New tank, did my Bio Spira not work?

[twestrope]

Ordered my Bio Spira from a site mentioned on this forum and as suggested from the site had it shipped two day mail. I even went home at lunch and got the pkg from the porch and put it into the refrigerator for 5 days.

My tank is a 12 gal Eclipse and a 3 gal Eclipse. I tested the water before doing anything and everything was at 0 (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), PH is 7. Added the Bio Spira and fish all within minutes of each other. The fish in the 12 gal are 2 Dwarf Gouramis, 5 Black phantom / bleeding heart tetra's and 2 baby panda cory's. In the 3 gal is a betta and 2 small panda cory's.

Did a water test day 2 and the ammonia was at <.25 ppm all others 0. Day 4 ammonia was 1.0, Nitrites/Nitrates still at 0. Did a 25% partial water change.

Did my Bio Spira not work or die on me? I have read everything I can on starting an aquarium and Bio Spira so I am pretty sure I followed directions to a tee. I just checked two LFS and neither carry Bio Spira as I thought of draining the tanks and trying again.

Suggestions?

 

[An t-iasg]

It's possible to have a bad batch, but I wouldn't write it off yet. Bio-Spira is not an instant cycle, or even a 24-hour cycle. When I used it, it took 4-5 days for me to get parameters of 0-0-10. I saw readings of less than .25 of ammonia on days 1 and 2, nitrite was less than .25 on days 3 and 4, and by the end of day 4 - morning of day 5, my tank was cycled. I had a smaller bioload than you have. You still have to keep testing the water and doing water changes during the cycling process. It won't be an instant cycle by any means, but you'll have a far shorter cycle time than a fish, or fishless, cycle, which could take 4 weeks or more.

 

[An t-iasg]

Oh, and welcome to Aquarium Advice!

 

[fantasticaqua]

Give it time. I'm not a big fan of additives, I know they can help speed things up a bit but there is nothing like time and a well planned/developed system to provide a naturally safe environment for you fish. Wait it out, i know its hard.

 

[Jason the Lost]

Give it a chance, thats a pretty heavy bioload for that tanks biospira amount at once. You'll see a bit of an ammonia spike, thats easily maintained with small pwc's and then after that a small nitrite spike, you should start seeing nitrates by day 7.

 

[TXFish]

I just went through the same exact situation last week. I'd thought the Bio Spira had failed (I also had it sent 2 day mail), but kept testing the water daily---I ended up finding Bio Spira at the lfs where I bought my fish so I bought another package of it just in case--never needed it. I had Ammonia readings for 3 days, Nitrite for another 3, and then on Day 7, Nitrites were at 0 and Nitrates were up. Apparently some can get an instant cycle from it, but I just got an extremely shortened cycle. I also added the full tank of fish with it and wondered if it might've been more instant had I just added less fish to start. Anyway, all of my fish came through it fine--none ever appeared stressed.

How is your Betta doing in the 3 gal Eclipse?? I'm considering buying one of those to house my Betta but was concerned the filter outflow might make the current too strong. Have you had any problems with that?

Hope that helps!

 

[tecwzrd]

I’ve used Bio Spira on both my FW and SW tanks when starting them up and I have always had a mini cycle that lasted a week or two. Also I get it from the lfs and they keep it in a fridge. From what I’ve been told it has to be kept cold or the bacteria will die off. 2 days to ship would seem to me to be a waste of buying the product at all.

 

[Jason the Lost]

I don't think the bacteria dies off instantly, they ship them in a bag with a cool pack...when i got mine with 2 day the bag was still cool.

 

[tecwzrd]

Glad to hear that they ship with a cool pack, wasn’t mentioned in any of the posts and I was really wondering about that. Also I find a lot of people are not aware that they sell FW & SW versions of Bio Spira and some people get the wrong kind which is also useless because of the different kinds of bacteria needed.

 

[twestrope]

Betta in 3 gal

The Betta seems to be doing fine in the Eclipse. Many times I see it hovering up near the filter outflow so I don't think it is a problem.