Does this make sense???

[joy13]

I was looking around on you tube and found this
YouTube - Bacteria in a Bottle: Snake Oil or Worth Trusting?
I don't plan on using it since I don't have plans or space for another tank but I would like opinions on it. It might be worth looking into if a tank starts to crash and no place to put the fish while it recycles.

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by joy13

I was looking around on you tube and found this
YouTube - Bacteria in a Bottle: Snake Oil or Worth Trusting?
I don't plan on using it since I don't have plans or space for another tank but I would like opinions on it. It might be worth looking into if a tank starts to crash and no place to put the fish while it recycles.

Snake oil, is a good way of putting it IMO. But they sell a lot of it, so there must something to it. Of course they also show 3 gold fish in a 10g tank on the box and sell a lot of those too .

Not sure what you mean by a tank crashing, but I doubt something like this product would stop it.

[mr_X]

this guy is saying that you must add the necessary bacteria to the tank (ocean nitrifying bacteria and not the kind found in sewage plants), or the tank will not cycle. well, i've NEVER added anything like this product and all of my tanks cycled fine.
what bacteria am i using? the high ammonia stuff that allegedly will die in our tanks? how am i getting this "ocean" bacteria if i'm not adding it?
sounds like poppycock to me.
also, 2 small clowns in a 130 gallon tank and you just aren't going to see much ammonia, period.

[joy13]

By crashing I mean where the bacteria is killed off because of one reason or another. I doubt if it will stop a crash but it will help start back up a tank after a crash. It takes between 30 and 50 days for a tank to cycle properly. If there is livestock left and you don't have enough friends to take the fish and corals until a tank cycles, is it worth a try?

Someone lost a well established 125 gallon reef tank totally because the electricity went out. I don't think he would have lost everything if he could have gotten the livestock out and did a major water change then get something to start the bacteria over again. Not everyone has generators or at home when the electricity goes out. I don't know if this is available locally here or not I will try to find out.

[mr_X]

i don't think it will work. i've had a power outage that killed most of my fish and after a mini cycle (about a week) everything bounced back to normal. i don't think adding that stuff would have made any difference.

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by joy13

By crashing I mean where the bacteria is killed off because of one reason or another. I doubt if it will stop a crash but it will help start back up a tank after a crash. It takes between 30 and 50 days for a tank to cycle properly. If there is livestock left and you don't have enough friends to take the fish and corals until a tank cycles, is it worth a try?

Someone lost a well established 125 gallon reef tank totally because the electricity went out. I don't think he would have lost everything if he could have gotten the livestock out and did a major water change then get something to start the bacteria over again. Not everyone has generators or at home when the electricity goes out. I don't know if this is available locally here or not I will try to find out.

I'm guessing SW is a much bigger issue, but at worse in my FW tank I get a bacterial bloom if I clean the system a little too well :P. I was under the impression that the live rock inside the tank held the bulk of the systems bacteria? I'm just getting a brackish system up and running, then I want to step up to SW so I'm less than a noob with those systems.

[Gti_Leo]

Originally Posted by mr_X

i don't think it will work. i've had a power outage that killed most of my fish and after a mini cycle (about a week) everything bounced back to normal. i don't think adding that stuff would have made any difference.

wow how long was this power outage for :S

[mr_X]

14 hours.

-bacteria resides on surfaces. if you have a tank crash for some reason, like a power outage, it's generally all the dead things that start a giant ammonia spike. bacteria or not, it will take some time to clear that ammonia.

[Fishguy2727]

In FW you can cause problems if you clean your filters too well because effectively all your bacteria are in the filter. In a peoperly setup SW tank (lots of live rock) effectively all your bacteria will be on the rock.

[cmor1701d]

It may work if you get a fresh bottle, BUT... two clowns in a 130 won't create a huge spike. Try that experiment in a 29 or 55 and let's see what happens.

Bacteria appear.... I don't how or why, but they are everywhere. Put up a salt water tank, add an ammonia source (pure ammonia, decaying shrimp or fish food), and the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate will appear and cycle the tank.

Should I set up another tank I might try this product to see if helps, but not with fish as an ammonia source, I'll still use the shrimp.

[Fishguy2727]

The bacteria needed are in the air, you don't need any bottled products, 'live' substrates, or media or substrate from a mature tank to start a new tank.