The race is on. - Page 10

BJP · 03-11-2007, 11:09 PM

DAY 65

Tank A
4 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate
-----------------------------------
Tank B
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20 nitrate
----------------------------
Tank C
0 ppm ammonia, .25ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-------------------------
Tank D
0 ppm ammonia, .5 ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-----------------------------------
Day 53 Tank E
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20ppm nitrate
----------------------------------
Tank F First test stopped on Day 45
Second test Day 9
0 ppm ammonia, .5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate
---------------------------------------
Tank G Finished Day 30
--------------------
Day 45 for Tank H
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 10 ppm nitrate

BJP · 03-12-2007, 07:40 PM

DAY 66

Tank A
4 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate
-----------------------------------
Tank B
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20 nitrate
----------------------------
Tank C
0 ppm ammonia, .25ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-------------------------
Tank D
0 ppm ammonia, .5 ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-----------------------------------
Day 54 Tank E
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20ppm nitrate
----------------------------------
Tank F First test stopped on Day 45
Second test Day 10
0 ppm ammonia, .25 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate
---------------------------------------
Tank G Finished Day 30
--------------------
Day 46 for Tank H
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 10 ppm nitrate

BJP · 03-13-2007, 08:47 PM

DAY 67

Tank A
4 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate
-----------------------------------
Tank B
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20 nitrate
----------------------------
Tank C
0 ppm ammonia, .25ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-------------------------
Tank D
0 ppm ammonia, .5 ppm nitrite, 40ppm nitrate
-----------------------------------
Day 55 Tank E
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 20ppm nitrate
----------------------------------
Tank F First test stopped on Day 45
Second test Finished Day 11
---------------------------------------
Tank G Finished Day 30
--------------------
Day 47 for Tank H
0 ppm ammonia, nitrite levels off the test kits range, 10 ppm nitrate

BJP · 03-14-2007, 08:56 PM

I think it's time to stop the six remaining tanks.

Tank A never did anything.

Tank B and Tank E clearly show the majority of the bacteria in my tank reside in the filter as confirmed by the test Tank G.

Tank C and D want finish the last little amount of nitrite for some reason probably due to the lack of water changes leaving the preservative they were shipped in in place.

Tank H is clearly running well behind the Cycle and Bio-Spira tanks but did achieve something.

Now to accumulate all the data into something concise to post and useful.

Then to clean up the bedroom and make room for some new test tanks.

Marthy · 03-15-2007, 09:23 PM

I'm sorry you're stopping the experiment. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have two of your Tank A's....they've been up and running for weeks with high ammonia and no cycling action in sight.....I've been actively watching your posts in hopes your Tank A would finally cycle. It's hard to be patient - I've been waiting since Christmas for these tanks to cycle.

I wanted to add - in the past couple of weeks I've bumped up the temp and added a bottle of "Cycle" over a 7 day period - still nothing but ammonia.

BJP · 03-16-2007, 08:51 AM

I've got a duplicate of Tank A in the closet. It's been running for a while now with a bubblewand trying to gas out ammonia but so far it hasn't gassed out any appreciable amount of ammonia and also hasn't shown a nitrite reading.

The idea is that some sort of innoculant has to be added to get bacterial life started. If it takes more than 60 days for life to develop without it then noone is really going to want to wait that long to get started. Cycle has shown positive results in the two tanks here and again in the Cycle versus the Oranda thread still going on. Bio-Spira has shown much faster results in this experiment as well as in another thread BioSpira versus the mudcats.

I'm trying to finalize the details on setting up four additional tanks comparing Bio-Spira, Cycle, Stresszyme and a product by SeaChem under heated conditions, without the salt and with the ammonia added in smaller amounts. Walmart didn't have any heaters yesterday so I need to get to the city to aquire heaters. I've already got the Bacterial suppliments on hand waiting. I'm still debating on wether to bleach the tanks and filters to reuse them for the second round or to just buy four new setups.

Erikat · 05-10-2007, 03:11 PM

This is really cool because I was just telling someone on the Aquarium Enthusiast Group that I started on face book that there was no difference between say Stress Zyme or Cycle. I thought one live bacteria would be the same as another. I also find and I am not sure if this is true it depends on what store you go to as to which product they will carry. I am using Stress Zyme at the moment but I have used Cycle in the past though not for a very long time. At that time I only had a 10 gallon aquarium. When I first set up my aquarium I was very impatient and I did not know what I know now and I would like to give a new aquarium at least two weeks prior to putting fish in it time to build enough healthy bacteria. Otherwise you loose too many fish especially if you put too many in at once.
Interesting information though. I think I am going to like this site. Erikat

BJP · 05-10-2007, 05:16 PM

Welcome.

If you follow the link in my signiture you'll find I've moved on to quite a few other tests since this first series.

So far, Stresszyme has been the slowest to remove ammonia twice showing up in when the ammonia was totally removed and when the nitrite first appeared. It's also been the slowest to start showing testible levels of nitrate. In my current set of tests which still has one tank going, it actually finished cycling out the ammonia and nitrite faster than Cycle by 2 days and a third product, Stability by Seachem has yet to finish. Basically I don't think crossing the finish line two days faster justifys the additional time it would have allowed fish to have to swim around in ammonia filled water compared to Cycle (11 days I believe) but it does earn it a third trial once I finalize the best method for introducing bacterial suppliments. I've got other tests underway trying variations to find a formula that gets enough ammonia in place to satisfy the needs of the bacteria to start developing and converting it into nitrite but low enough not to hinder the development of the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate. I'm hoping I can nail this down in the next few tanks then I'll retest all the products to see for sure. Hopefully before I run out of alphabet to keep them straight. Tank Q is starting up this evening.

So far I've found Cycle in stock at every retailer I've visited from Walmart to the chains, Petco and Petsmart and all the small stores as well. Bio-Spira and Stability I've only located at one retailer and Stresszyme is spread around to most of them also. If you can find a fifth product that's commonly stocked somewhere I'll try it out also.

jg233 · 03-06-2008, 05:37 PM

So what was the final result? I read through all this but what product works the best?

Loman · 03-06-2008, 09:01 PM

If I recall correctly Bio-Spira was fairly consistently on top if it was stored correctly. You do not really need any of them though in most cases just a little patience.