The Puffer Forum

By_a_coo wrote:Do you know a product called Nitrivec (SERA)? Works very fine for me to low nitrites reading when I was fishless cycling... helps a lot.

Sera Nitrivec is an instant cycler - it's supposed to make a filter cycle faster. People around here has a very different experience with it. Two in my fish keepers club says it actually works. I've tried it myself, and have to say that it doesn't. It had no effect on my tank. I tested the water several times a day, for several weeks, because I had a only partially cycled filter in a too small tank with discuses (don't ask me why! And "do as I say, don't do as I do" And for the record: all the fishes came through it alive and healthy, whick says more about the quality of the fishes, than the conditions they lived under). Usually I would say that those instant cyclers don't work, and that they're a waste of money, but I won't be all stubborn when someone else has experienced that it helps. But there's one thing about Nitrivec that's different from the other instant cyclers around here: it doesn't claim you will be totally free of nitrite after one day. The manual actually says that you have to continue adding it to the water for 10 days, even if you don't get any nitrite readings after 7 days. It also tells you to be careful with the feeding. When I tried it, I had the normal process of cycling, even though I added the stuff. The highest nitrite readings came when they were supposed to come.

ive never heard of the german product, which wouldn't be surprising (since im a newbie) if i hadn't raided every single fish-themed aisle in my city. guess ill just have to do it again, to make sure! im very glad to know that there is some instant cycling product out there that might work, as i try to move Puffy to a 20 gallon in the near future. some of that, with the addition of a dirty filter, would be a flawless combination!
so i have a follow up question now that Puffy's tank seems cycled (ammonia between 0 and 0.5ppm, nitrites at 0.5ppm, and nitrates at 20 ppm). i know i was guilty of intense overfeeding when i first got him and the bottom of the tank is filthiesh. i vacuumed the gravel fairly recently, and while most of the stuff gets sucked up, a lot of it is gets dispursed around the tank.
ive read that decaying matter and ammonia get trapped under the gravel and are only released when it is disturbed...should i not vacuum until i know for sure levels are under control--does the vacuuming cause increased circulating levels of ammonia/nitrate/nitrite so that then, if for some crazy reason, the cycling still continues for a bit could make levels lethal?
should i not vacuum with Puffy in the tank but take him out temporarily and then do massive water changes afterwards, before putting him back in?
im pretty sure vacuuming is the way to go but was alarmed last time at the particles that afterwards floated around everywhere!
ive also read that vacuuming gets rid of a stage of ich, but then again would the harm of stirring up gravel and having ich afterwards floating around outweigh the ich that gets sucked up?
sorry if these are silly questions, im just a tad paranoid these days!

If you just put the nasty filter cartridge in, I"d reduce water changes a bit so the bacteria can spread more easily, one 50% a day would be fine, prime should be plenty of insurance the little bits of ammonia and nitrite left don't hurt Puffy. Don't remove Puffy during vaccuming, it's more stressful than the process itself, bacteria colonies form in the gravel, so a bit of stuff kicking up and settling will spread them.

ok, thanks! i put in the cartidge yesterday and its leveled (and lowered) the ammonia, and the nitrite/nitrate have been stable also. i'll definately reduce the water changes, im glad you told me that...Puffy freaked out last time i took out 8 gallons.
i think he actually enjoyes the vacuuming, or at least trying to eat the vacuum as well as my hand, not to mention attacking the moving gravel. i don't think he appreciates his reduced meal sizes.