atm colony?

[MEMPHIS]

Has anyone ever used atm colony to cycle a tank? I'm getting a 30 gallon tank tomorrow and i really need to move some of my fish from other tanks into it asap. If anyone has used this to cycle any feedback would be great.

 

[librarygirl]

No, I haven't sorry but if you're just moving fish from one tank to another you can add the media from the current tank to the new one. If you use it all it should be cycled; if you use some you might get a mini-cycle but daily testing and some extra water changes until the tank establishes itself would keep the fish safe in the meantime.

 

[Aquavic]

I have but with no luck. I messed up though, I think you need to add it to the filter. I'm gonna retry once I clean my 20

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

I've only used safe start but it worked out fine for me. I believe colony work similarly. You just need to follow the instructions and be sure not to under dose. With safe start it says to add the fish at the same time you add the bacteria. This makes sense as without a source of ammonia the bacteria would probably just die out? Also make sure you use declorinator as this kills bb

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

This meaning chlorine

 

[Borderlesscott]

Just remember none off the bottled products supply the long term bacteria you need, nearly all the products you buy contain a selection of short term helping hands to help your own cycle along, never rely on these to work wonder they don't, they just help.

I've used Seachem stability for a long time and found it very reliable and much more economical than most other products, I've also just run through a cycle process on a 15 gallon tank using a set of Prodibio Bio-Kit fresh I won on another forum and can also say that this product was really good also. My wife had no joy with her tank last year with Tetra safe start or quick start, can't remember what it was called. We tested everyday and found this product made no difference at all, and compared to stability she had both massive spikes in ammonia and nitrite. The best option is to talk to your LFS and see if they can provide you with some gravel from a cycled tank or like mine will cut you a piece of sponge filter to add to your tank.

 

[MEMPHIS]

I used stability on my 55 gallon and it worked fine. I was just kinda curious if atm colony would really cycle the tank instantly like they say.

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

I think the way it works is that the bb in colony simulates a cycled environment for your fish and by the time they for off you've prettymuch done a fish in cycle anyway so there's no work you need to do.

 

[creic38]

I just used Fritz-zyme Turbostart 700 the other day, and it worked like a charm. I normally don't use these things, but my ammonia/nitrites were through the roof due to a sudden mini cycle. It's expensive (12 bucks for a 40 gallon treatment), but my nitrites went from 5 to 0 in less than a day.

 

[hpiguy]

My wife had no joy with her tank last year with Tetra safe start or quick start, can't remember what it was called. We tested everyday and found this product made no difference at all, and compared to stability she had both massive spikes in ammonia and nitrite. The best option is to talk to your LFS and see if they can provide you with some gravel from a cycled tank or like mine will cut you a piece of sponge filter to add to your tank.

A lot of the SafeStart sold in stores has not been stored properly. It has been allowed to overheat or has been sitting for a long time.

Fresh, it seems to work based on a good number of people using it. A lot of mailorder places mail it with an ice pack or two to keep it from overheating and killing it all off. They sell a lot, so it's never outdated or close to outdated. At my local Petco, nearly every SafeStart bottle on the shelf is past it's expire date. The rest are pretty close.

I've heard good things about Stability like you mentioned as well.
I personally use a product now and then that seems to be very similar, I'm guessing it's made by the same parent company and sold as a generic. It's Foster Smith Colonize. Same bottles, and near the same dosing instructions.

Those are the only two I've heard consistently positive reviews on, save for a few bad experiences.

 

[parooz12]

Here's what you need to know about nitrifying bacteria.

Look at dosage. If you see hundreds of gallons in anything less than a gallon size it isn't aerobic autotrophs (nitrifying bacteria). You can only get so much dosage out of a room temperature bottle before it has to be refrigerated.

Refrigeration has nothing to do with "freshness". It has everything to do with a life support for high concentration. In low concentration they don't need to be refrigerated.

ATM Colony is most definitely the bio-filter. It is the same bacteria. "Establishing" bacteria means "growing" bacteria. If they have already been grown for you what are you waiting to establish? All you are waiting for is for them to wake up completely and attach. 4 days. You poured millions and millions so obviously you don't need to wait for millions and millions to grow.

Borderlesscott is completely wrong on his theory that "none of the bottled bacteria are the long-term bacteria". Yes they are. It is absolutely silly to suggest that nitrifying bacteria will only grow in an aquarium and that they can't be grown en mass and distributed. What would be the cause of that?

Nitrifying bacteria are durable. As long as you don't freeze them, bake them, or dry them they will survive bottling and import into the aquarium with a significantly higher success rate than the fish themselves.