Seatown12

Hello everyone thanks for taking your time to read this, I am planning on buying a new aquarium and when I was at my LFS today I saw a product called "Tetra Safe Start"(Tetra as in the company not the fish) it is supposed to speed up the cycling process for new fish tanks by supplying with bacteria, has anyone used this product or heard about this product? If so is it effective? Does it really speed up the cycle? Do you know any other products that help speed the cycling products that you guys have used with success?

EDIT: I have found a link to this product if you more exprienced fish keepers need more info on this, I would like all the help I can get

http://uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/7B4FA824...=32&lang_id=20

Red1313

Bio-Spira and Tetra Safe Start are different then the other cycle additives out there in that they add real live aquatic bacteria to the tank. Usually the success rate is pretty good. However miss handling (even before it reached the store) or mis-use of the product can decrease effectiveness. If you already have a healthy tank then the best thing to do is used cycle media from it to cycle your new tank. Barring that Fishless is an option as well. If you really want to add fish right away then TSS may be the way to go. Just be aware that you may end up having to do massive water changes if it doesn't work.

Other "CYCLING" products (ie cycle) add non-aquatic bacteria to the water which prevent the aquatic bacteria from developing. However non-aquatic bacteria eventually die off so you have to spend money continually buying the cycle product.

Seatown12

Hi Red, thanks for the quick reply. I have a 10 gallon that is already finished with the cycle but it just got an ICH outbreak and it has a bad case of planaria (little white worms, not dangerous just really annoying) so I dont think I can use the gravel or filter media from that tank unless if those stuff do not transfer. Do they transfer?

tomchitown

i've used tetra safe start 2 times and it was 50% with me ...partly my fault

125g i changed water too soon and i had a heck of time getting cycled 2-3 weeks
75g i waited 7days and it was perfect..

Red1313

Ich spores live in the gravel... so normally I wouldn't advocate it. I suppose you could take a bit of gravel to your new tank and just feed ammonia (the sterilizing dose of 10ppm for 4 days) and keep the temp high. Without a host the ich should die and if not then the 10 PPM would maybe kill it. However the best would probably be to either TSS or cycle fishless till you have the ich wiped out for sure. You could try a bottle of TSS and feed it ammonia for a week would be interesting to see the result. (sorry I'm out and Dozey wants to know the results on that ) Anyway either fishless or TSS I'd say. I'm not familiar enough with Ich to know if the above method would take care of the problem or not (would kill the planaria though). Also do you know what caused you planaria outbreak?

Seatown12

I am pretty positive its because I either had a dying plant, or because I never owned a gravel vacuum and I had an automatic fish feeder( those white blocks that break up and fish feed from them) I had it because I was on a cruise for a week and I never heard of an gravel vacuum so the excess food must have stayed there.( I was a fish noob back then, but now the planaria are really annoying me.

Lucy

You might find the results of this poll of some interest:
Important: If you've used Tetra Safe Start, please take this poll

Seatown12

Lucy thanks for tying to help but for some reason my computer says the link is broken or it cannot find it, is there any way you can tell me the results?

shadowavenger

I suggest when using safe start to pour the solution directly into the filter, that way the bacteria can get onto the media as soon as possible.

You could also try cutting the bottle in half vertically and wiping the insides on the filter media since the bacteria actually will stick to the insides of the bottle too and that would rub them off onto the filter.

Lucy

Ooops Sorry! I fixed the link but here it is again:
Important: If you've used Tetra Safe Start, please take this poll
There are a few comments too. They might help you along with your decision.

Red1313

Planaria usually develops from rotting material and poor water quality so the situation would be perfect for it. You're vaccumning you gravel regularly now I take it. A dying plant alone would do it (I've had a few of those) but the combination would likely.

I don't have experiance with these worms (though I'm told that some fish love to munch on them) they're more a eye sore then a problem to the fish unless numbers are high enough to irritate gills. To get rid of them the recomended treatment seems to be thourgh daily gravel vacs to remove excess food and to add aquarium salt. (tablespoon/5 gal). Rinse you're media in decholrinated tap water (not tank water since the planaria will be in there). Maybe try cutting back on the feeding to see if overfeeding is part of the problem.

Wish you the best with getting the ten settled and with your new tank.

Seatown12

Thanks for the advice red, haha and yes I do gravel vacuums now.

Franklin

I have used both Bio Spira and more recently Tetra Safe Start.I have had success with both.I used the TSS when the cycle in one of my 55g crashed.The ammonia was at 5ppm.I added the TSS and overnight it was at 0ppm.

Amanda

I've used TSS many times, I love it. I highly recommend it.