Seachem Stability

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granzow1

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 6, 2013
Messages
9
I'm starting a new tank and have had 2 ppm ammonia levels for 7 days now. I got a wild hair and thought I'ld go to the pet store and see if they had some bacteria that I could jump start things with. I was hoping to get an old filter or gravel. At the store I weighed the options and thought starting a new bacteria strain in my tank sounded better than using the pet stores existing strain so I purchased Seachem Stability. I dosed the first days worth of Seachem Stability and then did a little look at reviews. I've read multiple forum discussion on this product and the main concern everyone has is that the strain may cause a bacteria crash at some point. I think this concern is largely do to the directions that require monthly use of the product. I have a question in to Seachem stating that I plan to use that product to start my bacteria and then never use the product again asking if this going to be a problem... so my question to everyone here is has anyone else out there used the product for a 1 time startup and then never used the product again for monthly bacteria maintenance? I'm not really in a huge hurry to start my tank, is it too late to abandon the Seachem and let the tank cycle on its own?
 
I'm starting a new tank and have had 2 ppm ammonia levels for 7 days now. I got a wild hair and thought I'ld go to the pet store and see if they had some bacteria that I could jump start things with. I was hoping to get an old filter or gravel. At the store I weighed the options and thought starting a new bacteria strain in my tank sounded better than using the pet stores existing strain so I purchased Seachem Stability. I dosed the first days worth of Seachem Stability and then did a little look at reviews. I've read multiple forum discussion on this product and the main concern everyone has is that the strain may cause a bacteria crash at some point. I think this concern is largely do to the directions that require monthly use of the product. I have a question in to Seachem stating that I plan to use that product to start my bacteria and then never use the product again asking if this going to be a problem... so my question to everyone here is has anyone else out there used the product for a 1 time startup and then never used the product again for monthly bacteria maintenance? I'm not really in a huge hurry to start my tank, is it too late to abandon the Seachem and let the tank cycle on its own?

I used that when I started a tank. I dosed for like a week then not too long after that my tank was cycled and I never touched it again. Never had any ammonia spikes or anything of that nature. But I also dosed my take with a shot of StartZyme on the third day. Might be why mine never crashed :/ now u got me wondering haha
 
I only use it when I first start up a tank, or if I have killed off my BB with meds or whatever. I love it. I have zero knowledge about the science, but I keep a bottle on hand anyway.
 
My LFS swears by it, and I use it regularly during water changes as well...
 
Sorry to make you wonder FishDaAx, I'm really trying to bring clarity to the issue not more confusion.
 
Ok I made the decision today to be the guinea pig. I continued with the dosing and plan to cycle my tank with Seachem Stability. I'm trying to grow edible shrimp in an aquaculture setup and plan to never change the water or add any more seachem stability so I'll update if I have any nitrogen crashes. I suspect that I wont because of Seachem. I did some more reading and someone else posted Seachems tech support response to this issue and Seachem said their bacteria reproduces just like any other bacteria, that answers seemed sufficient for me to at least give it a try.
 
Ok I made the decision today to be the guinea pig. I continued with the dosing and plan to cycle my tank with Seachem Stability. I'm trying to grow edible shrimp in an aquaculture setup and plan to never change the water or add any more seachem stability so I'll update if I have any nitrogen crashes. I suspect that I wont because of Seachem. I did some more reading and someone else posted Seachems tech support response to this issue and Seachem said their bacteria reproduces just like any other bacteria, that answers seemed sufficient for me to at least give it a try.

Never change the water??.
 
Haha, that's the plan I visited a shrimp farm where they grew shrimp in swimming pools and said that they hadn't changed the water in 3 years. I didn't see the nitrate reading but he said that they were off the charts. The tanks had no filters of any kind. All they had was about 20-30cfm of air running airlifts to keep the bacteria, food, and waste suspended in the water. I'm going to use some filter material as a per filter and a large moving bed filter. Then maybe after 3-4 months or when my first batch if shrimp is done lower the nitrate levels with some plants before restocking.
 
Haha, that's the plan I visited a shrimp farm where they grew shrimp in swimming pools and said that they hadn't changed the water in 3 years. I didn't see the nitrate reading but he said that they were off the charts. The tanks had no filters of any kind. All they had was about 20-30cfm of air running airlifts to keep the bacteria, food, and waste suspended in the water. I'm going to use some filter material as a per filter and a large moving bed filter. Then maybe after 3-4 months or when my first batch if shrimp is done lower the nitrate levels with some plants before restocking.

