Bacteria in a bottle?

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Heres my take on safestart, I bought the bigger bottle (forget the actual size)

Reguardless the bottle expired in 2013 and I put 2/3s in a 29 gal and the other 1/3 in a 10 gal. The 10 gal was a fish in cycle and the 29 gal was a fishless.

The 29 gallon cycled in about 10 days. at about day 5 I was converting 4ppm of ammonia to Nitrite in about 6-12 hours. Nitrites took much longer to disappear but eventually did. I currently have 23 fish in the 29 gallon with no signs of anything but Nitrates.

Now the weird part the 10 gal I used the same exact bottle but it did not help this tank at all. Im in about 3.5 weeks and its still not cycled (very very close but not 100%) at this point I actually moved the fish in this tank to the 29 gallon to complete the 10 gal cycle fishless.

EDIT: Water is from the same tap, same ph, same water conditioner same everything
 
I'd look into Special Blend. You can find it at petco. It's the same stuff. I've used it on all my tanks from 10g-150g. Amazing stuff. Got my friend to buy some when his tank was stalling in cycle and it cycle in 2 days.
It smells bad but it works lol
 
+ on the safe start its liquid magic i only used the small size bottle on a 75 gal tank and it never had an ammonia spike perfect levels after day 1
 
I also used safestart on my 20g and we fully stocked it right away and not one loss. Everything was good. I was skeptical of it and was expecting to do WC daily or more but didn't have to. :)
 
jetajockey said:
I tested safestart a few times and had decent results. Had good results with angelsplus active sponge filter as well.
Click to expand...

Yes! That's what I used to fishless cycle my 90. Along with seeded material from my 20 and only took a week. One filter was just under $20 where a bottle of safestart is a couple bucks. Both are good.
 
jetajockey said:
I tested safestart a few times and had decent results. Had good results with angelsplus active sponge filter as well.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear about the active sponge as I have one on the way.
 
How about API quick start? (don't mean to intrude)
 
tottenham12712 said:
Heres my take on safestart, I bought the bigger bottle (forget the actual size)

Reguardless the bottle expired in 2013 and I put 2/3s in a 29 gal and the other 1/3 in a 10 gal. The 10 gal was a fish in cycle and the 29 gal was a fishless.

The 29 gallon cycled in about 10 days. at about day 5 I was converting 4ppm of ammonia to Nitrite in about 6-12 hours. Nitrites took much longer to disappear but eventually did. I currently have 23 fish in the 29 gallon with no signs of anything but Nitrates.

Now the weird part the 10 gal I used the same exact bottle but it did not help this tank at all. Im in about 3.5 weeks and its still not cycled (very very close but not 100%) at this point I actually moved the fish in this tank to the 29 gallon to complete the 10 gal cycle fishless.

EDIT: Water is from the same tap, same ph, same water conditioner same everything
Click to expand...

Tetra says to use the entire bottle in one tank. You can't be sure that you're getting all the different types of bacteria out of the bottle, even if it's been shaken up.

That may be the issue you incurred.

Also, some stores do not store SafeStart properly. It's not supposed to freeze and it cannot be allowed to get above 90. If they stick it in the warehouse or leave the crates sitting behind the store too long, they can kill it off.
 
cmybliss said:
Glad to hear about the active sponge as I have one on the way.
Click to expand...

Yeah their process is one of the best since it's literally like taking an established sponge out of a working tank. My only gripe is that they utilize ups ground so transit takes a little longer than usps and they don't insulate the package like one would do with a live fish package. As hpi mentioned, these bacteria supplements (the proper ones) are very susceptible to heat / cold. They have more of a tolerance than a fish in a bag, but they are still quite sensitive nonetheless.
 
jetajockey said:
Yeah their process is one of the best since it's literally like taking an established sponge out of a working tank. My only gripe is that they utilize ups ground so transit takes a little longer than usps and they don't insulate the package like one would do with a live fish package. As hpi mentioned, these bacteria supplements (the proper ones) are very susceptible to heat / cold. They have more of a tolerance than a fish in a bag, but they are still quite sensitive nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Mine got here today. Shipped on Tuesday, so not too much time in transit. The weather here has been nice, but I don't know what shipping conditions were.

I stuck mine over the filter intake, I hope that's okay. Do you know if I can pour the water it was in into the tank? I'd imagine since I put the sponge in the water would be okay?
 
Mr.Pleco said:
I'd look into Special Blend. You can find it at petco. It's the same stuff. I've used it on all my tanks from 10g-150g. Amazing stuff. Got my friend to buy some when his tank was stalling in cycle and it cycle in 2 days.
It smells bad but it works lol
Click to expand...

+1 On Special Blend. This stuff works better than most products out there if not being the best. I would recommend this stuff to anyone. Good stuff Mr. Pleco!
 
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