In my experience, the only bacteria 'supplement' that wasn't total snake oil was Bio Spira, but I don't think it's sold anymore.
Seconding this, with the addendum that in my opinion, all bacteria supplements are snake oil. If the nitrogen levels are fluctuating wildly in a tank, the solution is not to add that stuff to the system. As has been mentioned already, a well maintained tank shouldn't have any trouble at all.
I should give a quick warning about adding used filter media, though. It does work really great for getting the right bacteria into a tank quickly for cycling, however, pay attention to where you're getting the media from. Some stores link their whole system of tanks together and throw medicine and chemicals to treat their overstressed stock long enough to get it out the door.
The problem with this is that there's a decent chance of picking up things you don't want in your tank as well. So when you go that route, make sure you know who you're getting your media from and the general health of their tank.
As a quick visual reference for anyone reading this:
*Fish poop goes to the bottom and decomposes in the rocks of your tank.
*Decomposing poop creates Ammonia (At this point, even small concentrations can hurt fish)
*Ammonia is converted by bacteria into Nitrites (This can hurt fish even in small quantities too)
*Second group of bacteria convert Nitrites into Nitrates (Nitrates are a lot less toxic, but you still need to remove some of it via water changes)
So when you cycle your tank, all you're doing is giving the good bacteria time to take hold and multiply in any porous surface inside.
That's why boiling the rocks is not the best thing because it kills those bacteria off. However, your gravel vac can clean the poop without removing too many of your bacterial bros.
Don't use bacteria in a bottle to speed things up. A lot of the shittier stores will try to sell you on it as a must have item purely to increase their bottom line. Just monitor the water with a testing kit and perform water changes more frequently when you begin to cycle the tank, keeping the Ammonia and later the Nitrites at a level that won't kill your poor fish. Once you start seeing Nitrates, you're almost there and you can slow down the water changes when it becomes the dominant thing your test kit is seeing.
Touching on the subject of aquarium owners who aren't quite up to date and still do things the old way: Chlorine and chlorine like compounds will severely damage a fish's respiratory system. A lot of aquarium owners used to get rid of chlorine in their water by leaving it out and letting it evaporate in a couple of days. You might even know someone who will give you this advice because that's the way they did it.
Now, instead of chlorine a lot of cities are using chloramine which is bound with ammonia and doen't evaporate very quickly. Pretty much the only way to be sure that you're getting rid of it is to use a neutralizer. Since ammonia's in the mix, your neutralizer also has to deal with that as well. Unless you're absolutely sure that your area uses chlorine, you should be using a neutralizer when doing water changes.
I'm glad to see Fujin's up and moving around again. A lot of people just throw their fish away at the first sign of trouble and get a new one. It's nice to see that you're giving your lil dude every chance to survive and thrive.
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Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
Yeah, he's beginning to swim a lot more like his old self. Still has some trouble swimming upwards as quickly as he used to, but he's realy on the mend, zipping about horizontally and doing that wondering flutter thing in on space, watching me.
Fujin is definitely my little guy. Wouldn't trade him for the world.
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Seconding this, with the addendum that in my opinion, all bacteria supplements are snake oil. If the nitrogen levels are fluctuating wildly in a tank, the solution is not to add that stuff to the system. As has been mentioned already, a well maintained tank shouldn't have any trouble at all.
I should give a quick warning about adding used filter media, though. It does work really great for getting the right bacteria into a tank quickly for cycling, however, pay attention to where you're getting the media from. Some stores link their whole system of tanks together and throw medicine and chemicals to treat their overstressed stock long enough to get it out the door.
The problem with this is that there's a decent chance of picking up things you don't want in your tank as well. So when you go that route, make sure you know who you're getting your media from and the general health of their tank.
As a quick visual reference for anyone reading this:
*Fish poop goes to the bottom and decomposes in the rocks of your tank.
*Decomposing poop creates Ammonia (At this point, even small concentrations can hurt fish)
*Ammonia is converted by bacteria into Nitrites (This can hurt fish even in small quantities too)
*Second group of bacteria convert Nitrites into Nitrates (Nitrates are a lot less toxic, but you still need to remove some of it via water changes)
So when you cycle your tank, all you're doing is giving the good bacteria time to take hold and multiply in any porous surface inside.
That's why boiling the rocks is not the best thing because it kills those bacteria off. However, your gravel vac can clean the poop without removing too many of your bacterial bros.
Don't use bacteria in a bottle to speed things up. A lot of the shittier stores will try to sell you on it as a must have item purely to increase their bottom line. Just monitor the water with a testing kit and perform water changes more frequently when you begin to cycle the tank, keeping the Ammonia and later the Nitrites at a level that won't kill your poor fish. Once you start seeing Nitrates, you're almost there and you can slow down the water changes when it becomes the dominant thing your test kit is seeing.
Touching on the subject of aquarium owners who aren't quite up to date and still do things the old way: Chlorine and chlorine like compounds will severely damage a fish's respiratory system. A lot of aquarium owners used to get rid of chlorine in their water by leaving it out and letting it evaporate in a couple of days. You might even know someone who will give you this advice because that's the way they did it.
Now, instead of chlorine a lot of cities are using chloramine which is bound with ammonia and doen't evaporate very quickly. Pretty much the only way to be sure that you're getting rid of it is to use a neutralizer. Since ammonia's in the mix, your neutralizer also has to deal with that as well. Unless you're absolutely sure that your area uses chlorine, you should be using a neutralizer when doing water changes.
I'm glad to see Fujin's up and moving around again. A lot of people just throw their fish away at the first sign of trouble and get a new one. It's nice to see that you're giving your lil dude every chance to survive and thrive.
Fujin is definitely my little guy. Wouldn't trade him for the world.