Can Fritzyme 7 really be this good?

[AndyP]

Last night, around 10 PM I added Fritz Fishless Fuel to my new 55 gallon aquarium to raise the ammonia level to 2 ppm. I then added an entire bottle of Fritzyme 7 into the aquarium. 5 minutes ago, I did a test using Tetra test strips:

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate: faint pink color, too faint to get an accurate reading on the test strips.

Did I just cycle a tank overnight?

 

[fishywoo]

Did you check your tap water? If there is no nitrates in your tap then, I have no idea! But I'm eager to know if the products you mentioned are that successful, unless you used seeded media. Using seeded media can jump start a cycle of the new container/ tank if they media isn't picking up additional bioload after it's previous setting. If you increased the bioload with seeded media and used this product then even then I would be impressed, but I'm curious to know what others say. I have used API stress zyme for a short time, but realized it wasn't as efficient as seachem stability which is what I switched back to when increasing bioload or moving media to a quarantine tub. I've never tried others.

 

[Azedenkae]

Usually it's FritzZyme TurboStart 700 that is the really good product. FritzZyme 7 is good, but not known to be that good.

Just to check - did you test for ammonia soon after you dosed Fritz Fishless Fuel? Or just today?

 

[AndyP]

I tested when I dosed fishless fuel. I was at 2 PPM.

I did not use seeded media. But I have an Aquaclear 110 I am moving to the new tank tonight, assuming I can get the ammonia levels back up to feed the bacteria.

My LFS doesn't sell TurboStart 700.
I just did a retest and I think I am going to pull out the API test kit and retest. The Tetra strips are telling me that my ammonia is 0.5mm. But it's also telling me my pH is 5.2, which seems REALLY low. The water in my tap is 7.0.

 

[Azedenkae]

I tested when I dosed fishless fuel. I was at 2 PPM.

I did not use seeded media. But I have an Aquaclear 110 I am moving to the new tank tonight, assuming I can get the ammonia levels back up to feed the bacteria.

My LFS doesn't sell TurboStart 700.
I just did a retest and I think I am going to pull out the API test kit and retest. The Tetra strips are telling me that my ammonia is 0.5mm. But it's also telling me my pH is 5.2, which seems REALLY low. The water in my tap is 7.0.

Yeah... I'd definitely use the API test kit in this case lol. Seems rather dubious.

 

[cdr63corv]

Not familiar with fritzyme but I know some of the other brands say leave it for a week or two, guess they give strange readings maybe?

 

[Fishfur]

Yeah... I'd definitely use the API test kit in this case lol. Seems rather dubious.

Fritz’s bottled nitrifier products are good and if one can believe what they say about how they work, the readings you got don’t surprise me. I am super skeptical about the claims manufacturers make but with this, I actually believe them. Too many reports of success to call it coincidental.

The niftrifiers in the bottle are in a state of what Fritz calls suspended animation and it takes very little time for them to ’wake up’, so to speak.

 

[AndyP]

Ok, I did the API test kit. Here is what I got:

Ammonia: 2 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 6.0

Here is my tap water:

Ammonia: 0.25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 7.0-7.2

So something either in the Fishless Fuel or Fritz Zyme 7 lowered the pH down to 6.0 or lower.

 

[Fishfur]

Ok, I did the API test kit. Here is what I got:

Ammonia: 2 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 6.0

Here is my tap water:

Ammonia: 0.25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 7.0-7.2

So something either in the Fishless Fuel or Fritz Zyme 7 lowered the pH down to 6.0 or lower.

Just for the sake of curiosity, try testing tap water after it has sat out for about 24 hours. It’s not uncommon for the pH to change in that time.

Btw, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all acidic and do drop pH to some degree though not usually a whole point.

 

[Azedenkae]

Fritz’s bottled nitrifier products are good and if one can believe what they say about how they work, the readings you got don’t surprise me. I am super skeptical about the claims manufacturers make but with this, I actually believe them. Too many reports of success to call it coincidental.

The niftrifiers in the bottle are in a state of what Fritz calls suspended animation and it takes very little time for them to ’wake up’, so to speak.

Oh believe me, I massively advocate for bottled bacteria products (in general) lol. I got my PhD in microbial physiology, and reading up on nitrifiers and their resilience wasn't difficult for me. Turns out they are super resilient, able to survive ammonia and/or oxygen starvation conditions for prolonged periods before going dormant, let alone die off. So absolutely no reason why they can't survive in a bottle for a long while, and even if there is die off, there'd probably still be enough individual living cells for the product even after a year on the shelf. Of course, just because that's possible, does not mean all products are created equal. Some products are straight up not even suitable for cycling, like Seachem Stability.

But yeah, Fritz make products that work, and work well. Same with Tetra SafeStart (allegedly, since I have never used this product myself, but have also seen plenty of reports that even after ruling out potential ones with confounding factors, seem like it works well).

However, while FritzZyme TurboStart 700 works well - from all the reports of its usage it seems like it cycles the tank within a week 95% of the time, and in fact, instantly 5% or so of the time - amazing, FritzZyme 7 from reports I have seen, and from my own experience, takes much longer to start working. Mind you, it definitely works, and definitely speed up cycling by a lot, but yeah, still nonetheless takes time.

Ok, I did the API test kit. Here is what I got:

Ammonia: 2 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 6.0

Here is my tap water:

Ammonia: 0.25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 5 PPM
pH: 7.0-7.2

So something either in the Fishless Fuel or Fritz Zyme 7 lowered the pH down to 6.0 or lower.

pH can naturally lower due to various reasons, though going from around 7 to 6 is quite drastic. My recommendation is to get something to buffer the pH, like crushed coral. That would get pH to get to around 7.6ish eventually (and keep it around there). Better for FritzZyme 7 nitrifiers anyways - apparently their optimal pH is between 7.3-8.

 

[AndyP]

Oh believe me, I massively advocate for bottled bacteria products (in general) lol. I got my PhD in microbial physiology, and reading up on nitrifiers and their resilience wasn't difficult for me. Turns out they are super resilient, able to survive ammonia and/or oxygen starvation conditions for prolonged periods before going dormant, let alone die off. So absolutely no reason why they can't survive in a bottle for a long while, and even if there is die off, there'd probably still be enough individual living cells for the product even after a year on the shelf. Of course, just because that's possible, does not mean all products are created equal. Some products are straight up not even suitable for cycling, like Seachem Stability.

But yeah, Fritz make products that work, and work well. Same with Tetra SafeStart (allegedly, since I have never used this product myself, but have also seen plenty of reports that even after ruling out potential ones with confounding factors, seem like it works well).

However, while FritzZyme TurboStart 700 works well - from all the reports of its usage it seems like it cycles the tank within a week 95% of the time, and in fact, instantly 5% or so of the time - amazing, FritzZyme 7 from reports I have seen, and from my own experience, takes much longer to start working. Mind you, it definitely works, and definitely speed up cycling by a lot, but yeah, still nonetheless takes time.


pH can naturally lower due to various reasons, though going from around 7 to 6 is quite drastic. My recommendation is to get something to buffer the pH, like crushed coral. That would get pH to get to around 7.6ish eventually (and keep it around there). Better for FritzZyme 7 nitrifiers anyways - apparently their optimal pH is between 7.3-8.

I added Sodium Bicarbonate to the tank. Got the pH up to 6.8 and raised the carbonate hardness too. I'll add some crushed coral to the filter as well, but my experience with crushed coral is that, at least in my water, it super-slow to dissolve. I set up an Aquaclear 30 on my 55 gallon a few years ago and packed it with crushed coral. I ran it for 6 months and my pH didn't budge.