Dozey

I’ve got to be missing something here. If Tetra Safe Start is such a “miracle in a bottle” that so many people think it is why does anyone bother doing a fishless cycle? There has got to be a “but” in there somewhere.

I realize that it may not be available in your area and / or you don’t like to order things from the Internet, but that aside what is the down side of this product?

Tetra Safe Start, a great product that “instantly” cycles your tank, BUT…

TFA101

... it's not readily availble and usually has to be special ordered

Lucy

That's my reason initially but after you have established tanks you can seed extra filter media in them for an almost instant cycle on a new tank.

CHoffman

Yup..I agree with the above post..It's not available and If you already have a established tank why buy bacteria you already have...Also another reason people might not use it..the price..I think it's around $15.00..

komarsha

the pet store by me has it but i didn't get it becuase it was expensive. i just moved some water and the filter bag over to my new tank and it is showing the same levels as my established tank now.

Shawnie

at first it was too new for my taste to trust....now that it has proven itself, its more of availability as well as cost...and like lucy, I have so much filter media established that Id never need it now

fishlover78

I haven't found it anywhere near me. but my friend was willing to order it for me (she owns a local pet shop). even though its more money I would suggest Bio spira available from DFS online. I believed Shawnie has used it to cycle a tank, right Shawnie? was it effective?

pepetj

The main reason I prefer going with fishless cycling is that it gives me some time to double check tank set up related issues with no fish in there. I would purchase that product for emergencies only but it's not yet locally available.

My first tank took 13 days to cycle, everything new there; now I do "seeded fishless cycle" and in a matter of 4 to 6 days I have completed cycling in my latter tanks.

I keep several filters and extra sponge/fiber media in most of my tanks. Both in carefully planned or emergency set-ups they have come up real handy.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Shawnie

bio spira was the bomb!! but its not being made anymore as its much easier with the safestart not needing to be kept cold...Im not even sure you can buy it at DFS...

jdhef

I think they are still making BioSpira for saltwater.

Butterfly

In the beginning it's name was BioSpira (I feel like I'm writing a fairy tale) and it was very expensive, not readily available and had to be refrigerated. Marineland(who made bioSpira) sold the rights to this product to Tetra and it has been further developed to where it no longer has to be refrigerated. It is still hard to find and expensive.
I have used this product to set up a tank I didn't have time to cycle and it was wonderful. But as was stated above if you have time and available bacteria why spend the money for Safe Start just my two cents.
Carol

Shawnie

oops...ya they do..but I forgot there is a SW world LOL
its too intimidating to me so I forget it exists sometimes

Minnow

Speaking of Safe Start, I've always wondered... since you need a source of ammonia when you add Safe Start to a tank in order to keep the bacteria alive, how do they live in the bottle?

jdhef

The manufacturing process makes it so that in the bottle the bacteria is dormant, but "comes to life" once it get an ammonia source.

Minnow

That's cool, I didn't know they could do that. Thanks!

Mike19

is Hagans "Cycle" Product, a similar product?

shih-tzu mom

No, Mike19 it is not with Cycle you have to keep adding it to your tank and i would imagine your cycle would crash, if you ran out of the product. hope this helps Mike bella

Mike19

what is this tetra start then?, being from aus not sure if its even here.

jdhef

Tetra SafeStart is basically a bottle of the benificial bacteria that will grow naturally in you tank when you cycle. Beings it takes anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to cycle a tank from scratch, because the benificial bacteria grows slowly, adding SafeStart puts the needed bacteria in your tank immeadiatly, hence it is instantly cycled.

There are other bacteria products on the market, but they are generally unable to sustain themselfs and die off, at which point you once again have an uncycled tank. So in that case you would need to add the bacteria product again, and again, and again... for the life of the tank.

Since SafeStart is self sustaining, you add it once and you're good to go.