With no shortage of Biological water treatments available I've never really relied on them. The reason being is there's no true shortcut to a fully cycled aquarium you have to wait and let nature take it's course. In the past I've tried products like Cycle by Nutrafin and Easy start by Tetra but in most cases these products were used in setting up fast quarantine and hospital tanks.Most of these products want you to use them continuously which doesn't make sense. If you have a fully cycled tank why would keep adding new strains of bacteria to already established water? Well, I think because some manufacturers want you too keep coming back for more and the price of admission isn't cheap.
Cycle at around $22 for 16 ounces encourages you to dose your tank with 5 ml for every ten gallons once a week and 10 ml for every ten gallons during water changes.
Nonsense.
This brings me to "Stability" by Seachem (one of my favorite companies)But being partial to them and their product line doesn't mean I don't question or research as best I can. That said, I'm nursing a new 55, a 40 and 125. I had a bottle of Stability which I had bought on a what the heck basis the 55 has fish in it, I seeded the filter but still had serious ammonia spikes.
The bacteria used in competitive products are inherently unstable. And for the bacteria to survive it must live in the exact temperature, PH and other water parameters in which it was raised and colonized. When you add this bacteria to your aquarium, it survives for a brief while but then crashes and dies.
Stability on the other hand, has bacteria that can survive in almost any kind of water fresh and salt and virtually any type of water conditions. Seachem states the strain took a decade to develop. What sets it further apart from the competition is that it contains nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria which isn't the case for any other product of it's kind. Seachem also states other bacterial supplements form toxic hydrogen sulfide something that can never happen with Stability.
With this said, I've dosed my new tanks according to the directions which are 5 ml per 10 gallons on the first dose and a follow up of 5 ml per 20 gallons for 7 days. What I've noticed and noticed quickly, is that my water is clearly more stabilized. Currently I show no ammonia on the API test or Seachem Ammonia Alert meter it's been five days since the last dose and all of my readings are in the safe zone.
I don't use it for water changes but having experienced the problems of adding fish to a non or partially cycled tank, I have not so fond memories of daily 50% -80% water changes for weeks..ugh.
Where Stability shines is in helping you protect your fish and stabilize the water, especially in keeping the primary fish killer -ammonia in check.So for specific applications Stability is an excellent product. It's harmless to fish and appears to deliver on it's promise. But as a weekly or even monthly addition to established tank maintenance I wouldn't suggest it.
To their Credit, Seachem says you can use it as an on going additive but unlike other products they don't make it sound like you have to.
Buy Stability, 2 L / 67.6 fl. oz. Now
This review is meant for both Seachem's Stability and Seachem's Matrix.I helped my son set up his 120 gallon African cichlid tank. We went through about 5 or 6 different filters and settled on an Eheim. From what we had learned from our research on tank setups we had understood that the filter media, once properly colonized, will remove ammonia and nitrites from the water but will not remove nitrates (ammonia gets converted by one kind of bacteria in the filter to nitrites and in turn another kid of bacteria will convert the nitrites into nitrates). The only way to reduce the nitrate levels is by either having live plants or even better, periodic water changes. We were also told that if we have a deep enough substrate then after about 6 months or so, if we get lucky, deep in the substrate will develop a bacterial colony that will help reduce the nitrates.
As I continued my research I stumbled on to the Seachem web site. I was impressed by the specs of their Matrix product. It claimed to be able to support bacteria that will eliminate nitrates from the water. Great! Now all I have to do is buy this filter media, wait six months and I'm all set. Not only that, but from what I've read on the Internet, it could take up to two whole months for the ammonia and nitrites eating bacteria to properly develop.
Well, luck for me, I found the Stability product. I added both the Matrix filter media and Stability to my setup (Stability needs to be added to the water on a daily basis for one week) and tested the water after one week. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ammonia and nitrites levels had dropped down to 0! My son was telling me not to bother testing for nitrates because it's guaranteed that they'll be there. I tested anyway and guess what? Zero!
This works like magic!I use this product to cycle my tank... I think it just little faster then the normal way you don't have to wait so long before you put the fish in the tank... I think it ok...
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