bacteria in eco-complete

[supermazz9]

tell me what I'm missing here...ok, eco-complete is fully of good bacteria, right? now a bag get packed, stored, shipped, delivered, stored again, stocked, purchased, then used. This process could take months. What are the bacteria living on during this time. What's their food source? Is it out of the substrate itself?

 

[amosf]

Very likely there will be no live bacteria beneficial to a tank. That goes for most of the products claiming to contain bacteria. Bio-spira is likely to be the only live bacteria available, or so is claimed by fish enthusiasts I trust.

 

[joannde]

I'm not sure that the "good bacteria" in Eco are the type that convert ammonia to nitrites or nitrites to nitrates. Eco claims to have bacteria to convert detrius to "plant food" - I assume there's enough "food" to keep them going in the water its packed in.
Eco does say that "Creates a natural biological balance which makes cycling a new aquarium faster and safer" but it doesn't say that it will actually CYCLE the tank.

 

[amosf]

I've read the ad and it's misleading. Yes there may be some bacteria, and yes it may help break down fish waste (although that's debatable since wastes already are broken down in any tank you care to look at), but the suggestion is that it will help the tank cycle, which it won't. If it contains no bacteria to break down ammonia or nitrite then it will make no difference to how well a tank will cycle or how long it will take.

In any case, the bacteria which break down wastes into ammonia (decomposers) seem to already be available in any new tank, hence the presence of ammonia...