Reddit reviews Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Freshwater One & Only Nitrifying Bacteria – for New Fish Tanks, Aquariums, Water Filtering, Disease Treatment – Eco-Friendly Fish Tank Cleaner – Removes Toxins – Treats 30 Gallons

Thanks! I'll probably grab that substrate then, and look at some of the guides for filter recs.

For cycling with the fish living in the tank: is the idea just to keep doing daily water changes and testing the ammonium levels until they level off and stay near zero? This post recommends using bacteria like this to jump-start the cycling. Is this really as simple as just adding the bacteria and testing & changing the water every day until the tests are all returning zero?

>Is there a reason you're using spring water?

My mom bought the spring water but not conditioner so I had to open the spring water anyway to do the first water change, and fill the fish bowl. Figured I might as well use the rest before I start using up the conditioner I bought.

I really appreciate your help!

Louisiana here, so I feel you. When you are trickling sweat just from walking from the car into the office, deodorant just doesn't cut it.

I've converted my sister, parents, several friends. I won't say you smell like a spring shower after working out, but it's not that sharp BO smell that stays in your clothes even after washing.

link to the stuff I use

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001LULBXI?cache=5957abd7accd950435548c9a4859211b&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1407114428&sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2

First off buy some of that, you can't overdose it, and it may not do it all, but it will help.

Secondly get some purigen. It removes ammonia and nitrites from the water.

Also duckweed is an amazing ammonia remover, but depending on how you feel about it can become a "pest" after. Personally I love duckweed, even though I hate scooping it out so often.

I've had him for over a year now but I had an ammonia spike that resulted in an unstable biofilter for an embarrassingly amount of time towards the end of 2018. (I was going on vacation for 4 days and didn't know that he could, in theory, be fine for up to a week w/out food so I used one those dumb slow release food things for bettas. Never again.) I really didn't want to just start from scratch and have to do an in-fish cycle but I just couldn't get the biofilter stabilized so I started from scratch and seized the opportunity to move him from a 5.5G to a 10G, use better gravel, and get some live plants in there too. I used Dr.Tim's One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria, Seachem's Stability (to help boost the filter), and did daily water changes. I was also dosing Seachem's StressGuard daily during and after the biofilter was established for ~1.5 months and have been dosing it 1-2 times weekly since.

I used Dr Tim's one and only nitrifying bacteria https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LULBXI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and my 4.6 gallon ( newly set up ) tank literally cycled in a week. I did a fish-in cycle with one Betta. https://s11.postimg.org/d88m954nn/20170623_231719.jpg

My source of ammonia was from fish waste and tap water. Since Amazon light leeches a small amount of ammonia to the water column, it'd be a good idea for you to use a bacteria supplement to assist in cycling your tank.

Purchasing the product from Amazon will be a hit or miss. Amazon does not properly store these bottles, so you may get a bottle that has a lot of live bacteria, and some that may have very little to none.

I'll be fishless cycling starting (hopefully) this weekend and will keep good records of levels and report back here.

This is what I got for ammonia:
DrTim's Aquatics Ammonium chloride for Aquarium (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006MP4QG6/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

And I'll be using this and hoping it speeds up cycling:
DrTim's Aquatics One & Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria for Cycling Aquaria (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LULBXI/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

System build details here: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21463&sid=6b2674bbb0c276d950ffce817c475209

I would mix all the water at once, and make more then you plan to use. Use conditioner and a starter bacteria culture. Let it come to room temperature (78F / 25C). Use some to rinse (soak) the plants and moss balls. Use a slow drip acclimation over an hour or so to ready your shrimp. While waiting fill each jar and allow any debris to settle and remove any floating. Then add shrimp.

I had good luck with DrTim's Aquatics One & Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria for Cycling Aquaria, Freshwater.

You need to have bacteria (called nitrifying bacteria) to perform the work. They live in your tank, mostly in the filter media but also on other things like gravel or rocks. If you have any friends with tanks that have been working for a long time ask them if they would mind giving you some of the filter sponge or even media out of their tank. Keep the media/sponge in tank water and make the transplant as quickly as possible (don't pick up the sponge and then go see a movie or anything).

If you can't locate that, you could try getting Dr. Tim's bacteria in a bottle. Most of these bacteria in a bottle products are junk, but I have heard of people having minor success with Dr. Tim's.

your third option is to fill your tank full of live, fast growing stem plants as per this article. I usually try a combination of plants and old media from another established tank and have had pretty good luck in quick cycles.