Anyone know if Bio Spiro is available in Canada, more specifically the Ottawa area?
Stevie
Nope,. but Bernie at http://www.fishstoretn.com/ will ship to Canada.
If you have access to media from a cycled tank or are planting live plants right from the start, the cycle should be minimal and you wouldn't need BioSpira anyways.
If you are looking to go with a planted tank, then skip the cycling all together.
Give this (http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm) article a read.
I built a new 25 gallon tank, and never "cycled" it in the traditional sense of the word. My fish which are very sensitive to water conditions (Rams, Ottos...) are all in perfect health and my water chemistry is great.
luvfishies I looked into getting biospira from the Lighthouse and it would cost an absolute fortune.
but I suppose if I wanted it to cycle quarantine tanks for thousands of dollars worth of wild fish I'd buy it
I'm going with an African tank and it's quite large - 150 US gallons and wasn't planning on adding plants. I like the looks of the rocky malawi tanks. I thought that this would be a way to hurry up the cycling, but.... I have been reading up on fishless cycling by adding extra ammonia, so I may go that route. I've added a scoop of filter subtrate from a filter on an existing tank and hopefully that will help. I'm a little impatient and want to get this going (I now have water circulating and the tank is heating) but don't want to wait the months and months it will take for a tank this size to cycle.
Stevie
Target around 5ppm of ammonia for starters....
The media from the established tank should speed things up quite a bit.
I did a fishless cycle on a 5 gallon with ammonia.. it completely cycled in just over 3 weeks.
the time to cycle has nothing to do with the size of the tank.
the nitrifying bacteria will grow from sources given the right food (ammonia) within 2-4 weeks. The larger tanks just need more food - aim for 5PPM of ammonia and you are fine.