sirdarksol

Self-explanatory, I think.
Please do not participate if you have not used TSS.

haedra

O hey, I'm the first vote.

The "long version" complete with dates and results of my experience with it is listed here: my records so far, with Safe Start

Red1313

With my 32 gal it took longer then a week but with the smaller ones it's taken a week.

ray_sj

Great idea for a poll! Now we can see how effective it really is, at least among fishlorians.

Amanda

Cycled all my tanks within a week.

Cordi

never had a problem with it.

if your tank doesn't cycle in a week then your filter is probably too small for the tank, or doesn't filter enough water (which is normaly the case with all Package Tanks Deals which give you a filter that can only filter the amount of water you have in your tank once an hour, or with internal filters).

Shawnie

worked all 4 times for me....contemplating trying it on my new 75 gal Im getting this weekend as it would be the biggest tank ive tried from scratch...I have 110% faith in this product ....although one warning from yesterday, make sure you check the shelf life date on EACH bottle...anything over a year old, DONT BUY !!

pinkfloydpuffer

I just used the marine version.... Instant Ocean BioSpira... does my vote still count? Cause it helped my cycle, although I did use it after it'd been like 3-4 weeks cycling with almost no changes. After that it was just a week and a bunch of waterchanges...

sirdarksol

Good to know, PinkPuffer, but for the purposes of this poll (which is TSS specific, due to a conversation in another thread), I'm not going to count it. Did you vote, or did you wait for a response?

Thanks for all the input so far folks.

pinkfloydpuffer

Yes, I have a vote. So subtract 1 from Yes

Dozey

I have not used TSS so I did not vote. I would only use TSS to recover from a crashed cycle or in an experiment to cycle fishless with it. Since TSS exposes fish to ammonia and nitrites I wouldn’t consider it as an alternative to a fishless cycle given the opportunity.

Red1313

This is probably what happened with my 32, my canister filter wasn't working properly for a few weeks (one of the valves on the hoses was jammed and wouldn't open fully).

sirdarksol

Thank you for the heads up.
The only reason I'm being picky is that a previous discussion made a distinction between BioSpira and TSS.

Edit: As of this posting, we have five votes of "it worked as stated," two of "it didn't work" and three of "it sort of worked." Further, a couple of the people who voted "it worked" have used it on multiple tanks and had it work every time. Pretty good track record so far, no?

Shawnie

if used properly, and many things can be listed as to proper or improper use im sure, it WILL work ...and also, if the date on the bottle isnt expired, or even close to being expired, it WILL work...now, ive only used it on 55 gals or smaller ...ive used it for after having fish and learning about it, to start up tanks, and for a mini cycle(now i have used media and TSS)...when using it, ive had ZERO passings...so it does what it says it will do IMO and experience...I adore the product and am so very glad its been reformulated to be able to do the same as bio spira without the expense, and refrigeration ..and I feel so firm about this product because ive tried cycle, stresszyme, biozyme, stability, nitrobax and dr tims without the same result ( I was desperate when cycling with my oscars LOL)

MissMTS

I used it on my divided betta tank, since it went through a mini cycle even with the seeded media. After a week of daily water changes, I added TSS. I added it on Tuesday and tested the water on Saturday and the tank is now cycled The bettas are all doing great and building bubble nests.

Shawnie

just finishing up another tank ...went from 20 gal long to a 75 gal for my africans ...although I did use the gravel and the small filter on the 75 gal, i was worried that wasnt enough bacteria for such a bigger tank as the 75 so I put a big bottle of tss in with it and the fish last tues...just finished testing after 6 days (and i tested daily since tues) and ive had a 0-0-5-10 all week ....IMO I think I would have had a mini cycle without the tss...(so not enough established bacteria for the bigger tank to not have one)

plecofan

works well... ammonia down to 0ppm in about a week ... 55 gallon took 15 days... stable afterwards... fishless cycling "recomended" takes 6 or 7 days if you have sufficient filtration...

Jupiter

I can vote at the end of the week! I put TSS in my 55 gallon Monday 4/20.

