Live Bacteria

You've hit on a very controversial point 

I'll give you a quick history lesson if I may. When the first of these products came out, they used the wrong species of nitrite eating bacteria (different species grow in the wild and ourtanks). And by the time they were purchased, the bacteria were all dead, having starved or asphyxiated in a bottle with no food or air. Then a man called Timothy Havoncec did some research and discovered the species of bacteria that does grow in aquarium filters. His company produced a bacteria product that did work, though as it had to be kept refrigerated constantly, it didn't work all the time  - it was often allowed to warm up somewhere on the journey between the factory and the aquarium. Because it had a very short shelf life, not many shops stocked it. Then Havonec left the company and appears to have taken his patents with him (though how they were in his name not the company's I don't know) and the company had to change the formula to one that no longer worked properly.
Havonec now makes his own bottled bacteria in the USA, which isn't much help to those of us in the UK. Other companies have done a lot of research and they've come up with ways to keep the bacteria alive in the bottle.

But do they work? For the most part, no. Some do help with the ammonia eating bacteria but not with the nitrite eaters. And the ones that do have an effect do not do it consistantly. For every person who says it worked in his tank you'll find another who says it did nothing. It seems the best you can hope for with these product is that they'll speed the cycle up rather than do it instantly. The product on the market that has the most claims for speeding things up is API quick start, but a lot of other people have found no effect.


So in answer to your question - if you don't mind spending your money on something that may or may not work, try one. But use it to help speed up your fishless cycle rather than assuming it will work instantly and get fish. You might be pleasantly surprised 

What exactly was in the bags, just water or was there something in the water? I've not come across any of my local shops selling things like that.


If they are selling water from tanks with cycled filters that will do virtually nothing to help cycle a new filter. There are very very few of the filter bacteria free in water. They grow in the biofilm which is tightly bound to sufaces. This is how we can wash the filter media without losing the bacteria. The only reason we have to use old tank water to do the washing is that chlorine or chloramine in tapwater will kill the bacteria.
If there was something in the bags, it could well be mature media from their filtration system. This would be very useful as it is a guaranteed way of speeding up a cycle, unless it had been left in the bags too long. Maybe that's why there were only a few bags so they'd get sold before the bacteria in them died off.

I would go back to the shop or ring them and ask them what's in the bags. If it is mature media, get some straight away, bring it home asap and put it in your filter. Replace the carbon sponge with it  So long as mature media is treated like a fish, ie kept in water with an air supply, it will seed your filter cutting down cycling time considerably. In fact, with enough mature media it is possible to instantly cycle a tank - this is what I do when setting up a quarantine tank for newly purchased fish, I steal some media from one of my mature tanks. I wouldn't risk that with purchased media though, just in case it's been in the bag a while. But it could see your filter cycled in a few days rather than weeks. But you would need to leave any mature media in the filter for a month or so after the filter cycled to make sure enough bacteria had grown in the rest of the media.

I can think of 2 chains - one sells things for every pet you can imagine, the other specialises in fish, and often has outlets in garden centres. Selling mature media is the kind of thing I could imagine the second one doing. If it's the first, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just water. Some branches of the 'all pets store' have a very bad reputation for uninformed/badly informed staff!

If it sounds like it should be located in a town in Berkshire, it might well be mature media. Most of the chain stores have a manager who has some leeway in what they can sell, and these managers do seem to have a bit more knowledge about fish than other chains.



OK I'll say it, I'm not criticising anyone by name which is the problem for forums (one non-fish company sued a forum owner because of bad comments) but if it's Maidenhead Aquatics you might, just might, be in luck 

My local branch of MA sells live food in little puffed up bags, that look a bit like cells. I have seen brine shrimp, blood worms, daphnia and occasionally things I don't recognise. But they don't appear to have a very long shelf life and it is better to buy them within a couple days of being delivered to the shop (imho). I'd have a guess that any 'live media' would be similar.

I have heard of the odd shop that does sell bits of filter media, though not shops that pre-pack it. But you never know what any particular shop might decide to do, and the individual branches of chains have managers who do have freedom to sell things in their own branch. That's why I think Mervyn should investigate what exactly his MA is selling; you never know, it might possibly be mature media.

Mervyn - do you know anyone who has a tank? Media from their filter would work just as well.

You'll have to be careful - my sons are 32 and 30, and they'd probably try to "borrow" any mature media I managed to find 


That reminds me, the older one still has our wheelbarrow.......

Yep half of my tools are around the country somewhere from my 41yr
old down to my 19yr old Grandson. I tell them it has a return label and when I ask for it back they all say the same thing....."I am sure I gave it back to you!!!"

The Tank runs across the beams. It is also in a corner adjascent to two load bearing walls and a further precaution it is situated on a 1/2" thick wooden board 4' wide by 6' long to spread the load. 

Well that solves that problem!!! The do have live bacteria but...........it is marine bacteria 

[quoteI have seen brine shrimp, blood worms, daphnia][/quote]

id suspect that its more likley that this is what you have seen here but id be interested to find out.

Id would seem good business for retailers to offer to sell mature media from their systems but ive never heard of it happening.