Aquatic Arts
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2015
- Messages
- 5
Hi everyone! This is my first post on AquariumAdvice, and I wanted to give you all some information on a topic that seems to have a lot of conflicting information thrown around while being discussed; Seachem Stability.
I run an aquatics store with 134 30g holding tanks, all freshwater for now. I have no association with Seachem aside from the fact that I will be carrying their products at some time in the future, purchased through a distributor and not Seachem directly.
About 6 months ago, we installed a 370gph canister filter (SunSun Brand) with 3 trays totally full of Pond Matrix on EVERY tank. No filter pads, carbon, ceramic rings/etc. Just Pond Matrix. At the same time, we retrofitted 72 of them to entirely new tanks. We saved none of the water, and before the change there was no substrate. Nothing from the old tank went into the new tank, so these tanks were truly started from scratch.
So, the setup on each tank was as follows:
30 Gallon tank
370gph SunSun Canister Filter (All 3 trays Pond Matrix, nothing else at all)
46w 7500k CFL Lighting
Water:
67-82f
Reverse Osmosis (20tds) remineralized with Seachem Replenish/Equilibrium
PH either 7.0 (Neutral Regulator) or 8-8.3 (Sulawesi Tanks, Crushed Coral)
After the tanks were set up, we double dosed Stability from day one. These tanks were stocked somewhat heavily, more heavily than most personal aquariums. They contained everything we carry including shrimp, fish, crayfish, crabs, and snails. Some of these animals are pretty sensitive. We continued to dose double for 10 days, then continued to dose every 14 days at the normal "water change" dose. We also dosed Seachem Prime every 48 hours during the first 10 days.
Not one of these tanks has even once had an ammonia spike. Not even ONE, even ONE time. We do have a lot of bio media, but it was all dry and unused. I can say with a very high level of confidence that Seachem Stability works. I have seen a lot of people say your filter will crash after a while because the bacteria cannot reproduce, but I have not experienced this in any of the tanks.
Furthermore (and I bet this will cause more of a stir), Pond Matrix WILL harbor anaerobic bacteria eventually. Almost every tank we used it in will gas off nitrates. It doesn't happen extremely fast, but it does happen in a measurable way, and these tanks have 1" substrate at best. We run almost all the canister filters at full flow.
Hopefully some of this info helps someone! If anyone wants to know more info about how we did this, I would be happy to answer questions.
David
I run an aquatics store with 134 30g holding tanks, all freshwater for now. I have no association with Seachem aside from the fact that I will be carrying their products at some time in the future, purchased through a distributor and not Seachem directly.
About 6 months ago, we installed a 370gph canister filter (SunSun Brand) with 3 trays totally full of Pond Matrix on EVERY tank. No filter pads, carbon, ceramic rings/etc. Just Pond Matrix. At the same time, we retrofitted 72 of them to entirely new tanks. We saved none of the water, and before the change there was no substrate. Nothing from the old tank went into the new tank, so these tanks were truly started from scratch.
So, the setup on each tank was as follows:
30 Gallon tank
370gph SunSun Canister Filter (All 3 trays Pond Matrix, nothing else at all)
46w 7500k CFL Lighting
Water:
67-82f
Reverse Osmosis (20tds) remineralized with Seachem Replenish/Equilibrium
PH either 7.0 (Neutral Regulator) or 8-8.3 (Sulawesi Tanks, Crushed Coral)
After the tanks were set up, we double dosed Stability from day one. These tanks were stocked somewhat heavily, more heavily than most personal aquariums. They contained everything we carry including shrimp, fish, crayfish, crabs, and snails. Some of these animals are pretty sensitive. We continued to dose double for 10 days, then continued to dose every 14 days at the normal "water change" dose. We also dosed Seachem Prime every 48 hours during the first 10 days.
Not one of these tanks has even once had an ammonia spike. Not even ONE, even ONE time. We do have a lot of bio media, but it was all dry and unused. I can say with a very high level of confidence that Seachem Stability works. I have seen a lot of people say your filter will crash after a while because the bacteria cannot reproduce, but I have not experienced this in any of the tanks.
Furthermore (and I bet this will cause more of a stir), Pond Matrix WILL harbor anaerobic bacteria eventually. Almost every tank we used it in will gas off nitrates. It doesn't happen extremely fast, but it does happen in a measurable way, and these tanks have 1" substrate at best. We run almost all the canister filters at full flow.
Hopefully some of this info helps someone! If anyone wants to know more info about how we did this, I would be happy to answer questions.
David