Thanks all, I feel a lot more confident about the Stability now, especially reading that "They are spores in a suspended state." Makes sense! I wondered how there could be actual bacteria alive in there if it was not refrigerated. I figured whatever they put in would just die in the bottle, but after reading that my confidence in the product is boosted for sure.
Fishless Cycle with Ammonia AND Stability?
- Thread starter Rob Martin
- Start date
Have not used Stability but since your doing a fishless cycle you have a great opportunity to test it out without doing long term damage to your fish.
Log all your tests so you can pass the info on. Do ammonia and nitrite tests daily. Don't bother checking nitrates because the nitrites will give it a false reading.
When your ammonia drops to 0 ppm (may take a few days) add enough to bring it to 2.5 ppm. This is more than enough to fully stock your tank. At 4 ppm it will take a long time for the nitrite bacteria to develop to consume the waste. Getting the nitrites to 0 will take considerably longer.
Generally it would take 4 to 6 weeks to cycle depending on how much ammonia your using so if the Stability works you should see a drastic reduction in that time.
If your tank is cycled before getting the fish just keep cycling at 2.5 ppm and start water changes to bring the Nitrates under control and stop the ammonia 48 hrs prior to adding your stock.
Log all your tests so you can pass the info on. Do ammonia and nitrite tests daily. Don't bother checking nitrates because the nitrites will give it a false reading.
When your ammonia drops to 0 ppm (may take a few days) add enough to bring it to 2.5 ppm. This is more than enough to fully stock your tank. At 4 ppm it will take a long time for the nitrite bacteria to develop to consume the waste. Getting the nitrites to 0 will take considerably longer.
Generally it would take 4 to 6 weeks to cycle depending on how much ammonia your using so if the Stability works you should see a drastic reduction in that time.
If your tank is cycled before getting the fish just keep cycling at 2.5 ppm and start water changes to bring the Nitrates under control and stop the ammonia 48 hrs prior to adding your stock.
No, I'm not stating that the product is jsut common ammonia. To feed the bacteria shipped in most "fast cycle" products they package it with buffer and ammonia. There are a few products out there that work well, however, I've never had any luck with fast cycle products. I've seen ammonia spike and disappear only to have rampant ammonia spikes after adding as few as one fish.tcarswell;3073053; said:Seriously
They are spores in a suspended state. Believe me seachem does not make any money by selling people ammonia in a bottle. It is clear you have no experience and have not tested or used the product "Stability" Stick with what you know please.
As a rule, I don't trust anything that promises faster than normal results.
And there's no reason to swing a ban stick simply because you disagree with a post. Thanks for the vote of confidence on my experience.
Rockydog: I am logging the specifics as far as tests, temp, amount of ammonia and Stability added and will continue to do so on a daily basis. Once the tank is cycled I will post results for you all to see! Going to go test that water now.
Sorry for the double guys, but I'm getting weird readings here.
The details:
Water temp is 81 degrees. When I tested the water yesterday PRIOR to the addition of the ammonia I got a reading of 1ppm. At first I thought, "How is that even possible?" So I tested it again and got the same result. I then tested my water straight from the faucet and of course got 0ppm. I chalked it up to little tidbits in the tank. When I set it up, I gave it a quick wipe out, but soon noticed that the filter was catching up a few cobwebs and I even found the "husk" from an insect. The aquarium wasn't a 100% clean when it came home from the LFS apparently, so I figured these little bits of organic material could of been giving that 1ppm reading. The tank also has pool filter sand as substrate in there already. Could that mess with readings maybe? Anyhow, as mentioned, I added 10 mls of ammonia which brought the tank up to 4ppm. I then added the Stability.
I just tested the water today... It looked to me to be at 2ppm for ammonia, yet nitrites read 0ppm. That can't be right can it? I mean if Ammonia has gone down from 4ppm to 2ppm overnight, shouldn't there now be nitrites in the water? Anyway, to stick to the routine, I then added 10 mls of ammonia again and another 12 capfuls of the Stability. Will test again tomorrow.
Anybody have any idea about these test results?
The details:
Water temp is 81 degrees. When I tested the water yesterday PRIOR to the addition of the ammonia I got a reading of 1ppm. At first I thought, "How is that even possible?" So I tested it again and got the same result. I then tested my water straight from the faucet and of course got 0ppm. I chalked it up to little tidbits in the tank. When I set it up, I gave it a quick wipe out, but soon noticed that the filter was catching up a few cobwebs and I even found the "husk" from an insect. The aquarium wasn't a 100% clean when it came home from the LFS apparently, so I figured these little bits of organic material could of been giving that 1ppm reading. The tank also has pool filter sand as substrate in there already. Could that mess with readings maybe? Anyhow, as mentioned, I added 10 mls of ammonia which brought the tank up to 4ppm. I then added the Stability.
I just tested the water today... It looked to me to be at 2ppm for ammonia, yet nitrites read 0ppm. That can't be right can it? I mean if Ammonia has gone down from 4ppm to 2ppm overnight, shouldn't there now be nitrites in the water? Anyway, to stick to the routine, I then added 10 mls of ammonia again and another 12 capfuls of the Stability. Will test again tomorrow.
Anybody have any idea about these test results?
No idea but im interested to hear what others have to say. I currently have a 240 I jus set up...I put fish in it tho and im using the tetra safestart stuff. Put 16 fish on tuesday...and still have no readings of anything. I also have some stability if the safestart doesnt do anyhting so I dont loose nay fish.
Fishless is the only way to go. Once you amonia starts zero-ing out each day just wait and watch for the Nitrite to do the same. When complete do a large water change to bring the nitrates down. If it will be a couple of days before you get your fish just keep adding the amonia as you have been and when you know you are getting the fish within a 24 hour period stop adding the amonia and just test to make sure your levels are at zero when the fish go in.Rob Martin;3072941; said:
Given your post there was really no leeway it was pretty clear what you said. And since you had not tried stability he really was not asking for your opinion. Especially when you don't even know the content of the product at hand it does not keep live bacteria as you stated it keeps spores in a suspended state. Plus you did say "The bottle is usually full of ammonia" another non factual statement about stability. Given the fact you had never used it you sure did post a lot of BS about it.velanarris;3073535; said:
Hmmm... I haven't been recording the nitrate levels. My understanding was that you didn't need to worry about them when doing a fishless cycle since at the end of which you do like a 90% water change....
Thanks for that. It will probably be at least a week before fish enter tank after it is cycled since I'll have to special order what I want. The store I deal with is primarily africans (Seriously about 90% or more of the fish in the store are african cichlids. It didn't used to be that way, but I guess africans are the big seller in my area so they stock what moves...) so anything else you want you need to order in.
My original plan was to order in two mortoro stingrays as the tank's only inhabitants, but I'm having second thoughts after reading up on them on this site. I've owned a motoro in the past, she was in a 135 gallon with a bunch of my discus, but I never knew they required such massive aquariums when fully grown. I really want to go with a couple rays, but I don't know if I want to ugrade to like a 300 gallon in the near future.... So I may have to go with something else which is a bummer because I already put all that damn sand in the tank!
