Cycling with Bio Digest

Hi,

I am about to start the cycling of my 120gls reef tank and was recommended this product:

BIO DIGEST is a hyper-concentrated bacterial compound that satisfies two functions: Installing biological filtration and digesting aquarium waste.

Packaging the ampoules under nitrogen allows for very long conservation and makes it very economic as each ampoule is 100% effective.

Use BIO DIGEST when starting up an aquarium, during nitrate surges, after filter cleaning, in poor quality water: cloudy water, unpleasant odors, spread of algae…

BIO DIGEST digests organic waste, cleans the aquarium, reduces nitrates, phosphates, fights algae and, through a probiotic effect, reduces the risk of unexplained illness.

BIO DIGEST, when used regularly, re-establishes optimal proportions of key bacterial strains and improves water quality.

Does anyone knows if this will after my cycling in good ways, (e.g making the cycling faster?)

Thanks

 

In my personal opinion those products are all bologna... JMO though

 

I don't know about the cycling faster claim but prodibio is definitely a well known system for keeping a low nutrient system after the cycle.

I wouldn't count on anything to help your tank cycle faster, partially because I think a lot of times it's just a matter of how much organic junk is in your rock that will need to be broken down and how much die-off you get.

 

If you add it before the cycle, it will screw you later down the road. It will give you a false positive. All these products really are, are highly concentrated prime.

 

Just reading some of this makes me roll my eyes... like this :

How many different ways can you say the same thing?

I mean, instead of

satisfies two functions: Installing biological filtration and digesting aquarium waste.

Let's say it servers FOUR functions. biological filtration, digesting aquarium waste, AND converting ammonia to nitrite AND convernting nitrite to nitrate :

or be honest and say ONE function since it's all the same thing.

reduces the risk of unexplained illness? WTF does that mean?

re-establishes optimal proportions

Re-establish? Use regularly? Um, no.

There's enough marketing BS on this to make me skip it even if it worked as magically as they describe!

 

I think we should be careful here, bacteria driven systems are pretty well-established and being widely used, just not necessarily for speeding up cycles. The whole system (not just the bio-digest which is questionable to some extent I think) is basically dosing a carbon source to feed bacteria populations in the tank to use up nutrients in the water. It's not for everyone but it's not exactly snake-oil.

Of course there's a ton of marketing-ese involved, that's what companies do to sell products. Behind it the mechanics behind it are pretty sound from what I've read.

Also, not to nitpick but the function of a bacteria system is quite different from Prime. Chemically binding to chlorine/ammonia/nitrites is quite different from feeding bacterial populations in the tank.