My Trial with Tetra SafeStart

[Terrance]

I've been dealing with a mini-cycle for over 2 months and been doing 60-90% water change every 2-3 days. I got tired of doing it and really wanted an answer, so today I bought Safestart.

I bought the bottle that says " for up to 30 gallon". My tank is 29 gallons, so I meet this criteria. My water level before adding safestart is

0.50-0.75 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
(I also fed my fish A LOT of food, so that it will produce more waste tonight)

My tank is well oxygenated with high flow rate (using aquaclear powerhead with quick filter) and biowheel (using marineland in the hood filter).

The bottle says:
1. Shake bottle
2. Pour entire bottle into tank
3. Put in fish.

So I followed instructions:
1. After I bought the safestart, I ran home with the bottle shaking my pocket. So I know the bottle was shaken well.
2. I just poured the WHOLE bottle as directed from the instructions. Its night time, so I will check back in the morning and let you guys know what happened next.
3. My fish has been in the tank for 2.5 months, and the tank has been running for 3.5 months. There is a lot of waste for the bacteria to feed on. Expiration date on the bottle says "8/2012".

I feel like failure of this product is due to not following instructions. I'm following instructions, so its all up to the safestart to work for me.

If my fish dies tonight, I will hate this product forever and will give it bad reviews wherever I go. I just can't keep up with the 60-90% water changes every 2-3 days. I thought my tank would be completely cycled after doing this for over 2 months. This is my last resort.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

I can't wait to see the results for this !

please keep us posted.

 

[Greenphantom]

I've been dealing with a mini-cycle for over 2 months and been doing 60-90% water change every 2-3 days. I got tired of doing it and really wanted an answer, so today I bought Safestart.

I bought the bottle that says " for up to 30 gallon". My tank is 29 gallons, so I meet this criteria. My water level before adding safestart is

0.50-0.75 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
(I also fed my fish A LOT of food, so that it will produce more waste tonight)

My tank is well oxygenated with high flow rate (using aquaclear powerhead with quick filter) and biowheel (using marineland in the hood filter).

The bottle says:
1. Shake bottle
2. Pour entire bottle into tank
3. Put in fish.

So I followed instructions:
1. After I bought the safestart, I ran home with the bottle shaking my pocket. So I know the bottle was shaken well.
2. I just poured the WHOLE bottle as directed from the instructions. Its night time, so I will check back in the morning and let you guys know what happened next.
3. My fish has been in the tank for 2.5 months, and the tank has been running for 3.5 months. There is a lot of waste for the bacteria to feed on. Expiration date on the bottle says "8/2012".

I feel like failure of this product is due to not following instructions. I'm following instructions, so its all up to the safestart to work for me.

If my fish dies tonight, I will hate this product forever and will give it bad reviews wherever I go. I just can't keep up with the 60-90% water changes every 2-3 days. I thought my tank would be completely cycled after doing this for over 2 months. This is my last resort.

If it fails just do it the good ole fashion way fishless cycle for up to a month sprinkle little bits of food in it (not alot every other day) and do 20% pwcs every week

 

[alex07]

I've been dealing with a mini-cycle for over 2 months and been doing 60-90% water change every 2-3 days. I got tired of doing it and really wanted an answer, so today I bought Safestart.

I bought the bottle that says " for up to 30 gallon". My tank is 29 gallons, so I meet this criteria. My water level before adding safestart is

0.50-0.75 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
(I also fed my fish A LOT of food, so that it will produce more waste tonight)

My tank is well oxygenated with high flow rate (using aquaclear powerhead with quick filter) and biowheel (using marineland in the hood filter).

The bottle says:
1. Shake bottle
2. Pour entire bottle into tank
3. Put in fish.

So I followed instructions:
1. After I bought the safestart, I ran home with the bottle shaking my pocket. So I know the bottle was shaken well.
2. I just poured the WHOLE bottle as directed from the instructions. Its night time, so I will check back in the morning and let you guys know what happened next.
3. My fish has been in the tank for 2.5 months, and the tank has been running for 3.5 months. There is a lot of waste for the bacteria to feed on. Expiration date on the bottle says "8/2012".

I feel like failure of this product is due to not following instructions. I'm following instructions, so its all up to the safestart to work for me.

