SmartStart Instant Cycler Review

I meant to post a review for this product, which I used about a week ago. It really does cycle your tank instantly. Brought my nitrite down from nearly 3.0 to 0 in about 15 hours. Excellent product.

 

I'm not familiar with the product and google showed no quick results when I searched for it, but I'm glad you feel you had a good experience.

I just want to mention a little potential caveat to some of the quickstart products, I don't know if this one works this way or not. Unless they somehow establish really dense bacterial colonies throughout your rock/sand/substrate very quickly, the fact that they somehow neutralize ammonia (you didn't mention this, did you test for it?) and nitrite could prove to be detrimental long-term because the bacteria required for long-term waste (ammonia/nitrite) processing need something to feed on. If you chemically bind up or somehow neutralize the ammonia and nitrite right off the bat you can basically just end up with a relatively sterile system and the second the neutralizer product is used up or deteriorates you still have no bacteria to process any further waste so you could just be delaying the inevitable cycle.

Anyways, like I said, I don't know exactly how this product works and maybe it does work as advertised, but I just wanted to add a hint of caution to using some products that make claims to speed up the cycle.

Good luck!

 

Hmmm, good to know.

I didn't mention ammonia because I didn't have any to begin with. In fact, I started out my cycle with a bottle of superbac nitrifying bacteria. Really smelly, gross, brown stuff. It got me part of the way there, but then I finished it off with the smartstart.