philipraposo198
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,064
This is not only a review on the product ATM Colony but on the customer service that I received and still receiving from them as well.
I will first set the scenario. New tank (75 gallon), filter is an eheim pro 3 2075, heater is eheim 300w jager, light is finnex planted plus 48”, substrate is 2-3” depth Safe-T-Sorb. I have never had a fish tank before so up until 3 months ago I knew nothing about cycling or nitrifying bacteria. Fish I wanted to stock during the cycle: rams and cardinals.
I didn’t want to throw fish in that I didn’t plan to keep, I also truly believe with all my reading that with enough attention to parameters that almost any fish can be used with a fish in cycle when using ATM Colony. I am very aware that both cardinals and Golden rams can be sensitive to water condition and I very much respect that requirement; which is why I choose to go with colony (nitrifying bacteria). I feel that although it can be done without it, it would be much more difficult to keep things in check.
I start Colony on Saturday night at 8pm eastern, I introduce 13 young tiny cardinal tetras and shortly after I provide a little food just to get things going with ammonia. My tap water already has a tiny bit of ammonia and nitrates. My PH is also around 6.6 – 6.8 which makes it less than ideal for colony to work. The bottle states to have between 7.2-8 PH.
Keep in mind my tank is heavily planted with a lot of floaters as well. I did this because I know it would help with the water quality and I planned on having a fully scaped tank anyways. See pic to understand how many plants I have.
Day 1 and 2 pass with flying colors, all fish are active and doing fine. I am not feeding nothing till I see sign of nitrites, this provides very stable LOW (.25-.5) ammonia which is ideal. You don’t need a lot of ammonia for this to work, just some. Also keep in mind, the higher your PH the more toxic that reading of ammonia becomes. For me with lower PH although not ideal for Colony it can still work just a bit slower and a lot more safe for the fish.
We are not into Tuesday and not much has changed. I still don’t see nitrites and become to question colony and if it’s working or what’s going on. Good for me and my fish that ammonia and the little nitrates I did have were not moving at all. Fish all seem to be better than the days before and are showing their colors even more. Plants are doing great, good growth and nice color, minus the java moss which is struggling.
I decided to go to the fish store to update the associate that helped me with the cardinals as I knew he wanted to know how it all worked out, we were nervous with them being so young that they couldn’t handle this process. At the same time I saw they had got a shipment of golden rams, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a pair for my tank. Not only because these fish are hard to come by in my area but also to see if I really could keep these fish safe during a cycle. I knew if I could handle this stage of things I would be in great shape for the long haul with my new fish pets. I got them home and acclimate them for about 1.5 hours, adding tank water to their water in 20 min intervals. Unfortunately I don’t have a quarantine tank, but I know the pet store well and their tanks always look great as well as their fish. Their fish comes from good suppliers and are hand-picked. Any sign of illness they refuse to sell the fish till fully healthy. I really do trust them.
Once in the tank I closely watched them for the rest of the day. Today (Wednesday) I wake up to a very healthy looking tank, I test the water like I do every morning and I finally see what I have been waiting for. NITRITES! That’s right, .15-.25 nitrites (I tested twice to make sure), ammonia had a very slight drop and nitrates are still around 3-4ppm as they have been since I started. 5pm and I am eager to do another test to see how things are going in the tank. Ammonia is going down as expected and nitrites are still good. I decide this is a good time to do another SMALL feeding as my fish are looking for food non-stop and since we now have nitrites it’s safe to introduce a bit more food.
That’s brings you guys up to date with my tank. I will continue to post as things move ahead, I expect the cycle will be moving forward at a good pace and shouldn’t be much longer before ammonia and nitrites are 0.
