ago when they started doing it they sent letters to eveyone in the city stating they were doing that. I used test strips made by Jungle. They say subtract Free Chlorine from Total Chlorine to get the chloramine reading. But now I'm wondering if these test strips are deffective. On the bottom it says 06/02 or maybe it's 05/02. If that chloramine is not correct that may explain it.
 

Flex26

Flex26

Large Fish
#14
Apr 21, 2003
627
0
0
49
Delaware County, PA
Visit site
#14
I read some where that the LFS needs to purchase a special refrigerator from Marineland just to carry Bio-Spira. But I don't know. I saw the refrigerator at one store and it was a little dorm room fridge. Nothing major. I would imagine that you could keep Bio-Spira in any refrigerator.

Super_Fishy, I used the Bio-Spira on my 20gal tank and it worked very well. My nitrite leves dropped from 1-2ppm to 0ppm in 36 hours.

Good luck with the 55.
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#15
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#15
The water parameters in both buckets are below.
pH =7.0
Ammonia = 1.5
Nitrite = 0
Chlorine/Chloramine = 0 / 0
GH / KH = 2 / 2

Per Somonas's suggestion I have added some ammonia to the buckets, 2 tsp per. I found some "clear ammonia" at the grocery store. My goal is to get it up to 5.0 ppm in each bucket. I will test the water in an hour to see how high the ammonia will be. Whenever this project is finished I have some other ideas of things I will test next! Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far folks!
 

Fishman_2000

Fishman_2000

Large Fish
#18
Feb 18, 2003
190
0
16
Durham, NC
#18
I thought about buying a few more tanks but the buckets are cheaper and I can keep them on the floor! I found two tsp. of ammonia was too much. I refilled the buckets and put in one tsp. and that pushed it up to like 5 ppm. I added the tap water conditioner and proper pH and turned the heaters on. Before I went to sleep I poured in 2 capfuls of Cycle. Today when I checked the ammonia the cycle bucket ammonia was 4 ppm and the nitrites were 0. The non cycle bucket ammonia was 5 ppm with 0 nitrites. So maybe the cycle actually works or maybe I put too much ammonia into Bucket 2 but I know they were both 5 ppm yesterday! Time will tell. The next test I will do is pour out the water in the bucket that cycles first. Put in tap water, add the twc and proper ph. Add 1 tsp of ammonia and then crank on the heater. After it's at 82 degrees (same temp I am testing with now), I'll throw in the filter. Then I'll check the ammonia and nitrite leves in an hour or so and see how quickly all the ammonia is eaten up!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.