store bought live bacteria

[roxy1]

Hello everyone. I'm new and have a question about cycling a 30 gallon tank with live bacteria that I purchased at a pet shop. I have set up my tank, added the live bacteria, water conditioner, and put in two lionhead goldfish. Should I have waited before putting in the fish? They seem fine, but who knows what tomorrow will bring...Also, should I do partial water changes until my tank starts cycling naturally? And can anyone tell me about how long this natural cycling takes to kick in? I guess I should have done more research before I jumped into this. I paid $60 for the pair, and would hate to lose them. Thank you for any responses!
Roxy

[Brhino]

what exactly was the "live bacteria"? was it a liquid, or a product in a bottle leak seachem stability, or maybe some filter media (a sponge, or ceramic bits, or the like)? We'll have to know what it is exactly you got to have some idea of how much, if any, it'll help your cycle.

Also, do you have a test kit? It's important to have one to see how the cycle is progressing.

[Lady Hobbs]

Fish are added at the same time as the bac booster when cycling with fish but if I paid that much for fish, I would have cycled the tank the fishless method. You will still need to test the water daily and do water changes accordingly.

And to add: These products do not cycle the tank for you. You still have to go thru the cycle but they only aid the fish and the water from becoming too toxic. It will, still, without testing and water changes.

[roxy1]

What I bought is called SafeStart Bio-spira bacteria. It came in liquid form and had to be refrigerated. It reads on the bottle that it accelerates the establishment of the bio-filter in the newly set up aquarium. The key ingredients are Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, and Nitrospira...which, of course, are all Greek to me...It also states that it allows for immediate addition of fish. Common sense tells me that "accelerates" does not mean "instant", and I am surprised that the shop keeper was so eager to sell me the fish on the same day that I bought the tank. He also never mentioned a test kit, so I will certainly buy one tomorrow...Hopefully, my fish will still be alive! I thank you both for the very valuable info. I wish I'd visited this site before I bought the fish. They are a beautiful pair and I'd hate to lose them due to my ignorance. It will certainly be an expensive lesson learned if they don't make it. Thank you again!
Roxy

[Brhino]

What you bought should indeed help with cycling. It's hard to say how much it will speed up the cycling process, but it will, at a minimum, make things healthier for your fish as the cycle sets up. It's good that you're getting a test kit. Get a liquid one, not a paper strip one - the paper strips are unreliable. The most people test kit around here is the API Master Test Kit.

If you use the booster you bought, and are diligent about testing your water and performing water changes as needed, your fish should make it through cycling just fine.

How big are they currently? The bigger they are, the more waste they'll produce, and the more of a source of toxins they'll be until the cycle establishes itself.

[rothenb1]

The live bacteria will work for a little while, but it does not skip the actual cycle. It puts the bacteria into the water but the nitrogen cycle must still take place in order for your tank to have it's own established bacteria. I've heard good things about BioSpira, but I would still be wary. If you use it, make sure you test your water frequently (when I cycle a tank I do it daily). Preferably, a liquid test kit should be used, but you can use strips. Most pet stores and fish-only stores will allow you to bring in a water sample and will test it for you for free, but they usually use strips and those really only give a ball-park estimate of your levels. The liquid test kit has more precise measurements. Make sure you're still doing routine water changes because after a few days you will see an ammonia spike, and the cycle will begin. When testing the water make sure you look at the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.


Good luck! :ssmile:

[Lady Hobbs]

MarineLand originated the Bio-Spira as a bacteria booster. It used to come in pouches and had to be refrigeratored. They changed this product a few years ago to now be called Tetra SafeStart which is on the store shelves, does not need refrigeration and is 3 times cheaper.

You do not see Tetra SafeStart listed as SafeStart Bio-Spira, however, so your post confused me.

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I think I would be concerned if your product was refrigeratored that you got some very old stock from some store. Tetra SafeStart replaced the bio-spira at least 3 years ago.

I see Instant Ocean is jumping on the bandwagon and trying to confuse consumers with another Bio-Spira of their own. Also non-refrigeratored.

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[Bristley]

....and I am surprised that the shop keeper was so eager to sell me the fish on the same day that I bought the tank.

