to biozime or not to biozime ?

[kenhappen2u]

sorry for the Bad spelling ...it's Biozyme

Hello all ,
I just set up a 55 gal bare bottom (for now) FW tank this afternoon. the filter is a magnum 350 , 7 small 1 inch tetra's as starter fish ,

My question is do i want to add some biozyme to the new tank to help jump start the filter & things ...or should i just let it run its course and cycle with the fish only ? any pro's or con's to either method?

thanks ...Ken

[kenhappen2u]

37 lookups and no answer .....anyone ?

[1077]

I am not a fan of anything in the aquarium except for dechlorinator. No cycle this, or stress that. Bio- Spira is supposed to work but it depends on whether it was kept cool and did not thaw somewhere in shipment and then froze again. Were it me I would feed the tetras sparingly and let the tank mature on it's own.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Ken,
I tried Biozyme years ago..I wasn't impressed...Biospira has alot of good feedback on the forums...never used it...

If your tank is ultimately going to be a discus tank...I would not use any starter fish... you take the chance of introducing something that the discus may have to deal with...

better IMO to use Ammonia fishless cycling....or see if you can buy cycled filter media from the discus seller...

If this doesn't go with what you planned...my advice then is to do lots of water changes on that tank until the bio is established.... truthfully..a handful of tetras(7) in 55gal isn't really going to have much impact on cycling that tank for fish like discus..or any high bioload fish IMO.

hth,
al

[kenhappen2u]

Brewmaster ,
i see your point... i have never used anything besides fish to cycle a tank ...... the 7 tetra's were what i had avail to start with from an established tank so i used them . the new tank is going to be a angelfish tank and maybe a discus or two if i can get more filtration and a place to store water for water changes , right now i am in a condo with limited space avail for storage , and with 3 tanks up and running the chances of me being able to store atleast 30 gals of water are slim .

So should i pull the tetra's and go with ammonia cycle ?
or should i just add a few larger fish to cycle with as there are fish in the tank already ?

thanks ...ken

[brewmaster15]

Hi Ken,
Given your goals here and what you have already done...If you are confident that the tank the tetras came from is clean...I would forget the tetra cycling and biozyme and just use some biofilter material from the tank that the tetras came from...

Hth,
al

[Don Trinko]

I tryed Cycle. Near as I could tell it made no difference. Don T.

[Graham]

save your $$$..it's all marketing ...Unless you buy an actual product that contains nitrifying bacteria...liquid and very little shelf life and it generally needas to be cold..... and 98% don't..you're wasting your $. Nitrifiers can't be a powder