Microbacter 7

[wholagan]

I got a bottle of this when I picked up the new 120. I've never used the stuff so don't have much experience with it. I've never used "jump start" products for my cycling before. I understand that it can be used to seed my tank and maybe speed up the cycle. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with it or should I just chuck the stuff?

[slicktoppomp]

I recently tried the stuff out for the first time on my new nano. Started the tank with dead sand and dead rock. 10 gallons of mix and 5 gallons of NSW. From my experience I don't really think it made all that much of a difference. Today will be a month and my tank still hasn't finished cycling. The one thing it did do was make my water look really clear. There are other jump start bacteria in a bottle stuff that actually have live nitrifying bacteria in them that would be better. On the Microbacter7 bottle it doesn't say anything in the bottle is live. That's just my experience. I'm sure it probably would be different if I started with at least the rock or sand being live.

[wholagan]

Thanks for the response. I only really asked because I used dead rock and possibly live sand. It was from my old tank and it sat in a bucket with tank water for a few days. Not sure if that bacteria survived. So I didn't test the first couple of days of the cycle, tested last night and I have a pretty heavy spike. My 50 cycled in 2 weeks so I guess it's not unheard of.

[slicktoppomp]

I would just use it if I were you. Maybe your outcome will be better than mine since your sand still probably has some good living bacteria in it. Maybe your tank will cycle quicker.

[wholagan]

I'll let you know how it goes.