Bio-spira Sw (salt Water Bacteria)

[gkaugustine]

Hey guys just wanted to log my findings using bio-spira by marinland.

I have had my tank runing for about 4 weeks now. Recently changed to brackish water registering at 1.010 Salinity. I also purchases a 3 inch GSP. I only have a 10 gal now but plan on upgrading to a 55 in about a month. The GSP is the only fish in the tank now. He seems very happy. Ok now for the results this post will be updated untill my tank is cycled.

-=Day 1 Testing=-
Amonnia 4.0 ppmAmonnia 4.0 ppm
Nitrite .5 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm


-=Day 2 Testing=-
Amonnia <<2.0 ppm
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 20.0 ppm


-=Day 3 Testing=-
Amonnia .50 ppm yayyy!!
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 40.0 ppm

2 medium Java Fern plants added.

-=Day 4 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 80.0 ppm


-=Day 5 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 80.0 ppm

-=Day 6 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 80.0 ppm

-=Day 7 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 3.0 ppm
Nitrate 40.0 ppm

-=Day 8 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 1.0 ppm
Nitrate 20.0 ppm

-=Day 9 Testing=-
Amonnia 0 ppm
Nitrite 1.0 ppm
Nitrate 20.0 ppm

Hey guys i appreciate all of the feedback, negative and positive. I just want to make it clear that i care for my fish. I will be posting a couple pictures of him and maybe a click of him eating a nightcrawler he looks very happy.

 

[Musho3210]

poor fishy, im sorry but that was pretty cruel to do that, you should have just used regular ammonia and no fish.... now you need to do daily water changes to get ammonia and nitrites below 0...

Those are very painful, toxic, and deadly conditions the tank is in now, if i read correctly you put a fish in that condition correct?

 

[el_vulture619]

You should not have put the Puffer in yet! Cycle with cocktail shrimp, let it rot away to nothing in the tank. It is cheap, easy and you know that your tank will be fully cycled when the shrimp is gone.

 

[gkaugustine]

Well i added the puff on day 2. but according to everyone else's posts you gotta put the fish in right after bio-spira. on the contrary i understand the logic that i shouldn't put that much stress on the gsp

 

[Musho3210]

no your meant to put ammonia in after the bio-spira, ammonia can come from two things, inhumanely from fish, humanely from dead things or a bottle. Bio-spira isnt a product that will always work, thats why you add bio-spira, and use pure ammonia from a bottle and bring the ammonia to 5ppm.

 

[ac106]

no your meant to put ammonia in after the bio-spira, ammonia can come from two things, inhumanely from fish, humanely from dead things or a bottle. Bio-spira isnt a product that will always work, thats why you add bio-spira, and use pure ammonia from a bottle and bring the ammonia to 5ppm.

No you are not. Yes it does. and that is incorrect.


Bio-Spira is live bacteria. It is not like Stress-zyme or Prime or those other crap products. If it is shipped and cared for properly the bacteria are still alive when you use it at home.

You need to add the fish at the same time. You do not use Bio-Spira for a fishless cycle.

I have used it to cycle several tanks and to aid in the cloning a couple others.

There are many reasons why he is seeing an ammonia spike:

1 too little Bio-Spira used compared with the bio load of the tank.
2 stored or used improperly and the bacteria died
3 added the fish too late and some bacteria died off. Should have added right away
4 Salinity too low for Salt water Bio-Spira and bacteria died

However, the guy did nothing wrong. He just needs to do water changes to keep the stats correct while the cycle finishes.

 

[el_vulture619]

However, the guy did nothing wrong. He just needs to do water changes to keep the stats correct while the cycle finishes.

I am sorry but I have to stand firm on properly cycling a tank for 1-2 months before adding fish. I dont care what kind of bacteria solution you use. Things are to unstable. 1.010 is to low if that was a salt water bateria, Cycle would have been better, you can use it in salt or fresh.

Sure the fish might live, but the extra water changes and salt mixing is unecessary work.

 

[kanzaris]

Hi

You should have used mollies to cycle the tank, not a GSP. Puffers are very sensitive to high nitrates etc.

Sabby

 

[Musho3210]

no, no fish should be used to cycle no matter what, one fishes life is not more important than an other fishes life.

no your meant to put ammonia in after the bio-spira, ammonia can come from two things, inhumanely from fish, humanely from dead things or a bottle. Bio-spira isnt a product that will always work, thats why you add bio-spira, and use pure ammonia from a bottle and bring the ammonia to 5ppm.

No you are not. Yes it does. and that is incorrect.