DannyMac

Just added TSS to my 36 gallon tank. I had added fish before the tank was totally cycled apparently. I had been doing daily water changes to offset the high ammonia. I will keep everyone posted on the cycle after a week or so. Hopefully it does what it says because I'm sick of the water changes!!:

Annadvn

I used this i got my ammonia up to 4ppm of ammonia before i added the TTS and within 24 hours the ammonia was down to less than 1ppm and Nitrites were on the rise from zero.

Well within a week my cycle was complete and i didn't have a mini cycle when i added 15 fish all at once!

I love the product and will definitely use it again when needed!

Anna

Steve420

It worked great for me. I cycled my 55g with it and had no issues whatsoever

Jupiter

Best $22 I spent! My 55 gallon tank was taking a really long time to cycle due to filter changes and a stalled cycle. (I had 0 amonia, off the charts Nitrites, and 10 Nitrates for the last 3 weeks. Prior to that I had off the charts amonia for months.) I stumbled across a new fish store that had TSS in stock so I thought it couldn't hurt to try. It was reccomended by the salesman to pour it directly on the sponge in the filters. I don't know it that made a difference but I did that and on the fifth day I had finally cycled!

DannyMac

Almost been a week since I added the TSS to my tank and my readings are 2 PPM ammonia, .25 ppm nitrites, 0 ppm nitrates. Something is working since I had no nitrites for weeks before adding TSS.

My pH is at 6.0 however, so I wonder if this is slowing the cycle at all?? I have no idea why my pH is so low as the water from my tap is 7.4 pH, no driftwood in the tank either. Thinking about adding some shells to raise the pH, any thoughs on if the pH will affect the cycle?

I will post updates on the progress with TSS, but the cycle is not going to be complete in a week

Shawnie

the lower ph (under 7) is producing ammonium....which will starve the bacteria...it just takes longer when its in the ammonium phase...I think at this point, you would have to add crused coral and more TSS because if probably died off from the lower ph

ccb04

TSS has twice worked as advertised for me.

Craig-D

I just voted. I started my 12 gallon Thursday, June 4th. Today is Monday, June 8th and the tank is cycled. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5.0 nitrates. I will continue to monitor daily for awhile though to be sure.

I started by adding half a 100ml bottle with 1 betta and 1 platy on Thursday and added 5 panda cories 3 days later. A second platy will go in after she comes out of quarantine. In addition to the SafeStart I seeded with media and gravel from my cycled 2.5 gallon quarantine tank. For those of you debating how to use this stuff, I spoke to Tetra at length. They do not recommend fishless cycling with pure ammonia when using their product. They also do not recommend using Prime, Amquel+ or any other detoxifying agent with it. They said just use an chlorine removing conditioner, add the SafeStart and your full stock of fish and wait. You shouldn't see any ammonia or nitrates throughout the whole process. If you do, they said just do a partial water change, but don't add any products. Partial water changes will extend the time it takes to cycle though because you are removing free-floating bacteria when you do it.

haedra

That depends on who you get when you call them.

I called Tetra 3 separate times throughout the process when I used Safe Start. In none of those phone calls was I told not to use Amquel+.

Jark

At the end of the week I had zero ammonia and nitrites. Mid week I did get a sharp nitrite spike that I caught and diluted but I did loose a gourami. I lost another gourami because of the 5" pleco not liking him in his cave. I would recommend safe start based on my 55g cycle.

I added a few cap fulls of TSS to my 10g with 3 cory and a betta. It has had an ammonia spike of about .25 but does have nitrates today. Hopefully the ammonia will go down. I took the betta out due to a incident involving the filter intake, and a betta tail. I am treating him in his old bowl until ammonia drops and his fin is a little better.

kloseo

i used nutrafin cycle with biological supplement and it worked well, i did a partial water change every 3 days for about a month and then went up to every week and didnt lose a single fish, I dont think I would have neede d such constant water changes but i did stock my tank rather quickly, I did this on 2 differnt tanks
it sells at petsmart

Tony G.

it cycled my ten gal in 5 days and my 2.5 in 3