Oh Happy Day

[Amunet]

So this weekend, I found another petstore that wasn't far away from us. Actually it's right across from the hospital my bf works at.
So today I get him to go to it after work before he comes home.. and YAY they actually carry Bio-Spira! WOOHOO!

Well He bought some ($20 for a 3oz bag... expensive but worth it if it works!) and now it's sitting in the fridge rdy to be used.

Questions though.....
We got it before from a website, but it didn't work entirely. In my 10gallon it gave me nitrate readings, but the ammonia is still there. And in our 28gal... it didn't do anything (already had readings of ammonia, no nitrite, some nitrate).

So what should I do?
There are fish in both already. Both tanks have ammonia readings, no nitrite, with some nitrate readings.

We have some new filter bags for the 28gal... should we throw out the old filterbag, put in the new one and then use the BS?
Or should we just keep the old filterbag and use the BS on it?
Should we do a water change? How large of one before we use the BS in the tanks?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[dixaisy930]

Keep the old filter, do a 20-30% water change, then add the BS And keep doing a 10% daily until the ammonia is gone.

 

[Amunet]

You sure I should still do water changes after I add in the BS? From what I understand you're not supposed to do water changes for a week? or something like that after you add in BS... but then again that's if you follow their directions of adding the fish after the bs heh

 

[dixaisy930]

I don't see why it would hurt, if it is live bacteria like they claim. The majority of the bacteria is going to live in the filter and substrate. Little of it is in the actual water column. I guess you could wait a day or two to give the bacteria time to settle. Have you ever heard of Amquel+? It's a water conditioner that neutralizes ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. It doesn't remove them, it just decreases the harm it could cause fish. Most test kits (I forget which kind will give you off results if used with Amquel+) will still give you accurate results. Just a thought, since you're still getting ammonia results. You'd still need to do water changes, though.

 

[Amunet]

*nods* We have amquel actually. But right after I started using it alot of my fish died... (pretty sure a new fish brought in something nasty with it), but being paranoid.. I stopped using the amquel and haven't used it since then.

I dunno though... think I'm gonna try doing a large water change tomorrow, then use the BS. And wait a few days.

Thanks so much for your input though!

 

[Will91]

Hi Amunet:

As you know, I used BS very successfully. I'm curious to know how high your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are right now.

Biospira contains two different types of nitrifying bacteria: one processes ammonia and the other processes nitrite so even if you have both already present, I would think the BS would have no problems. In fact, Marineland recommends adding BS and fish at the same time so that the BS has an immediate source of ammonia for the first type of beneficial bacteria. I would think that having nitrite as well would only serve to immediately feed the second type of beneficial bacteria rather than the usual delay for the first bacteria to process the ammonia to nitrite.

Do you have an external filter with a filter floss cartride and a bio-sponge? If so, your beneficial bacteria (if any) live on the sponge and not the floss.

 

[Jozlyn]

Yep, keep doing water changes even with the BS in there until your amonia reaches zero, you should be starting to get nitrite readings too. Then keep testing the water regularly to keep the amonia and nitrites it at zero and the nirates low I'm a bit of a panic merchant, so if my ammonia or nitrite levels go up at all I do big water changes, of around 40 - 50% straight up then around 25-30% daily till it's gone. So long as your filter doesn't dry off (as this will kill the good bacteria living in it), bigger changes are ok. Don't forget to de-chlorinate it tho!

 

[dixaisy930]

That's right...how are all of the fish doing now?

Now, I think there is a difference between Amquel, and Amquel+. Can't remember is + replaced the regular all together, or if both are on the market. Amquel+ was a god send for me when I had to set up an emergency hospital tank for my seahorses. That's why I'm slightly jaded to the BioSpira (alteast the saltwater version)...I added that to the hospital tank, and my readings were out of control.

Have you noticed any decrease in the ammonia? And did you have it tested by a few different tests? Make sure the results were accurate?

 

[celaeno]

doing water changes after adding the bio-spira would obviously remove some of the bio-spira.

 

[Amunet]

Our filter is a hangon that uses filterbags.

I've been doing every other day water changes instead of my usual every day changes to see if this would do anything for the ammonia, but all it's done was make it climb higher.

Yesterday when I tested the water, ammonia was at 2.0.... there are still no nitrites, but nitrates are at about 5-10.
The readings have been like this for over a month now. Tank has been set up since gosh... a few days after Xmas. And fish have been in it since Jan1st. I had thought the tank was cycled after the first month b/c all readings indicated that it was cycling.
Things spiked, then came down while others went up.. ammonia, and nitrite came down while nitrate came up. Amm, Nitrite at 0.. 0 nitrate readings (wasn't doing the test right then though so could've been some nitrates).....then for no apparent reason ammonia started to build again. *shrugs*

Think I'm just gonna try it with a large water change and see how it goes.
I'll try contacting the company and hope for a response.

 

[dixaisy930]

That's really weird. This is a pretty far fetched idea but....have you tested the water you're putting in the tank? I'm assuming you're using tap water. I don't think there could be ammonia in your tap water, but who knows.

 

[Amunet]

Oh I've tested our tap.. it has a reading of 0.25 ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates.
But figured that the bacteria would be able to handle such a small dose of ammonia which probably is the less harmful kind.. least I hope it is heh.

I'm just really hoping this time the BS will work. B/c even though I'm not going to give up.. it's still frustrating lol

 

[dixaisy930]

Wow...didn't expect that. Ok...no more water changes with that water. lol

I'm guessing with the WC the bacteria can't/couldn't keep up with the ammonia being added to the tank.

Do you have any other source of water?

 

[Amunet]

Wow...didn't expect that. Ok...no more water changes with that water. lol

I'm guessing with the WC the bacteria can't/couldn't keep up with the ammonia being added to the tank.

Do you have any other source of water?

Sure don't.. unless I wanna spend an arm and leg (already spending so much already) and fill our tanks with bottled water.. which I really would prefer not to do.

 

[Amunet]

Alrighty.. so today I did a 70% water change. Let it settle some, and then added in about 2oz of the BS.
We'll see if it does anything on Friday. I'll test the water tomorrow, but I'm not gonna change it.
If ammonia goes up on Friday.. I'll do a water change then.

At least.. that's the plan for now lol. Things could change if ammonia readings tomorrow are high.