New 30 Gallons Tank, How To Used Tetra Safe Start

I didn’t remove my stock filter.

Thanks. So you kept the stock filter (which may have carbon in it) and it cycled?

 

Thanks. So you kept the stock filter (which may have carbon in it) and it cycled?

You don't have to worry about the carbon. It doesn't cause problems with the BB. I cycled my tank using TSS and left the original cartridge in the filter. Carbon was still in it. It's for cleaning out other things, not destroying your BB, otherwise it wouldn't be recommended for filtration ever.

 

So if I understand it correctly, here's what going to happen:

1. buy my 30 gallon tank next week, set up decorations/gravel, etc.
2. fill with Prime treated water, let stand for minimum of 24 hours.
3. I think I will get 3-4 zebra danios first (unless folks think others are better).
4. shake and dump the TSS into the tank.
5. for 14 days just feed the fish and test (and do nothing basically).
6. after 14 days, do a 50%+ water change and it should be cycled?

Steps 1 thru 5 you have perfectly correct. But on day 14 you should test your water and if all worked correctly you should be cycled. Depending on your nitrate level (and assuming you have 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite) you may or may not want to do a partial water change. I would say that if your nitrate level is low, you may want to wait for them to build a little before you do a water change.

BTW it's fine to leave the carbon in your filter.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice. Bought a giant bottle of TSS at my PetSmart (for some reason the bigger bottle is cheaper than the smaller one, and they price matched a ridiculously cheap online price). So I will get my 30 gallon on Black Friday and set it up on Cyber Monday. So excited!

I plan to use 1/3rd of the TSS in my other 5 gallon betta tank.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice. Bought a giant bottle of TSS at my PetSmart (for some reason the bigger bottle is cheaper than the smaller one, and they price matched a ridiculously cheap online price). So I will get my 30 gallon on Black Friday and set it up on Cyber Monday. So excited!

I plan to use 1/3rd of the TSS in my other 5 gallon betta tank.

Good luck!! You will be fine!!

 

It is recommended that you pour the entire bottle of TSS into a tank and not split it up. The reason is supposed to be because the bacteria may not be evenly distributed in the bottle, so one tank could get more bacteria than needed and the other may not get enough bacteria. But with you getting such a large bottle I can see why you would want to split it between two tank. So I would recommend you make sure you really shake the bottle well, before pouring it into the tank to try to distribute the bacteria as evenly as possible.

Best of luck!

 

I suggest you pour the bottle into the filter.

That’s where your beneficial bacteria grows.

Others think this is unnecessary. But it worked for me.

 

Got my 29 gallon tank on Black Friday (was 50% off!) and did all the steps above with TSS. Have some platys in there right now and everyone seems happy. Now waiting 13 more days after the TSS was put in and crossing my fingers.

 

Here follow this:

D1 big water change with good vacuum. Dose conditioner with water replacement.

D2 wait wait wait. Your conditioner needs to sit for 24 hours plus before you dose your tss

D3 remove your carbon. whole bottle tss in. Wherever you want. In the filter, in the water column, in your mouth.... no the last one is not ideal.

D4-11 for the next week, do nothing, do not dose any water conditioner.

D12 voila.

 

Here follow this:

D1 big water change with good vacuum. Dose conditioner with water replacement.

D2 wait wait wait. Your conditioner needs to sit for 24 hours plus before you dose your tss

D3 remove your carbon. whole bottle tss in. Wherever you want. In the filter, in the water column, in your mouth.... no the last one is not ideal.

D4-11 for the next week, do nothing, do not dose any water conditioner.

D12 voila.

Yup. I'm in day 2 and praying for the best. I kept my filter in though (as many here said it wouldn't kill beneficial bacteria and is needed for them to grow). I put some Fluval Biomax too for additional surface area for the BB.

 

You should be fine. TSS has worked for me every time I've used it.

 

You should be fine. TSS has worked for me every time I've used it.

