A little context, I use this site quite a bit and rarely review. i felt the need to jump in and supply some details about my experience.
We have a new 10g aquarium that we purchased 6 weeks ago for our 2 year old son's enjoyment. understanding the cycling phases that we had to go through,we entered the process with eyes wide open, at least we thought. We had a fish die about every 3 days and I purchased a kit to test levels and saw that we were off the charts. I wrestled with 50% tank changes and kept the tank very clean, as fish were still dying it felt hopeless. Our son grew frustrated not having any fish to enjoy, and our tank looked no closer to cycling than when we started.
Some research later, I came upon this product, why not give it a shot, can't hurt! It arrived mid day and i checked my levels before i put in the product and the water was clearly toxic. 24 hours later the tank was tested again and it had FULLY cycled! We took a sample in to the petstore to verify and they said the water is cycled and perfect for new fish. I am happy to report a perfectly balanced ecosystem becausse of this product.
I hope this post helps people decide to go for it, fantastic product, my fish thank you!
PS. We have had great success with our tank and have since moved to a much larger 26 gallon tank. I purchased this product to cycle it for us, and once again, within 1 day perfect ecosystem and no fatalities! You guys really did this right!
We moved my daughter's 7-inch goldfish "Willow" into a 55 gallon tank kind of on the spot. We were going on a 3 day trip away from home and realized the fish wasn't going to fare well in her little tank up in my daughter's bedroom without her daily water change. We had been discussing setting up a larger tank, but where it would go, how large, and if we would be adding more fish were in the debate and research process. Now with this "emergency" we made our decisions that we would be getting some more fish, and that goldfish needed large tanks for best safety for them. We decided on the largest tank we could find at the zero hour and worry about adding tank mates later.
After the trip I found that I had to do almost daily water changes and ammonia treatment even in the big new tank! I looked all over the internet and got educated on tank cycling. The problem is, we had already thrown out or let dry out all of the old media and had no bacteria to cycle the tank with. Information suggested Willow would be cycling that big tank for months all on her own. I doubted it would ever establish without killing her first.
Tetra Safestart has been the rescuer. It didn't work instantly, it took 7 days for all readings to come to .25, 0, 5.0 (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate respectively) but her water was about 68 degrees and our normal tap PH is 8.2. High PH and cold water probably slowed it down along with such a light bio-load. I did make the fortunate mistake of trying to lower her water PH by .2 which likely helped the cycling along.
The Safestart was added 17 days before I write this and the readings are still holding, the ammonia is actually a little less but not quite zero. Yes, I know I should vacuum more often. I have de*nitrate stuffed in the filters here and there to absorb nitrates. I haven't need to do water changes for any other reason but the PH levels since adding Safestart. 7 days after starting her tank cycle, I used the swish-ings from the filters to cycle a quarantine tank for the incoming new tenants. Their tank cycled even faster! That is enough to convince me that this bacteria continues to live, reproduce and re-establish itself. It's the right kind of bacteria, I highly recommend this product.
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My tank had been cycling for about a month and the nitrites were ridiculously high and it seemed like no matter how many water changes I did they wouldn't go down. I ordered this product thinking that it could do nothing but help if it actually worked. I ordered the bottle for 70 gallons for my 40 gallon tank and used as instructed. By the next day my nitrites had dropped and by the end of the week they were zero. The next week I added about 6 fish and over the course of the week neither ammonia or nitrites rose.Its been about 2 weeks since I added those last round of fish and everything appears to be stable.I totally recommend this product to everyone who is a little impatient to wait for a full cycle.
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Here is how we used this product:
1. bought a 20 gallon tank, set up with water, gravel, filter, etc. and let it run a few days while awaiting SafeStart delivery.
2. Ordered safestart 250 ml (good for 75 gallon)
3. Got the delivery promptly; the expiration date on the bottle was in a full year--menaing, the stuff was freshly packaged.
4. Got 3 platies, added them to tank same time as poured in 1/4 of the bottle (shook the bottle before pouring)
5. Fed the fish, tested the water.
6. On day 5 ammonia was rising to .5 ppm and no trace of nitrites or nitrates...so decided Safestart failed.
7. Reread the instructions on Safestart. It said add the ENTIRE bottle. so I shook the bottle hard and added the rest to the tank, plus washed out the bottle with tank water.
8. Tank water got cloudy, meaning bacterial bloom.
9. The next day ammonia and nitrites were 0, nitrates were 10ppm...
10. TANK IS CYCLED!
2 possibilities why my first attempt did not work:
a. Maybe there was not enough "food" for bacteria when I first added Safestart, and it worked better when there was ammonia present.
b. Maybe you have to add the whole bottle cuz bacteria settle on the bottom even if you shake the bottle...
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This bacterial supplement product is the ONLY one out there that actually works. It has REAL bacteria in it and not the dead stuff you find in most of these type of products. It is a pity that local fish stores or large pet marts push other products that dont work. They must get kick backs from them or something.
I have used this product after I had to medicate a fish tank (which destroys good bacteria)...when I had ammonia or nitrites spikes (even after I have an already cycled tank). This cured all problems within a day. This adds more of the good bacteria to your tank and literally neutralizes any threats. You dont have to use this all the time, like other bacteria supplements...just when you need it. Brilliant product!
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I bought this tank for the seamless front as it's very modern in appearance. I love the glass tank itself and the internal filter seems quiet and capable but there are a few things I'd like to point out. The led light included is far too weak for anything other than simulated moonlight so you'll need to upgrade to a clip-on that will fit a rimless tank. I had an extra Fluval mini power 13W compact which works much better. The final thing I should mention is the lid is only a thin piece of plastic attached to hinges.
