Why isn't everyone cycling with BioSpira?

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maxwell1295 said:
I put a pack in my 30 gal about 24 hours ago. Nothing has happened yet. I guess we'll see if some nitrites pop up over the next couple of days...

If your experience turns out like mine, you will never see nitrites, and you will have nitrates within 24 hours.
 
Ah, but what of the skill in stocking low, being patient, the anticipation of the day that nitrates rise so that you can add a few more fish. Then the weekly trip to the LFS so you can gradually increase the bioload week by week, slowly acquiring your stock till you have that perfect tank. Its that new tank feeling for months! Then the sad day comes months later, when you have all the fish, and your tank becomes just something to look at and maintain.

Till you set up the next tank, that is.
 
Oh, but you still have that anticipation. I only added five fish initially. Purchased my next group and quarantined them for two weeks. This last group of rainbow fish were much younger than the LFS anticipated so it could be 2-3 months before I will move them over. I am also waiting for the LFS to get in some denison barbs, which could take another month or so. And finally, when all the fish are in, I will add my rainbow shark. At this point, it may take me a total of 4-5 months before the tank is fully stocked. So you see, I still need patience.
 
Gunnie said:
maxwell1295 said:
I put a pack in my 30 gal about 24 hours ago. Nothing has happened yet. I guess we'll see if some nitrites pop up over the next couple of days...

If your experience turns out like mine, you will never see nitrites, and you will have nitrates within 24 hours.
I had 0.5ppm of ammonia (with fish) when I got home. I did a 25% pwc and got it down to 0.25ppm. That was last night.....this morning ammonia was at 0ppm. Still no signs of nitrites or nitrates. I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow does...
 
Too expensive and a waste I think. Its quick if you're looking for an immediate cycle, but I've never felt the need to cycle so quickly. Never really had fish that need a pre-cycled tank though. I left the goldfish tank run for a few days before putting the fish in, but she didn't need a cycled tank, hers gets cleaned so often its never fully cycled. The bettas didn't get cycled because anything is better than a cup of water, so I just put them in right away.
 
I think the fact that my ammonia went to zero is a good sign. The 2 giant danios were joined today by 5 neon tetras. So far, so good. The danios sfreaked for a minute but now everything is back to normal. The neons made themselves at home immediately. They even at some leftover food the danios left behind. I fed them before putting the neons in the tank. I guess I can add fish gradually and just keep an eye on ammonia/nitrite levels. I can always control those with a pwc as needed.
 
Just a note, with more fish, the levels will climb faster. So you might not want to add too much til you are cycled. With ammonia going to 0 is a very good sign. Good luck. :)
 
Lonewolfblue said:
Just a note, with more fish, the levels will climb faster. So you might not want to add too much til you are cycled. With ammonia going to 0 is a very good sign. Good luck. :)
I figure no more than a couple of fish a week. I'll definitely spread it out some. I'll probably add the guppies 3 at a time(1M/2F). Everything else in pairs. I've been testing my water twice a day, so if anything crops up I'll be on it pretty quickly.
 
maxwell1295 said:
Gunnie said:
maxwell1295 said:
I put a pack in my 30 gal about 24 hours ago. Nothing has happened yet. I guess we'll see if some nitrites pop up over the next couple of days...

If your experience turns out like mine, you will never see nitrites, and you will have nitrates within 24 hours.
I had 0.5ppm of ammonia (with fish) when I got home. I did a 25% pwc and got it down to 0.25ppm. That was last night.....this morning ammonia was at 0ppm. Still no signs of nitrites or nitrates. I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow does...

Error...Error....Does not compute! :)

Your numbers don't make any sense. If you have 0.5ppm ammonia and do a 25% PWC, you still have 0.375ppm ammonia (theoretically). You would have needed to do a 50% PWC to get down to 0.25. I can understand however since its tough to judge exactly what the color is.

But the second part makes no sense at all. If you had 0.25ppm ammonia last night, and today you have zero ammonia, you HAVE to have either nitrIte or nitrAte present. It can't just dissapear (unless you have plants?). I'd redo the tests to see if you get different results.
 
DepotFish said:
Too expensive and a waste I think. Its quick if you're looking for an immediate cycle, but I've never felt the need to cycle so quickly. Never really had fish that need a pre-cycled tank though. I left the goldfish tank run for a few days before putting the fish in, but she didn't need a cycled tank, hers gets cleaned so often its never fully cycled. The bettas didn't get cycled because anything is better than a cup of water, so I just put them in right away.


I respectfully disagree. When you have a 100 gal. tank with 2 oscars, 2 jack dempseys and a common pleco, and then your biological filter gets destroyed, bio spira is a godsend! I moved all the fish to a 55 gal. tank, drained the 100 gal. completely and refilled it and ran the filters for 4 days until the bio spira arrived (had to order by mail). I then added the bio spira (3 oz.) packet to the 100 gal. tank (notice the 3 oz. packet is supposed to be for a 90 gal. tank) and added all my fish back into the tank. I never saw ammonia or nitrites, and had nitrates in 24 hours. It's always great to have on hand when you don't have bacteria available from another tank. :wink:
 
7Enigma said:
maxwell1295 said:
Gunnie said:
maxwell1295 said:
I put a pack in my 30 gal about 24 hours ago. Nothing has happened yet. I guess we'll see if some nitrites pop up over the next couple of days...

If your experience turns out like mine, you will never see nitrites, and you will have nitrates within 24 hours.
I had 0.5ppm of ammonia (with fish) when I got home. I did a 25% pwc and got it down to 0.25ppm. That was last night.....this morning ammonia was at 0ppm. Still no signs of nitrites or nitrates. I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow does...

Error...Error....Does not compute! :)

Your numbers don't make any sense. If you have 0.5ppm ammonia and do a 25% PWC, you still have 0.375ppm ammonia (theoretically). You would have needed to do a 50% PWC to get down to 0.25. I can understand however since its tough to judge exactly what the color is.

But the second part makes no sense at all. If you had 0.25ppm ammonia last night, and today you have zero ammonia, you HAVE to have either nitrIte or nitrAte present. It can't just dissapear (unless you have plants?). I'd redo the tests to see if you get different results.

Good catch, that went by me. Where are the nitrites or nitrates? Or are you heavily planted?
 
It is hard to tell exactly where you are because of the colors, so I'm pretty sure I wasn't 100% accurate but very close.

It just tested again and it looks like I may have somewhere between 0 and 5ppm of nitrAte now. Still no nitrItes and .25ppm of ammonia.

The interesting thing is that the danios have never been as lively as they are right now. I've had them for a week now. They tend to sit in one spot and maybe move around a bit when I feed them. They are just flying all over the place! I don't know if it's because of the addition of new fish or the water condition. Either way, they seem to be a lot happier than they were before...
 
What is your tap water nitrAte level. There is a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio. You can't have 1ppm ammonia get converted to 5ppm nitrAte. Only way is if your nitrAtes in your tap is above 0 (as mine are).
 
7Enigma said:
What is your tap water nitrAte level. There is a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio. You can't have 1ppm ammonia get converted to 5ppm nitrAte. Only way is if your nitrAtes in your tap is above 0 (as mine are).
You know, I never tested my tap water for ammonia until just now. I just tested it for pH, but never for ammonia. Anyway, my tap water has 0 to .25ppm of ammonia. It's not quite .25ppm and it's not quite 0. Somewhere in between...

One thing I forgot to add earlier is that I added some AmQuel to the water when I did the pwc. I wonder if that also had an effect on the ammonia level...
 
Ammonia in the tap is an indicator of Chloramines. Does your dechlorinator removes chloramines?
 
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