Bio-Spira is live bacteria. It is not like Stress-zyme or Prime or those other crap products. If it is shipped and cared for properly the bacteria are still alive when you use it at home.

You need to add the fish at the same time. You do not use Bio-Spira for a fishless cycle.

I have used it to cycle several tanks and to aid in the cloning a couple others.

There are many reasons why he is seeing an ammonia spike:

1 too little Bio-Spira used compared with the bio load of the tank.
2 stored or used improperly and the bacteria died
3 added the fish too late and some bacteria died off. Should have added right away
4 Salinity too low for Salt water Bio-Spira and bacteria died

However, the guy did nothing wrong. He just needs to do water changes to keep the stats correct while the cycle finishes.

well its just about too late for him, bio-spira didnt work, i dont see a difference in adding ammonia vs adding fish, they will both produce ammonia except one of them will be poisoning itself.

 

[CAC]

poor fishy, im sorry but that was pretty cruel to do that, you should have just used regular ammonia and no fish.... now you need to do daily water changes to get ammonia and nitrites below 0...

Those are very painful, toxic, and deadly conditions the tank is in now, if i read correctly you put a fish in that condition correct?

You should not have put the Puffer in yet! Cycle with cocktail shrimp, let it rot away to nothing in the tank. It is cheap, easy and you know that your tank will be fully cycled when the shrimp is gone.

If either of you knew what Bio-Spira is then you wouldnt have written the above comments.
This is a good experiment because the saltwater one might well die off in the low salinity (which is what I think is why you're getting the results you are getting) but the freshwater one may be fine at this sal, if anyone else is doing something similar then maybe the product that will get the best results could be determined. Good luck

 

[Musho3210]

i know exactly what bio-spira is, its live bacteria, its the actual bacteria that breaks down ammonia to nitrite then nitrite to nitrate, doesnt mean you should skip the cycle, it will cylce for you but thats not all the time, success stories is not 100%. Because of this you should continue with a fishless.

 

[Dave Legacy]

I used both the freshwater and saltwater version of Bio-spira when I started my archer tank. I started with the freshwater version and four 2" T. jaculatrix at about 1.005SG. After about an hour the NH3 level hit 8.0ppm, maybe a little higher. At the time I was advised to sit it out and let the bio-spira take it's course, but it was the wrong course of action. I waited 24 hours, added the saltwater bio-spira which seemed to start an accellerated cycle, but nothing spectacular. I had to do a 50-75% water change ever 4-5 hours for the first 5 days in order to hold the NH3 at 2.0ppm at the highest. This meant I had to come home from work on my lunch break and change water as well as waking up in the middle of the night to change water. The second weak was a little more relaxed and I was able to keep the NH3 way down, but not without daily 50% water changes.

I've got news for you guys... all of my archers survived. I didn't lose a single fish and still have my original shoal of archers 2 years after the fact. Suck it up, do the water changes, and save the fish.

Best regards,
Dave Legacy

PS> Musho3210: You are so dramatic! I agree with what you're saying, but for some reason it just seems so frantic and ridiculous coming from you. I think you'd be much more helpful if you could provide something positive to this thread since most people who are bombing thier tanks and risking thier fish are already stressed enough.

 

[Musho3210]

i cant find anything positive to say, ammonia is/was at toxic levels, bio-spira isnt working yet or at all, fish may die, i could say something happy but it would be pretty off topic.


I hear everyone going on about how good a fishless cycle can be, how it can help you, how it works, how to do it, and now i hear people going on, who cares, no need to do a water change, just leave it and see what happens.


EDIT: Used the wrong words, bio-spira is working but there is ammonia which is at toxic levels.

 

[Rinderm]

Bio-Spira is live bacteria. It is not like Stress-zyme or Prime or those other crap products. If it is shipped and cared for properly the bacteria are still alive when you use it at home.

Prime is not a bacteria starter. Prime is a water dechlorinator that detoxifies ammonia, nitirites and nitrates as well as adds a slime coat. So yes you are correct it is crap if you think its a bacteria starter but for what it does do is great. 5ml does 50 gallon which is awesome for people with big tanks and its cheaper than Aquel+. Seachem makes stability which I have used to cycle uncured live rock that had dead crap all over it and smelt like an outhouse. It worked great and I highly recommend it . I have used BIO spira as well on a saltwater and freshwater system and we fully stocked the system right away, it worked really well and only had a small ammonia spike of .5 ppm which went down after a week .

R

 

[Musho3210]

stability is snake oil IMO, bio-spira is the only i would consider.