If my fish dies tonight, I will hate this product forever and will give it bad reviews wherever I go. I just can't keep up with the 60-90% water changes every 2-3 days. I thought my tank would be completely cycled after doing this for over 2 months. This is my last resort.

That is why bacteria in a bottle is all bs.

I am assuming you are checking your water daily, what are your parameters ever since you added that?

 

[Terrance]

It has worked for some people. It has failed for the people who don't follow all the instructions, especially emptying the entire bottle in the tank and having fish in the tank. I just added it less than an hour ago. Like I said earlier, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow morning.

 

[alex07]

My bad, I thought it's been going on for a while. I guess I am still half asleep

 

[jeffp]

if you've been dealing with a cycle problem for 2 months, how would you know whether or not the problem that is causing your tank to not cycle won't also cause the safestart to fail? if your tank was previously cycled and is experiencing a mini cycle and hasn't recovered in 2 months, there is likely some larger problem you need to address.

 

[librarygirl]

You should be cycled by now. Was the tank cycled and something caused a mini-cycle or has it not cycled yet? How large is the tank and what are the fish in there? I used SafeStart twice and it didn't work either time for me; I didn't add fish though, just tried to use for fishless cycling. The whole thing with bacteria in a bottle products is that 1) some have the wrong kind of bacteria which could make the tank appear cycled but then it crashes down the road or/and 2) the temperature the bottle is kept in must be cold for the BB to survive. When it leaves the manufacturer and shipped all over the place the temp and conditions change so it's very possible the BB are all dead by the time you buy it.

I'd start looking for reasons why the tank isn't cycling. Also with fish in the tank there are no shortcuts; water changes and plenty of them will save your fish. If you don't like caring for them, return the fish until the tank is cycled.

 

[alex07]

So how is it? I've read that for several people it causes a mini cycle everytime they do a water a change.

 

[Terrance]

My 29 gal is my first tank when I started this hobby. 3.5 months ago, a breeder told me to use his RCS to cycle the tank, so I did that. it took one month to cycle the tank.

2.5 months ago, the tank was cycled with the RCS, so I took out the shrimps and added my first puffer fish. This little fellow ate very little, but i think its bioload was still a lot more than the shrimps. Over the course of 2.5 months, it started to eat more and more because it got comfortable with me and stopped hiding. He is eating properly now. It also grew half an inch and got a little fatter, so all of these increase bioload factors put the tank on a long mini cycle. I used to change the water every day, but now its every 2-3 days. Its progress, but the progress is not fast enough. I'm hoping that the Safestart will help establish my tank.

Honestly, I can't think of any other reason why its not cycled by this point. The tank is well oxygenated with high flow rate and constant temp of 78 degree F. First tanks often come with mistakes, so I wish I did the fishless cycle. I did fishless cycle with all my other tanks with no problems. I highly recommend fishless cycle for everyone because any amount of ammonia and nitrite will cause irreversible internal damage to your fish.


9/9/11 PM: 0.50 - 0.75 Ammonia; 0 NirIte
Just fed my puff a lot of food, so it should produce a lot of waste. Then threw in Safestart
9/10/11 AM: ~0.75 Ammonia; < 0.25 Nitrite; < 5.0 Nitrate
I'm really surprised to see the Ammonia not going up after a large feeding. I did a 75% water change to keep ammonia a little lower for my fish.
9/10/11 PM: <0.25 Ammonia; 0.00 Nitrite; <5.0 NitrAte
I did not feed my fish today because he is suppose to eat every other day. It shouldn't stop him from producing waste though.

I'm just going to keep my patience. Reviews states that it works 1-2 weeks after dosing tanks and do pwc to keep low ammonia and NitrIte. Although this isn't the exact formula as Dr. Tim's One & Only Nitrifying bacteria, it should be somewhat close.

Open for discussions.

 

[jeffp]

the fish should not be able to grow so fast that its bioload will outgrow the bacteria. how do you change the water exactly?

 

[Terrance]

1. Siphon water out.
2. While siphoning, the tap water is running in the sink with a steady temp of ~78 F
3. Pour water into a 5 gal bucket and condition the water.
4. Pour the water from the bucket into the tank.
5. Repeat step 2 and 3 until the tank if full again while keep all filter pads/biowheel wet during the whole process.

