shelly80

ok i think i was given some wrong info at the LFS, when i was first buying all the things for my tank to start the cycling process i was told that i needed tetra aquasafe, however now since reading through many threads, i see that its not recommended to use aquasafe but to instead use tetra safestart. I was also advised that i also needed to use stress coat and stress zyme of which i have been using every time i do a water change and when i added my fish. My test kit doesnt test for ammonia ( thx to advice from lucy i have now ordered the master test kit ) The rest of my water parameters are within safe parameters but does this mean that my water may have not cycled properly, i have already lost 2 Angelfish please help me

aquarist48

Good morning. Chances are that you didn't begin the cycle correctly. Tetra Aqua Safe doesn't do anything as far as your cycle is concerned. According to your aquarium information your tank has been running since April so it actually should be cycled by now anyway. Without knowing your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate is difficult to say. Once your test kit arrives you'll be much better off and you'll know a lot more. If your test results are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5-10 nitrates then your tank is cycled. Best of luck. Sorry to hear about your angel loss.

Shawnie

im sorry for the loss of your angel its so hard to get awful advice that should be trusted .....you could get false readings because shes been using stress zyme that doesnt contain self sustaining bacteria ...so unless you use that for the life of the tank, it wont properly cycle....id pick up some detoxifier like prime, amquel+ or ammo lock because you are going to have to do daily changes to finish up the cycle properly...if you can find some TSS , that will help speed it up and save you weeks of a proper cycle....good luck!

shelly80

thanks so much guys... just one more question should i discontinue use of stress zyme etc once i get some TSS ( which i know is available in my LFS )

Shawnie

you should go about a week or so of daily water changes with one of the detoxifiers, without stress zyme, before adding TSS...the two together in a tank, will be a waste of money on TSS so you want to make sure the stress zyme is gone ...the water changes and some time will do that

shelly80

Shawnie much appreciated.

O C

My recent experience with TSS was very good. I also wasn't as cycled as I thought. ammonia and nitrite around 0.5 (after some water changes). Added TSS at 4pm Thursday. By 8am Friday, ammonia was zero, nitrite down to around 0.25. At 8am Saturday, both are zero. All my fish are fine. It was expensive as I had to order it online and pay expedited shipping, but I feel alot better knowing my fish won't suffer from my mistake!