I goofed up in a moment of giving in to my kids and may have overstocked. We have 6 platys in a 29 gallon tank. I put some plants from my previous 5 gallon in there, but yeah, don't know why I did that. Ugh.

 

Giving into your kids does not count as overstocking. I think with the 6 platys you will still be fine. Plus the plants will absorb some of that ammonia. So try not to worry too much.

 

Giving into your kids does not count as overstocking. I think with the 6 platys you will still be fine. Plus the plants will absorb some of that ammonia. So try not to worry too much.

True true! They love the platys. I think one is pregnant (we went with a sorority but she appears to have been knocked up prior...).

So tempting to tinker with the tank but will hold off for 12 more days!

 

You should be fine. TSS has worked for me every time I've used it.

Our platys are major poopers. Should I wait to vacuum gravel until the 14 days are up or just do that now (and not replace with new water with Prime after I vacuum)?

 

Our platys are major poopers. Should I wait to vacuum gravel until the 14 days are up or just do that now (and not replace with new water with Prime after I vacuum)?

Generally you would wait, but if it gets out of hand, you can get your replacement water ready and let it sit for at least 24 hours before adding it to the tank. Then the effects of the prime would have worn off and you can safely add it to the tank without disrupting the TSS.

 

Generally you would wait, but if it gets out of hand, you can get your replacement water ready and let it sit for at least 24 hours before adding it to the tank. Then the effects of the prime would have worn off and you can safely add it to the tank without disrupting the TSS.

Ah good point. The same reason why I waited 36 hours after putting in Prime. OK. Will monitor. But man, those platy girls (and 1 male who we thought was a female...dude looked like a lady!) poop up a storm. We've also cut back on feeding too as we overfed initially.

 

Generally you would wait, but if it gets out of hand, you can get your replacement water ready and let it sit for at least 24 hours before adding it to the tank. Then the effects of the prime would have worn off and you can safely add it to the tank without disrupting the TSS.

I've been using a turkey baster to scoop up the bigger pieces of poop. It's kind of a fun game for my kids to spot large poop! I'm on day 5 of the TSS cycle and everything looks good so far. Platy are active and playing around. They seem much more secure in a group of 7 then when I had 3.

Have also set up a good amount of area for BB to settle in my HOB too, including a pre-filter sponge that does a great job of trapping larger plant particles that are floating around (platys love to nip the anacharis for snack).

 

5 days in with the TSS I have .25 ammonia. Should I continue letting the process play out? My API master kit is coming Monday so I used a strip which seemed to show 10 maybe 20 ppm nitrate and 0 nitrite (these strips really suck ergo why I bought a master kit).

Should I just keep trucking or do I need to consider a water change (would do 25% and leave out for 24 hours after prime treatment).

Would adding another TSS help?

I have 7 platies so I wonder if I overstocked the 29 gallon for the TSS phase.

 

This is why it is recommended not to test when using TSS...the results can make you do something that will cause it to fail, like doing a water change. Since you are using test strips, you don't really know how accurate the results are, so as long as the fish do not seem to be suffering the effects of elevated ammonia I would just wait it out.

 

This is why it is recommended not to test when using TSS...the results can make you do something that will cause it to fail, like doing a water change. Since you are using test strips, you don't really know how accurate the results are, so as long as the fish do not seem to be suffering the effects of elevated ammonia I would just wait it out.

Ok thanks. How about another dose of TSS?

 

I would just wait it out until at least you API test kit arrives.

 

I wouldn’t even test until day 14.

7 platys should be fine if you reduce feeding to 1X a day, what they can eat in 1 minute.

 

I second waiting. .25 really isn't anything to worry about right now.

 

I'm 9 days in. Fish look good. Just got my API Master kit so will check the chemical balance. Eager to get to day 14!

Only issue is we are leaving for a 10-11 day XMas trip.

not sure how the fish will do but hoping we have it cycled by then.

 

I wouldn’t worry too much about the vacation.

Do a large water change right before you leave, another one when you get back.

