Bio Spira or Mature Filter??

[Fishalicious]

Okay well as some of you may know, I'm on my way to starting a 75 gallon African Mbuna tank. I was thinking alot about adding biospira to the tank with about 5 Yellow Labs and 4 or 5 other type of Mbuna for now but I'm just wondering if Biospira would be a waste of my money if I already have a mature AC500 on my 55 gallon community tank (I also have an EMP400 on the 55 so when I move the AC500, there will still be a very generous amount of bacteria)

General concerns that came to me are:

-As long as the fish and the mature AC500 are added to the 75 gallon at the same time, I should have NO ammonia or nitrites. Correct? Because this mature filter will keep those in check.

-My community tank has a pH of about 6.8 and different water chemistry... when I take this AC500 off and put it on the 75 gallon which will have a pH of around 8.2, will the bacteria from the AC500 go into some type of shock from the sudden pH change and possibly deplete or die?

-Would adding biospira just be a heck of alot safer??!!

When I finalize my mbuna list, I want to add as many of the different types in at the same time (that my wallet permits) as juvi's so there would be less chance of future aggression, so this is why I think biospira would be the safer choice.

Please let me know!
-Dan

 

[BrianNY]

Agreed Dan. The nitrifying bacteria in your mature filters might be killed off by a sudden pH swing like that. Good thinking.

 

[Fishalicious]

Thanks Brian! 8) I've come a long way since I've started keeping fish back in July. I've learned alot about this incredible hobby (especially it's expen$ive!!!)

Okay so now one more question now that I'll be adding bio spira...


-I plan on buying the 3oz (up to 90 gallon) bottle of it for my 75. Now obviously I'm not going to use the whole bottle at once (even though marineland says it's okay to overdose) because that would just be a waste. Now should I use about almost the whole bottle for the whole 75 gallon or JUST ENOUGH to supply bacteria for the amount of fish I'm adding? (about 8-10)... I figure for that, I'd use about half a bottle, more or less.

Thanks again
-Dan

 

[TankGirl]

I'd quite honestly use the entire pouch. I have found it works better to really overdose it and I have set up quite a few tanks with it. It will be worth the money to make sure the tank is cycled the first time. This is just my experience and may not be indicative of the norm, and it may be that the lfs that supplied it to me did not handle the product properly, perhaps, who knows, but I made it a practice to overdose to be certain.

Good luck and let us know what you do, and the results