Cycling With Tetra Safestart Results In No Nitrites?

[upNdown]

I addressed this in my other thread, but I thought this was interesting and something I hadn't read about.
I just finished a fish-in cycle using Tetra Safestart.  The 50 gallon tank was fully cycled after 5 weeks and may have been cycled much sooner.  For the first couple of weeks, the ammonia and nitrate readings were always ambiguously close to zero.  Eventually, after increasing the fish population, the nitrates were clearly increasing and the ammonia clearly was not.  But what I found interesting was that there was never any nitrite present. 
I guess it makes sense that if this bottled bacteria will instantly convert amonia, then it can also have bacteria that will instantly convert nitrite.  It's just interesting if that's the case becuase 1) I've never read it specifically mentioned as working like that and 2) if it's true, it means that the accepted ways we have for monitoring thr progress of a cycle won't work in this circumstance. 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's correct. Safe start is supposed to have both aob and nob. Which means when it's working there will never be the ammonia spike followed by the nitrite spike. Somewhat like cycling with established media, which always contains both bacteria and doesn't follow "the pattern".

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well, I did put some advice in this respect in the end of the article. I suggested that when one seed a tank with bacteria that they reduce all the intervals suggested for when to test by a day. Seeding changes the paradigm and since there is no way to know how much bacteria one may have added, it is hard to lay it out. You are correct that what really speeds up the cycle because their are NOB ready to work right away.
 
However, what one should do it using bottled products is to follow the directions for those products over the cycling directions for tanks with out such addition.

 

[upNdown]

Well the directions for Safestart are pretty much pour the product in your tank and you're cycled. 
That's  the reason I've been posting about it.  So if the next person who uses safestart is looking for some information, maybe reading about my experiences will help. 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Indeed.
 
They don't exactly say that its just a matter of pouring it in and you are cycled.  They also mention that you need to start with VERY few fish, or if doing it fishlessly, very low ammonia additions, like 1ppm rather than the 3ppm in the cycling article.  And then NOT doing ANY water changes for a matter of days, to allow the bacteria to build up on surfaces in the tank before they are removed by a water change.  The key is that unlike using seed media as your source, adding it via a solution means that the bacteria will be in the water for a period of time, not on the surfaces like they normally live.