Having someone feed food you premeasured, 1-2 times while you are gone would be a good idea.

The longest I went without feeding my fish was 11 days. But 2-6 many, many times.

When i’m gone over a week I try to get someone to come by and drop in food I premeasured in those pill dispensers.

 

Ok day 12. Did my first API Master kit test.

.25 ammonia
0 nitrites
10-20 nitrate (really hard to differentiate between the orange).
7.5 pH

Stay the course. No water change until day 14? I did a tiny 5 gallon change a week ago but also dosed more TSS.

jdhef

When I did a 5 gallon water change last week I used prime to dechlorinate and sat the water out for 36 hours plus before adding.

 

Yes, just stay the course. You could potentially be cycled right now. Many people claim that they can never seem to get the API test to read 0ppm no matter how long the tank has been cycled. I always wonder if that is because it is not unusual for a tank to have both ammonia and ammonium at the same time. And whether the ammonia stays as ammonia or converts itself to ammonium is a function of both pH and temperature. The bacteria has a difficult time processing ammonium, so it is possible that all the ammonia has been processed and there is just a small amount of ammonium present in the water. The API test kit, cannot tell the difference between ammonia and ammonium, so if there is ammonia present it will test positive for ammonia. While the bad thing about ammonium is that the bacteria has difficulty processing it, the good thing is it is far less toxic than ammonia. Some say ammonium is nontoxic.

But with that said, I'd still like to see your ammonia level get down to 0ppm if possible, so that's why I say just stay the course for a couple more days.

 

Bear in mind I haven’t done deep gravel cleans and a lot of poop and some uneaten food are visible. Those probably add up. Seems my plants are doing its job so far too. Need that ammonia to get down. So two days test again and a 40-50% water change? I took some media from my cycled 5 gallon (some sponge filter cut and put into the HOB) and the prefilter sponge and put it in the 29 gallon to give that final push.

 

Bear in mind I haven’t done deep gravel cleans and a lot of poop and some uneaten food are visible. Those probably add up. Seems my plants are doing its job so far too. Need that ammonia to get down. So two days test again and a 40-50% water change? I took some media from my cycled 5 gallon (some sponge filter cut and put into the HOB) and the prefilter sponge and put it in the 29 gallon to give that final push.

Yes, I'd say that sounds like a good plan. If you're concerned about the ammonia, you can get the seachem alerts that stay in the tank. I have one in mine and it always says 0 even though the API kit shows the tiniest bit of ammonia. The seachem alert is more sensitive than the API kit as well.

 

Yes, I'd say that sounds like a good plan. If you're concerned about the ammonia, you can get the seachem alerts that stay in the tank. I have one in mine and it always says 0 even though the API kit shows the tiniest bit of ammonia. The seachem alert is more sensitive than the API kit as well.

Hmm, does Seachem Alert differentiate b/w ammonia and ammonium (sp?)? Is it more reliable than the API kit?

 

Hmm, does Seachem Alert differentiate b/w ammonia and ammonium (sp?)? Is it more reliable than the API kit?

I believe it does. I think the difference has to do with free ammonia and not-free, and API doesn't differentiate them. I wouldn't say it's necessarily more reliable, but it's a better measurement of whether or not what's happening might be dangerous for your fish.

So if you use something like ammo-lock that locks up ammonia, it would still show up on the API test because the ammonia exists, but wouldn't show up on the seachem alert because of the form the ammonia is in. If that makes sense?

 

I believe it does. I think the difference has to do with free ammonia and not-free, and API doesn't differentiate them. I wouldn't say it's necessarily more reliable, but it's a better measurement of whether or not what's happening might be dangerous for your fish.

So if you use something like ammo-lock that locks up ammonia, it would still show up on the API test because the ammonia exists, but wouldn't show up on the seachem alert because of the form the ammonia is in. If that makes sense?

Yeah. Jdhef was saying the same thing about the API reading ammonia agnostically without differentiating between the two. It's probably something nice to have in between water testing. If something goes awry you would know right away it seems.