Took the plunge

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dralarms

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
Messages
3,598
Location
Athens, TN.
Well I decided to do it, set my 30 gal as sw. Man that's a mess with that cc. well got it all set up, started the filter and skilter 250, got my salt level close to right, and decided to go to Bernies to check out his stuff. Man what a place. But to my surprise he had just received a shipment of Bio Spira for marine, yeah, ain't that great. So I decide to let my tank settle for a day and check my levels again before adding any fish or anything. Sunday I went back to Bernies and someone had bought all the clowns :cry: , Oh well got 4 damsels, and 2 blue fish with yellow tails, and a thing of Bio Spira. So I am now officially into the sw scene.
 
Bio Spira for Marine? Is it a new product? I thought they didn't make that... What great news!

And, congratulations on your new fishies and foray into SW, I am taking the plunge soon, myself. Keep us posted!
 
Oh well got 4 damsels, and 2 blue fish with yellow tails, and a thing of Bio Spira. So I am now officially into the sw scene.

Please post daily test results for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I am very intrigued with Bio Spira Marine and would like to see if it truely works like it has for the freshies.
 
Well I will do that as soon as my sw test kit gets here. can I use the freshwater amonia test kit for saltwater?
 
can I use the freshwater amonia test kit for saltwater

Depends on the test kit, some will do both...but most will not. If the instructions on your kit do not specifically say it can be used for fresh or SW, then I would say the readings would be suspect at best.
 
Hi everyone,
I read that marine Bio-Spira is coming out soon, and I guess it's here! I'm very curious as to how it works too. The freshwater Bio-Spira works extremely well.

I have the Doc Wellfish (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) salicylate test for ammonia. The salicylate test is in the gold box and it says 130 tests. Don't get it confused with the Nessler test that's in a yellow box and says 80 tests. I did once! The salicylate test has a different color card to test the saltwater. That was one of my questions too, as I plan on a saltwater tank. Will this Doc Wellfish test, using the same reactor agents as freshwater, but the saltwater color card, be OK or should I get the other saltwater tests that I've seen mentioned here, like Seachem or Saifert?
 
One more thing about the marine Bio-Spira -- I wonder if you add it the same way for freshwater. Does this mean that you don't have to spend weeks cycling the rock??

In FW, you add the Bio-Spira and the full load of fish at once. As someone on the FW forums said, the bacteria come out ready and hungry! I have also used it in the main tank after a medicine had destroyed some of my biological filter and my ammonia rose slightly, and also when the fish was in a QT tank and the main tank was empty for a week or so. Each time, the ammonia was under control and back to 0 in 24 hours. I first got my packet in July. It is supposed to last for about 6 months. Wonder if the SW version is the same?
 
Does this mean that you don't have to spend weeks cycling the rock??

I highly doubt it would take the place of curing LR. The thing about LR is the die off, is just too much for the bacteria to handle.
 
Their website says Bio-Spira Marine can treat a fully stocked aquarium.

I ordered 3oz online, enough for a 55gal aquarium. I am setting up my new 50gal SW FO aquarium this Wednesday and will probably add a few fish with the Bio-Spira this weekend. I will let you know how it works. 0X

RodneyCK
 
Well to update everyone, I ditched the 30 gal in favor of a 46 gal bow front, all glass from Wal mart. So it's gonna be a couple of days before I start testing except salt levels. I will check in a few days since I only have 4 little fish it will take a few days to see any ammonia if I see any at all. :D
 
Actually I think I killed it when I switched the tanks out. but it was working up until the time I went from the 30 gal to the 46 gal. The good news is my ammonia never got above .50, my nitrites nover got above 20, My nitrates went to 20 and then started dropping off and are now at 10my ph has been a stable 8.2 and my sg has been 1.024 +/_ .0005. I thought those readings are pretty good considering I am over stocked (I know, I know), I had my 4 damsels, my 4 yellow tail damsels and my 4 f. clowns and my wife walks in with 4 more fish :roll: , I should have taken them back but I didn't and everybody seems to get along. Even the condys are thriving :D .
 
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