Treatment that is offered

[Houliham]

"Inoculation of bacteria to start your system" does this sound familiar? I wasn't aware I needed one. Please help

[badflash]

You need beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia from the fish to nitrites, then nitrates. If you have access to someone with a healthy aquarium, clean out their filter and put the goop into your system. If you don't have a good "cycle" the fish die.

[Brier]

Store bought inoculants are fairly worthless. Bacteria that feed on nitrogen, can only survive with a steady source of feed. Don't waste your money, do as Badflash suggested, get some cleanings from an aquarium. If that is not available to you, some pond muck, or gravel submerged in a stream will help jumpstart your system. Be aware though that you can bring in some unwanted hitchhikers. Honestly, I don't know which source is cleaner, I have seen some pretty pitiful fish tanks, so choose wisely. This will shorten your cycle time considerably.

[jackalope]

I have read on the Aussie forums that you can urinate in your system to start the cycle (I, personally, will pass on that) ..... in the alternative, you can buy some of the 'starters' which contain "urea" which is nothing but animal urine. If you have a beef or dairy farm handy, you can surely obtain some cattle urine for free (the farmer will think you're a nut!), but it will definitely start the ammonia cycle for you :!: And no hitch-hikers :) It won't take much, just a cup or two depending on the size of the tank, and it will do the job! Voice of experience!

P.S. Be sure to wear some elbow-length rubber gloves ;)

[badflash]

Peeing into the pool only provides ammonia, not bacteria. Personally, using red eared sliders is pretty painless. The eat & poop like crazy, could care less about nitrites or ammonia, and are easy to catch & remove when you are ready to stock fish. Perfect for fishless cycling.

[jackalope]

Peeing into the pool only provides ammonia, not bacteria. Personally, using red eared sliders is pretty painless. The eat & poop like crazy, could care less about nitrites or ammonia, and are easy to catch & remove when you are ready to stock fish. Perfect for fishless cycling.

I put feeder Guppies in to actually start the nitrogen cycling, I can leave them right in the water and the Tilapia will eat them ..... rather than using Carp/Comets/Minnows/Goldfish which carry a lot of diseases. BTW, I didn't intend to leave out the nitrogen cycle, I was just commenting on the main topic of 'starter cultures."

As far as "fishless cycling, on the subject of Red-Eared Sliders, I've read a lot about turtles (not necessarily Red-Eared Sliders), and they carry some bad diseases as well ;)

Just my 2 centavos .....

[Brier]

Jakalope, you may not be familiar with these products, likely because you have not bought into the BS marketing surrounding them, but I think the OP, was referring to these type of products. http://www.petco.com/product/111072/Mic ... erralID=NA (http://www.petco.com/product/111072/Microbe-Lift-Special-Blend-Aquarium-Bacteria.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGooglebase-_-Fish-_-Microbe-Lift-_-1265288&mr:trackingCode=2E126E6D-A0E0-DE11-974B-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA) These products are a farce. They may promote a healthy bacteria colony, but I have a hard time believing they start it. I am going to buy a bottle of the best bacteria, and test it myself again. I tried it years ago, and saw no difference. Now the products claim it is for real. I think they are counting on newby aquarists, not knowing the difference.

[badflash]

My turtles are pets, raised from hatchlings. I've kept guppies with them all their lives and never saw anything. Probably would be an issue with wild caught, but not domestic pets.

Not a lot of disease cross from turtles to fish either unless they were covered in fungus. A rince in tap water and a good scrub takes care of most of it.

[urbanfarmer]

Peeing into the pool only provides ammonia, not bacteria. Personally, using red eared sliders is pretty painless. The eat & poop like crazy, could care less about nitrites or ammonia, and are easy to catch & remove when you are ready to stock fish. Perfect for fishless cycling.
The bacteria is present everywhere. I have read studies where they find it difficult to study urea because it breaks down so readily with the ever-present bacteria in our environment (the studies were conducted over longer sets of time).

Anyway, yes inoculating your system typically speeds up the process dramatically, but due to bacteria being everywhere it is not required.

[badflash]

A "natural" cycle takes weeks to establish and stabilize. Inoculation from an established system is instant.

[urbanfarmer]

A "natural" cycle takes weeks to establish and stabilize. Inoculation from an established system is instant.
Oh, I was thinking about buying bacteria to get a jump start. The main problem about buying bacteria from who knows where is that if may not survive in your environment after a while. I have read where the bacteria does well for a while then dramatically gets out-competed by some other bacteria and there are sharp spikes in ammonium levels... whereas using another system nearby makes a lot of sense because it avoids this process and speeds things up dramatically.

[badflash]

I've yet to see any "bacteria in a bottle" product that does more than take your money.

Find a friend with a healthy fish tank and squeze out their fish filter into a bucket of their water and dump it in yours. You can add fish immediately. I've done this many times.