Z3R013

I've been reading a lot about what conditioners people use to start the cycling process (i.e. prime, stability, safestart, colonize etc.) in their tanks, I was wondering if I need to buy one of these for the initial jump start of the cycling process and then need something else for water changes or could I continue to use these for water changes too?

What are the main water products I need to buy in order to establish and maintain a tank? (water conditioners, test kits, stress reducers, are they all necessary?)

Is one product better than any others?

Thanks for the info... still learning.

agabr123

i can't necessarily tell you the very best things, but here is what i use

1. prime for water changes/conditioner
2. API freshwater master test kit, for testing, obviously
3. stress coat + occasionally if i have to repair ripped fins
4. i always keep a few different meds on hand, personally i like the jungle buddies tabs, they treat quite a few different things (ICH, fungus, fin rot, mouth rot, parasites, bacteria, etc)
5. i also keep a bottle of tetra safe start, i haven't used it yet but i keep it as backup in case i ever need to quickly cycle a tank. as far as i know it's the only product that actually works in terms of quick-starting the cycle
6. i also have fluorite for my live plants
7. i have nitraban, but i'm questioning its effectiveness right now *shrug*

hope that helps!!! feel free to ask more questions

CoryMac

i use prime great product super concentrated so one bottle last longer than other conditioners , i think "prime" isthe best water conditioner than all others.

CHoffman

Prime isn't a cycle jump starter..It it a water conditioner that removes chlorine and some metals from your tap water...Stability and others claim to jumpstart your cycle but contain the wrong bacteria so it actually harms your cycling process...Like Alex said Safe Start works and does contain the right bacteria. I'm pretty sure that's the only one. I use Stress Coat plus as a water conditioner and I love it. Prime and Stress Coat plus do the same thing it's just a matter of opinion.

slimfish

agabr123 hi can you tell me if your bottle of tetra aqua safe start has the word" start "on it? i came across a fully stocked shelf in a well known marketplace that had a yellow bottle of tetra aqua safe. the word "start" did not appear on it. just tetra aqua safe. Is this the same conditioner as the well known tss? tetra safe start?

slimfish

I have been checking the site here and always see people calling it safe start and aqua safe start. they also abreviate it as " tss". but tetra's product that i found (in a fresh lot ) is called aqua safe. no start in the name. hopefully someone buying the stuff for a while can confirm my dilema. the stuff ain't cheap so i don't need anything more than the stresscoat+ i sware by. Just figured i would have this tss on hand in case i want to jump start a new tank. mine is aqua safe(no start)in the name of this product in a yellow measure cap bottle. It contains the bio-extract and bla bla bla stuff... anyone?

krismoore888

aqua safe is like prime or stress coat; its a water conditioner, safe start is to speed the cycle process

agabr123

yeah aqua safe is different as krismoore888 said, i had a hard time finding it in store. i called a few places and ended up ordering it online. of course the day after i did that i found it in store! i'd call around to a few places, see if they ever get it in, and then you can maybe try to pre-pay for it so they reserve you a bottle

krismoore888

if you cant find it in a shop then ebay has the large bottles of both aqua safe and aqua safestart, but that is UK based, don't know about the US

suemvb

I use APIs stress coat to remove chlorine when I do water changes and add Seachem Flourish for the plants. There are also fertilizer tabs for the plants. I avoid putting in a bunch of different chemicals just because it seems unnecessary to me.

slimfish

Thanks very much. i could have sworn tetra wouldn't or could'nt name two products so similar. the aquasafe is easy to find. walmart had 20 bottles (large and small ) stocked every time i go in there. The safe start would have been nice to get but by now i'll just wait the process out of fishless cycling without safe start. It was'nt a product i need ,it was something i wanted to check out if easy to get. Thanks again people appreciate the info. fishless break in going great.

agabr123

lol no problem, tetra makes quite a few products that have very similar names, and a lot of LFS don't stock safe start so it can get a little confusing

slimfish

you can say that again. thanks agabr123

agabr123

you're welcome

prairielilly

I used to add a lot of stuff to the water with every water change - stress coat, salt, aqua safe etc. I just found that after a while I had to be extremely precise in measuring especially with the salt to put in only enough to replace what I'd taken out so the concentrations didn't change. It got a little ridiculous actually.

I started using Prime after reading here about so many ppl that liked it. It's good stuff! does an awesome job and you use very little of it. I bought a big bottle, then went back and bought the little one with the dropper lid so I could just add drops to my wc bucket (2 drops per gallon? so simple? Sweet!) Beyond that, I add some stress coat only when a fish has been well, stressed, say brand new from the lfs or moved to a new tank. I don't add salt any more at all, I consider it a med. I just ordered some Vita-Chem (vitamin supplement) after once again reading so many positive reviews here about it and I plan to use that regularly. I keep the API water test kits close at hand, and of course a wide variety of foods. I have Jungle's tank buddies around atm bc I needed them recently (and hopefully won't again). That's it, simple and sweet.