Help Needed

[erk628]

Ive read about the tetra smart safe on another forum were a lot of people there swear by it. What your suppose to do with that is put it in put fish in then wait 10 days and your tank will be cycled and also not doing any water changes. I'm not saying to do that I'm just telling you how that stuff is suppose to work. So you go on and keep doing what your doing with the big water changes I just thought I would explain how your suppose to use that stuff.

 

[OldMan47]

I have also read reports from other sites where they like one or another bottled bacteriaproduct. If you are in the UK, there actually is a product called Bactinettes that has a halfway successful track record. It would be worth a try if you are in the UK. In the US the Dr Tims One and Only has proven to be a disappointment and that was the only one we held any hope for. If you need mature media, you do have another option. We have a listing that you can reach through another link in my signature, I carry around a lot of baggage, to donors who have indicated a willingness to give newcomers some mature media to get them going. One of us may be close enough to make it worthwhile sending a PM.

 

[rebrn]

I was the one that tested Dr. Tims One and Only, and truthfully, IF it helped, and that is a big if, it only shaved maybe a day or 2 tops off the total time. It really isn't worth the money, both the Tetra and Dr. Tims products are hard to locate in stores. Stores really don't like to stock it, not because it needs to be refrigerated, but because they are still temperature sensitive, and there is really no way to guarantee that the proper temperature was maintained from manufacturer to store, i.e. was it shipped properly to the warehouse, was the warehouse temp controlled, was it shipped properly to the store etc. So you usually have to order it on line, the cost is roughly $30 US for a 2 oz bottle (regular shipping, overnight shipping which is recommended at most sites you are looking at roughly an additional $30 for shipping), and again you have to worry about the temp control through out the shipping process, storage process etc. Just too may variables to guarantee you get live product. The bottom line is this, you will find some people who say it works (I have friends that used Dr. Tims and are dumb founded that it did not work for me), if you want to try it go for it, it won't harm your cycle in anyway, but if you do try it just remember that it is expensive and (as I have said in several posts) do not expect miracles.