Do not be surprized at all. the shop keeper is running a business. His/Her goal is to make money. Some LFS owners/employees are good and truly care about fish and making sure people have healthy fish tanks. The sad thing is that if that's all they care about they will probably have a very difficult time keeping their business open, unless there are a ton of people in the fish keeping hobby that are close by.

Most LFS owners/employees are in it for the money. Big chains are mostly this way. The owners/employees in these circumstances most likely do not know that much about proper fish keeping. What the do know is that if they sell 100 people a 10g fish tank with all the accessories, and 4 goldfish per tank they make a big profit. And since most of those fish will die within a short amount of time due to not being provided with the right environment, 90+ of those people will come back to get new fish from them, and so on and so on. So it all then comes down to making money and big business which is great for them, but horrible for the fish and the new hobbyist.

[jcclark]

Well I think you'll probably be ok.
When I think back to all the years I had fish and didn't know anything
about cycleing, it's amazing that they ever lived.
Countless times I started a new tank up with all new filter media and
water and added fish immediately. And they lived just fine.
I guess it just matters how strong or sensitive the fish are.
I've done it many times with new angelfish and never had a problem.
I would never do it today, knowing what I do now, but
boy I sure was lucky for all those times they lived:ssmile:

[Cermet]

I made a big mistake and had to setup a discus tank (with 10 2 - 3 inch fish) and cycle at the same time - not fun!:scry: To get the tank to cycle and keep the fish healthy (not just alive) you MUST change a very large volume percentage (mine had to be 90% due to the number of fish and how fast my levels went up - yours, I hope, will not be as bad) of your water on a daily bases; no if, or buts (hence the need for a good liquid test kit to see whats happening). Your aim is for zero ammonia but I never got my below 0.25 ppm until my tank cycled.
I am lucky that I have 6.2 ph water from the sink - ammonia becomes a safer form (ammonium) at these ph's and keep your temp as low as acceptable (Discus don't like under 82/84 F.) Don't try asnd change your ph, however - just more stress on the fish - just do more changes.
Once your ammonia starts to stay down, higher temps are a good idea to speed up cycling.
Watch your nitrites every day too - once things begin to cycle, these can jump big time and these are deadly to fish; salt helps but some fish don't do well - check the threads for infor.
My discus are alive, happy and healthy but only because I changed 90% of the water every single day (it was a 75 gal tank and if you saw my ammonia readings, you would have too!) Some days I did an extra 50% and once, two 90% (when my 0.25 ppm (after change) went to 3 ppm twelve hours later.)

I had great help from a lot of people at this forum so listen to them.

Good luck:18: .

Aside but note, this is a gamble which could backfire so think it over before trying: If you have a friend with an established tank (I had a community tank I used), use some well used (lots of bacteria)wool from them - you can always med the fish but if ammonia burns their gills, game over.

[jimw/oscar]

I honestly simply don't believe any of these seeding products do any good whatsoever.

People have told me SeaChem's Stability works well, I can't say since I've never used it, but the others I've tried I think I may as well have flushed my bucks down the toilet.

[Lady Hobbs]

Unless I had been able to test each one of them myself, I couldn't judge how well one works over another much less say that none of them work. If they only do what they are said to do, which is to keep the water less toxic, then I think trying a good brand is worth it.

[jimw/oscar]

Unless I had been able to test each one of them myself, I couldn't judge how well one works over another much less say that none of them work. If they only do what they are said to do, which is to keep the water less toxic, then I think trying a good brand is worth it.

I've tried quite a few of them over the years, except for as I said Stability, all I can comment on is what I've experienced and I've noted no difference between adding these seeding products and just cycling a tank sans them - with the possible exception of Top Fin's product which made things worse by clouding the water with film.

What's worked best for me has been to introduce into a new tank some FRESH bio-bed media from an old tank. That's live bacteria.

From [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
Fritz Industries pioneered a revolutionary process that decreases their metabolic activity to allow these bacteria to remain viable for six months in their package. Laboratory tests have shown that attempts by other competitors to package nitrifying bacteria with extended shelf lives have failed to produce viable bacteria, and especially, viable Nitrobacter.