Fishless cycle + Biospira

Bio Spira

Just dump it in. Add fish the next day.

I have done it one time with a 70 gallon with perfect results.

Don't add fish the next day when your ammonia is at 5ppm!

I added Bio-Spira mostly to the bio-wheel, also behind the filter - so water would push it through - and a little in the water itself (hedging my bet). It seems to be taking now (added Monday morning, almost done with the cycle).

Liz

Do a full water change to get rid of your ammonia. Put in conditioned water and bio spira. Once the temp stabilizes add your fish.

Biospira and fishless cycling doesn't work as expected...trust me, I tried it.

You shouldn't have to change your water. Add the biospira behind your filter cartridge. The water will push it through. This way the bacteria will have something to grab onto and colonize. Test your water tomorrow. If you still have ammonia and nitrites, wait a little longer. When those numbers are down, do a large water change and add your fish.

Yeah, that's a definite no-go on the whole fishless with bio-spira. You're going to be disappointed with the results. Add it to the water and then add your fish the next day. I tried the 5ppm ammonia method with bio-spira and it absolutely did not work, and I don't have anything funky in my water so I don't know what the problem was. I'm thinking that since you're adding pure ammonia to the tank, too much of that ammonia stays in the ammonia form, rather than the ammonium ion, and the bacteria won't touch it. That's my guess anyway. When I tried the fishless with ammonia, my pH went up, indicating (so I was told) too much pure ammonia.

Change out as much water as you can get out of your tank, Refill it and condition the water with chlor-out or some other product. Add the bio-spira, then add your fish. Monitor your levels and change water when necessary and you'll be fine.

When I added too much ammonia, the ph crashed. I had to put in a bit of baking soda to bring it back up.

Beeker said:

You shouldn't have to change your water. Add the biospira behind your filter cartridge. The water will push it through. This way the bacteria will have something to grab onto and colonize. Test your water tomorrow. If you still have ammonia and nitrites, wait a little longer. When those numbers are down, do a large water change and add your fish.

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I wouldn't do this. You will probably waste your bio spira. I tried this with my tank and the ammonia just didn't drop much at all. Biospira is meant to be enough bacteria to start a colony once you add fish, not to take out 5ppm in a couple days.

I can't say I would recommend trusting my fish to a packet of bacteria that may or may not be alive to get the tank started. Maybe the ammonia should be brought down a little first, but I can't honestly say that I would change all the water, add biospira and immediately add fish. I have heard of too many situations that the biospira did not work, and have experienced it myself. It was either due to being a bad batch or improper keeping at the store.

The Bio-Spiro works great if you do like people have already mentioned. Conditioned water at temp and then add the Bio-Spiro and fish. It will not work well when you have started with the fishless cycle and then decide to add the product. The product does work and I have used it on all of my tanks with wonderful success and full bio load!