*NOTE* I wanted to add that I have been testing the water 2 times a day, minimum. I also didn’t do any water changes, and I only did one 5g top up last night (Tuesday night). It’s important to the health of the fish and the bacteria that things are WATCHED but not tampered with unless levels get out of control. I also wanted to note that it is possible to care for sensitive fish during a cycle so long as you are doing everything in your power to maintain the best water conditions you can for your new friends. It is also vital that the fish you pick to put in your tank for cycling be in good health when you get them. I can’t stress how important it is too FEED LIGHTLY when doing fish in cycle, with products like colony or without. When picking your stock, make sure you are not stocking too much. For a new tank with new nitrifying bacterial it is the goal to cycle the tank not to push the bacteria as hard as you can to see what it can handle. Because of how small my tetras were when I bought them I considered 2 fish to be 1in, I followed the rules of 1 fish per 10 gallon of water. Try and stay close to this during the cycle and you will save yourself a lot of extra work and worry.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank Stacey Blood from ATM, who has been in communication via phone and email from the start of my cycle. He has been there for me each day and given me all the advice I could ever want. This is by far the best customer service I have ever had, period! As we speak he is sending me a free bottle of Colony because at one point we though it may not have worked due, this was because the date sticker was nowhere to be found, so the shelf date was questionable. As we can see by the test results it is working so all is good. We have sent over 60 emails back and forth and spent several hours on the phone. I have received all this amazing service because of just one bottle of Colony, which values of $22.00 cdn. It’s pretty unbelievable. The amount of knowledge he has about nitrifying bacteria is incredible. I feel like he truly cares about the state of my tank and fish and ensuring that the product does its job. Posting this is my way to say thank you ATM, you guys really do have a product that works and the people you have working for you are nothing short of amazing. I will forever recommend this product and Stacey Blood.
I hope more people give this product a try and hopefully you can have a similar experience. What a fabulous way to start off my new tank.
Pics can be found in my mobile album!
http://s1343.photobucket.com/user/philipraposo1982/slideshow/Mobile Uploads
Any questions you guys have feel free to ask. I would love to help in any way I can!
I will first set the scenario. New tank (75 gallon), filter is an eheim pro 3 2075, heater is eheim 300w jager, light is finnex planted plus 48”, substrate is 2-3” depth Safe-T-Sorb. I have never had a fish tank before so up until 3 months ago I knew nothing about cycling or nitrifying bacteria. Fish I wanted to stock during the cycle: rams and cardinals.
I didn’t want to throw fish in that I didn’t plan to keep, I also truly believe with all my reading that with enough attention to parameters that almost any fish can be used with a fish in cycle when using ATM Colony. I am very aware that both cardinals and Golden rams can be sensitive to water condition and I very much respect that requirement; which is why I choose to go with colony (nitrifying bacteria). I feel that although it can be done without it, it would be much more difficult to keep things in check.
I start Colony on Saturday night at 8pm eastern, I introduce 13 young tiny cardinal tetras and shortly after I provide a little food just to get things going with ammonia. My tap water already has a tiny bit of ammonia and nitrates. My PH is also around 6.6 – 6.8 which makes it less than ideal for colony to work. The bottle states to have between 7.2-8 PH.
Keep in mind my tank is heavily planted with a lot of floaters as well. I did this because I know it would help with the water quality and I planned on having a fully scaped tank anyways. See pic to understand how many plants I have.
Day 1 and 2 pass with flying colors, all fish are active and doing fine. I am not feeding nothing till I see sign of nitrites, this provides very stable LOW (.25-.5) ammonia which is ideal. You don’t need a lot of ammonia for this to work, just some. Also keep in mind, the higher your PH the more toxic that reading of ammonia becomes. For me with lower PH although not ideal for Colony it can still work just a bit slower and a lot more safe for the fish.
We are not into Tuesday and not much has changed. I still don’t see nitrites and become to question colony and if it’s working or what’s going on. Good for me and my fish that ammonia and the little nitrates I did have were not moving at all. Fish all seem to be better than the days before and are showing their colors even more. Plants are doing great, good growth and nice color, minus the java moss which is struggling.
