gmann21193

I used biro spira on my ten gallon after only 3 days of having it up and running. I put my new pet crayfish in the tank at the same time. I was iffy about spira, but its been a month and my crayfish is alive and healthy, so I learned to trust the stuff. I'm setting up a new 5 gallon for a couple Corys , and I JUST set up the tank with the gravel, and filter. I added some water conditioner too. Do you think when I go to petsmart to buy the heater and thermometer, that I could buy some spira and the cory's also? Do you think it would be safe using spira and adding fish as early as a 45 minute aquarium?

Luniyn

From the Bio-Spira instructions: So they seem to be pretty confidant that using their product you can put fish in right away. I'm cycling with fish and not using Bio-Spira (yet) so I would say give it a go. Just keep an eye on the water quality and be ready to do water changes often if any ammonia or nitrite spikes occur.

COBettaCouple

You're fortunate to have a place to get BioSpira locally, for us a bag will be over $40 with shipping.. I agree with Luniyn and wish you good luck with it. If your tank is smaller, like the 5g you mentioned, there is a chance that too much BioSpira will make the cycle take forever to get started (as a fishlore member has recently found out after having trouble with it), but i'm not sure that always happens so just follow Luniyn's advice and see how it goes.

gmann21193

yea i can probably think of about 10 LFS's near me that sell spira for like $10. and the packaging says that there is no such thing as too much biro-spira but there are so many different opinions that it is hard to know which ones to believe

Gunnie

The only issue with using bio spira is whether it's been kept properly and the bacteria is still alive. Bio spira is meant to be added when you add your fish. If you add the bio spira and then don't add fish right away, the bacteria will start to die off. I've used it 3 times with perfect results, but then I knew the bio spira was alive in the pouch because of where I got it. It is a risk, because if the bacteria is dead, you have a tank full of fish in an uncycled tank.

shollia

Yep, make sure wherever you get it from is reputable. I ordered some online and it didn't do anything to my tanks.
Got more from a store nearby (when we found out they had some)... and it did help START the cycling in my 10 gallon (which has had it's bacteria colony killed off by meds.. sigh)...
We got more and although the tanks aren't insta-cycled... it has put in the bacteria needed.. at least in our 28 gallon.