Bio Spira?

Question

Is it true that if I use Bio Spira on my new aquarium, I can put fish in within 24 hrs?

Answer 1

Well Ben is right to a certain extent, and that'd be the best approach, but I'm just going to say, don't even use this product in the first place. To many conflicting reports, not just from my own trial of this product, comming in claming it just doesn't work. I've never seen anything significant in results to even mention trying this product out. But still Ben has the best apporach to this, but it's also basically saying, treat the tank as if there is nothing in there lol.

JV

Answer 2

I tried this product myself and did not find it helpful. You MUST cycle your tank. Cycling your tank will NOT start until there is fish in it. Simply said, fish provide the food for the bacteria, PEE! Without some fish there is nothing to encourage the bacteria to develop....

You can cheat a LITTLE bit. It will still take many weeks, but not the full 6-7 weeks. You will still need to monitor the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels or do partial water changes (1/3 to 1/2 depending on how many fish you start with) every day if you do not have a test kit.

Do not change ALL the water. This will set you back. If you change all the water you will remove most of the bacteria, in the beggining alot of it is free floating until it attaches to items in your tank. Also you do not want to remove ALL the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates because the presence of these chemicals is what the bacteria need to live.

Here is how I cheat. When I have more than one tank running I put the filter for the new tank on an excisting tank for a couple of weeks before I set up the new one. This allows the bacteria to start colonies in the filter for the new tank. If done right, the new tank will just barely have a cycle.

If you do not have a tank that is already cycled, go to your FISH store, not general pet store, and definately not walmart, Kmart or whatever. Explain to the people at the fish store that you will buy them a new cartridge from their store and give it to them if they will let you have the OLD DIRTY one from their filter. It is nice if they have the same filter as you but not necessary. If they do then take it home and put it in your filter. DO NOT CLEAN IT. If it is not the same you can put it in your tank where the best water flow over it is. If you are really clever, cut it up and put the pieces in your filter, but make sure they will not mess up your filter by being loose.
You will still have to cycle the tank doing this but it will be a little quicker.

A good fish store will know what you are doing and help you out. You usually do not need to worry about disease transfer from a good fish store. They know what they are doing. Also they isolate tanks that do get disease. This is their living. Stores like walmart, Kmart, or whatever are not the same. The people taking care of the fish usually do not know how. The tanks are not cared for. There is a lot of disease. Just go look at their tanks and see how many dead fish are in them. Good fish stores have fish die also but they remove them to prevent more problems and not as many die. Nevre get your fish there, it is asking to bring an epidemic home to your healthy tank.

One last thing. Cycling a tank is hard one the fish. I recommend Mollies and swordtails, they are tough. You can also ask your fish store about other tough fish if you do not like these.

Good Luck

Answer 3

You didn't really give good information about what's going on in your tank to give you the high ammonia and nitrite readings. Bio Spira can be good, but it must remain chilled from the time it leaves the lab to the time it gets to your tank. If it got warm for more than 12 hours or so at any point during shipping or storage, there is a good chance that it won't work much at all. Assuming you got a good batch, it will take a few days for it to really take effect. Edit - The main thing is that your tank is cycling and it takes a while. If you cycle your tank using fish it can take up to 6 weeks for it to be safe for fish. I have also seen tanks under perfect conditions cycle in a couple of weeks. There is no one set amount of time for a cycle to occur because there are too many variables.

Answer 4

Of course you can put fish in your tank. The question is how many fish. Most people start off with three fish to allow the tank to cycle. Just putting Bio-Spira in by itself is not going to cycle the tank. This type of product will greatly help with the cycling process, but it is not a "cheat". You still need to monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. If one of these gets high, you will need to do a decent sized waterchange.

Answer 5

Yes you can. The whole purpose of bio-spira is to jump start your tank with a live culture. In fact you need to have an ammonia source in the tank when you add the bio-spira or it won't work correctly.

Here is a great thread that outlines many people's successes with bio spira.

http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=7372

Answer 6

No! It still needs to go through the cycle process which can take weeks.

Nosoop4u