I decided to go to the fish store to update the associate that helped me with the cardinals as I knew he wanted to know how it all worked out, we were nervous with them being so young that they couldn’t handle this process. At the same time I saw they had got a shipment of golden rams, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a pair for my tank. Not only because these fish are hard to come by in my area but also to see if I really could keep these fish safe during a cycle. I knew if I could handle this stage of things I would be in great shape for the long haul with my new fish pets. I got them home and acclimate them for about 1.5 hours, adding tank water to their water in 20 min intervals. Unfortunately I don’t have a quarantine tank, but I know the pet store well and their tanks always look great as well as their fish. Their fish comes from good suppliers and are hand-picked. Any sign of illness they refuse to sell the fish till fully healthy. I really do trust them.
Once in the tank I closely watched them for the rest of the day. Today (Wednesday) I wake up to a very healthy looking tank, I test the water like I do every morning and I finally see what I have been waiting for. NITRITES! That’s right, .15-.25 nitrites (I tested twice to make sure), ammonia had a very slight drop and nitrates are still around 3-4ppm as they have been since I started. 5pm and I am eager to do another test to see how things are going in the tank. Ammonia is going down as expected and nitrites are still good. I decide this is a good time to do another SMALL feeding as my fish are looking for food non-stop and since we now have nitrites it’s safe to introduce a bit more food.
That’s brings you guys up to date with my tank. I will continue to post as things move ahead, I expect the cycle will be moving forward at a good pace and shouldn’t be much longer before ammonia and nitrites are 0.
*NOTE* I wanted to add that I have been testing the water 2 times a day, minimum. I also didn’t do any water changes, and I only did one 5g top up last night (Tuesday night). It’s important to the health of the fish and the bacteria that things are WATCHED but not tampered with unless levels get out of control. I also wanted to note that it is possible to care for sensitive fish during a cycle so long as you are doing everything in your power to maintain the best water conditions you can for your new friends. It is also vital that the fish you pick to put in your tank for cycling be in good health when you get them. I can’t stress how important it is too FEED LIGHTLY when doing fish in cycle, with products like colony or without. When picking your stock, make sure you are not stocking too much. For a new tank with new nitrifying bacterial it is the goal to cycle the tank not to push the bacteria as hard as you can to see what it can handle. Because of how small my tetras were when I bought them I considered 2 fish to be 1in, I followed the rules of 1 fish per 10 gallon of water. Try and stay close to this during the cycle and you will save yourself a lot of extra work and worry.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank Stacey Blood from ATM, who has been in communication via phone and email from the start of my cycle. He has been there for me each day and given me all the advice I could ever want. This is by far the best customer service I have ever had, period! As we speak he is sending me a free bottle of Colony because at one point we though it may not have worked due, this was because the date sticker was nowhere to be found, so the shelf date was questionable. As we can see by the test results it is working so all is good. We have sent over 60 emails back and forth and spent several hours on the phone. I have received all this amazing service because of just one bottle of Colony, which values of $22.00 cdn. It’s pretty unbelievable. The amount of knowledge he has about nitrifying bacteria is incredible. I feel like he truly cares about the state of my tank and fish and ensuring that the product does its job. Posting this is my way to say thank you ATM, you guys really do have a product that works and the people you have working for you are nothing short of amazing. I will forever recommend this product and Stacey Blood.
I hope more people give this product a try and hopefully you can have a similar experience. What a fabulous way to start off my new tank.
Pics can be found in my mobile album!
http://s1343.photobucket.com/user/philipraposo1982/slideshow/Mobile Uploads
Any questions you guys have feel free to ask. I would love to help in any way I can!
you're cycling a tank... I'm bailing on this thread.. Just because you have found a product that sings louder than the other birds in the tree does not secure the future success of your tank.. For the sake of your beautiful rams I hope it all goes swimmingly.. Best if luck!!!