Changing ~75% of the water takes about 15mins. Its pretty easy after doing it so many times.

Edit: Its not just that the fish is growing. My turgidus wasn't eating when I first introduced him into my tank. It was really hard to get him to eat. After a few weeks, he got comfortable with me and started to eat. Now at this point, he is eating a healthy variety of prawns, worms, and snails every other day.

 

[jeffp]

do you keep the filter media wet in old tank water? if you keep them wet in newly conditioned water, do you condition it before adding the filter media?

 

[Terrance]

I have 3 places for the bacteria to grow on.
1. Biowheel - I take it out and place it floating in the tank water. It stays wet at all times.
2. Marineland Eclipse Hood/Filter - There is a pocket where the filter pad sits. All the tank water doesn't empty out into the tank when I turn off the Eclipse filter, so there are still a bit of tank water left in that pocket. Almost all of the filter pad is submerged in water, but I still use my finger to push the filter pad down into the pool of tank water every few minutes to make sure the top surface stays wet.
3. Aquaclear Quick Filter - I detach the quick filter and let it float in the water, so it stays wet at all times too.

Edit: There is also a second biowheel from an established tank floating in the tank 24/7 for the past month.

 

[tarpon]

Wow. The established biowheel should've done it by itself. I put some seeded media in mine in the middle of my fishless cycle and I was cycled right away. This is strange

 

[eco23]

Yeah man, I'm following along but clueless myself. I've been racking my brain and can't come up with anything. I know you mentioned a couple times that there's lots of waste in the tank for the bacteria to consume..have you been doing thorough gravel vacuuming and removing all the organics that have been building up? I assume you're using a master test kit? Even if there's organics building up...I'm still at a loss. The beneficial bacteria should have adjusted to whatever level it is now unless you're seriously overfeeding and not cleaning the substrate. Even then I don't see it causing this.

If the Puffer had been added recently, I'd definitely blame the RCS. You'd probably need a thousand in there to produce enough ammonia to efficiently cycle a tank. Since the fish has been in there 2 1/2 months...that's another dead end street where we won't find a solution. Other normal causes like a dead fish hidden somewhere wouldn't make sense with this timeline either.

You definitely seem to be doing everything right as far as filter media, pwc's, etc... and you know your stuff. A 2 1/2 month long ammo spike isn't a mini-cycle...it's just an incredibly long issue.

What have your nitrAtes been doing? Are you seeing them rising between water changes?

 

[Terrance]

When I feed, I hold a shrimp by the tail and dip it into the tank for my puffer to eat, so very little mess is created. I pull the shrimp away when I see that he has ate enough. He is the only fish in the tank.

I've been doing so many water changes that I stopped checking NitrAtes, and I'm pretty sure I'm siphoning any waste seen on the bottom of the tank. NitrAtes are hard to detect changes because my API master kit give me increments of 5s for the NitrAtes. With that big of a number and so many water changes, I can't tell the difference.

Now that I've been thinking about shrimps.. when I removed the shrimps, there were approximately 50-100 baby (microscopic) RCS living above the water line. I don't really see them any more today. I wonder where they went..

 

[alex07]

Let me ask you something when you condition the water in the bucket, how long do you wait before you pour it into the tank?

 

[Terrance]

After filling a third of the bucket, I add the conditioner. Then fill the other 2/3 of the bucket. Afterwards, I stir for 10 seconds, and go pour the water into the tank.

Does it matter how long I wait in between? I'm putting in too much conditioner for every full bucket.

 

[alex07]

After filling a third of the bucket, I add the conditioner. Then fill the other 2/3 of the bucket. Afterwards, I stir for 10 seconds, and go pour the water into the tank.

Does it matter how long I wait in between? I'm putting in too much conditioner for every full bucket.

Well you have to wait till it mixes and you did write that you leave the media floating in the tank, Maybe that's your problem.

Next time you do a water change try this. Before you add the water just put the media back where it goes and fill it with some of remaining water from your tank so it won't get dry. Then once you pour the water in your tank give it sometime for the dechlorinator to mix in the water before you turn on your filter again.