I don't understand how that would be possible. Is there a name for that method?
I get aquaponics- where the plants are the filter for the fish/shrimp, but there has to be SOME sort of filtration, otherwise wouldn't the water quality become so degraded that it couldn't support aquatic life?
 
I don't claim to be an expert on the process at all I just visited a shrimp growing facility similar to the one in the attached link which explains the process a little rdmshrimp.com The process is called zero exchange aerobic heterotrophic system (ZEAH) The way it was explained to me was large amounts of air through air lifts suspend everything then shrimp eat the food and bacteria and keep the ammonia and nitrite levels at zero. Occasionally excess waste builds up at the bottom of the airlifts and has to be removed by taking a handful out. I lost my appetite for shrimp after visiting and decided that if I was going to try this the water needed to be filtered. Hopefully by filtering that doesn't mean that I need to do water changes...
 
Ok I have an update from Seachem, so below is my question to Seachem support and Seachem support's answer.

"I've been reading many forums about Seachem I purchased a bottle and started using it today to cycle my tank... There are many comments about why not to use Seachem Stability saying that using it may cause my tank bacteria to crash at some point. The directions for using Seachem Stability say to add more each month. I plan to use the Seachem Stability once to cycle my tank and then never again. I'm planning on the bacteria colony growing so that I wont need to use Seachem Stability again. Is there something I should know about Seachem Stability bacteria that cause it to behave differently than other types of bacteria that don't require monthly dosings? "

Thank you for contacting us. Stability will not cause your tank to crash. The bacterial blend in Stability is very unique in that it contains aerobic, anaerobic and facultative bacteria. The facultative bacteria can adapt to either an aerobic or anaerobic environment making them very efficient. The bacteria in Stability work under a very broad range of parameters, including almost boiling to nearly freezing temperatures, high or low ammonia, high or low nitrites, and high or low pH. If you choose to use Stability for only establishing the biofilter during the cycling of your tank it is fine. We only suggest (not require) that it can also be used for regular maintenance. We also suggest you use a good biological filtration media such as our Matrix (Seachem. Matrix). Matrix has a tremendous amount of surface area to house the bacteria in Stability. I hope this information helps.
 
Alright I have an update on my tank cycling with Stability, this was my first tank ever and I did a fishless cycle starting with well water that contained 3 ppm ammonia right out of the tap. I started my tank on June 30th my numbers were ph 8.4, ammonia 3ppm, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. I added Salinity on July 5 and the bottle ran out on July 11. I didn't see any change in any of my numbers until July 16th when nitrite rose to between 0-.5 ppm and stayed between 0-.5 until July 25th when they went to 1 ppm. I dosed ammonia on July 14th 5 ml in 250 gallon tank and then again July 15th I dosed 10 ml but never really noticed my ammonia levels fluctuate. My first nitrate reading was on July 24th of 5 ppm. Now today July 29th I've got lots of movement in my tank numbers my ammonia numbers finally dropped for the first time ever all the way down to .25 ppm just under a month, my Nitrite levels are at 5ppm which is the top of my test strip and my Nitrate levels are at 40 ppm. I think my test will be inconclusive as to wether Stability causes tank crash in the future since Stability didn't appear to cause any bacteria to grow in my tank to begin with.
 
Ok I have an update on my tank experiment. I am on day 36 of my cycle and my ammonia levels are 0 and my bacteria can turn 4ppm of ammonia in to 0 ppm in about 24 hours. I've kind of hit a snag it appears that my nitrite levels have soared and my cycle is stalling out. The nitrite results are off the chart on API my test gauge, the test reads pink which is not on the gauge. It sounds like really high nitrite levels are common with a fishless cycles. I have plenty of time and don't want to do a water change as I still plan to never change my water eve in this tank. I've read that my tank will get through this and cycle without a water change. Does anyone know how long it will take to lower my nitrite without a water change? Should I keep dosing ammonia? Are there any suggestions on how to speed the process without a water change? The only reason that I included this in the same thread is that I've seen stability recommended for this application. Since this thread originated around stability I figured that I would rebring up the idea and may start dosing stability to help my bacteria eat these high levels of nitrite.
 
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