cycling has turned into a weird duck nowadays there's about 4 ways to attain the same ends where we used to have only 1 way, and that was dose something for food and wait about a month. the sellers use the other three and now we've taken some of the info and spread it in forums for buyers to use and test for consistency.
When we buy bottled bac and add it (many add the fish right then, because live bac carries their waste easily in a new tanks dilution) those bacteria swirl around in suspension and offset the waste the fish makes in the display, its all mixed together. over just a few days time the bacteria have migrated onto tank surfaces and can withstand a total water change, that's a true classic locked in cycle but even before that lock in *if the bottle bac was alive* the carry ability was just fine even if the bacteria were only suspended in the water from being recently dosed.
we have several seneyes tracking Dr. Tims fish-in cycles nowadays and they're always safe levels, it doesnt harm fish to do it this way. (the harm is disease transfer into the tank by those fish)
The risk from fish in cycling is if the bacteria was dead for some reason, then the fish may be burned if dilution levels are low and feed was increased etc. by and large most bottle bac isn't dead, so folks keep getting away with this mode over and over with fish that look and act just fine because they're not being harmed at all.
this two week trick accounts even for bottle bac that may be compromised. ammonia drops on day ten of a cycling chart and they dont ask what kind of bac we used or if we dosed originally to 2 ppm...its about trading off an agreeable wait time for all the tinkering required to ethically cycle and verify much faster. 99.9% likely the very minute you add bottle bac to that setup the bioload carry begins and never ceases until the tank is dried out one day. we do the two weeks wait for worst case scenarios
and for ample read time in the fish disease forum. a cycle cannot be messed up in any practical arrangement, only disease controls can be
When we buy bottled bac and add it (many add the fish right then, because live bac carries their waste easily in a new tanks dilution) those bacteria swirl around in suspension and offset the waste the fish makes in the display, its all mixed together. over just a few days time the bacteria have migrated onto tank surfaces and can withstand a total water change, that's a true classic locked in cycle but even before that lock in *if the bottle bac was alive* the carry ability was just fine even if the bacteria were only suspended in the water from being recently dosed.
we have several seneyes tracking Dr. Tims fish-in cycles nowadays and they're always safe levels, it doesnt harm fish to do it this way. (the harm is disease transfer into the tank by those fish)
The risk from fish in cycling is if the bacteria was dead for some reason, then the fish may be burned if dilution levels are low and feed was increased etc. by and large most bottle bac isn't dead, so folks keep getting away with this mode over and over with fish that look and act just fine because they're not being harmed at all.
this two week trick accounts even for bottle bac that may be compromised. ammonia drops on day ten of a cycling chart and they dont ask what kind of bac we used or if we dosed originally to 2 ppm...its about trading off an agreeable wait time for all the tinkering required to ethically cycle and verify much faster. 99.9% likely the very minute you add bottle bac to that setup the bioload carry begins and never ceases until the tank is dried out one day. we do the two weeks wait for worst case scenarios
and for ample read time in the fish disease forum. a cycle cannot be messed up in any practical arrangement, only disease controls can be
