RTR said:
Everybody take a deep breath and think about the bacteria involved, the product involved, and the techniques involved for both.
#1: I believe that most hobbyists trying the Bio-Spira product by the manufacturer's instructions have been helped significantly by the product. There have been too many total or partial failures reported to ignore, but it does seem that most such reports have resulted from improper storage and handling prior to sale to the hobbyist.
There is also a chance that the hobbyist themselves aren't using it as directed, or has made any number of other errors with a new tank that cause it to fail (eg improper water treatment, chemical additives that bind the ammonia, water changes too soon after adding BioSpira, etc.)
#2: I have also seen more than a few reported failures from attempts to use the product for fishless cycling. I have not tried this myself, and have no urge to do so, but several thoughts come to mind:
2-a) The now standard 5ppm ammonia dose is very high IMHO, and many folks ignore the original proceedure to reduce that titer to 1/2 the original level as soon as nitrite appears. Either or both of these phases could easily have negative effects on the product under discussion.
I think this point is important. I have seen, many times, people having problems with their fishless cycle and that they did not follow directions and half the original level as soon as nitrite appears. The nitrite and nitrate levels can get quite high, and adding too much ammonia will exacerbate the issue, sending those numbers through the roof...and potentially cause a crash or stall.
The original titer was 3 ppm, later increased by the author to 5ppm. Personally I have never used more than 3ppm, nor have I ever had any issues from the lower dose - BUT, I don't overload tanks, especially new tanks. When I set a new tank with full stock, it is new and young (therefore smaller than adult by a non-trivial factor) and has substantial space and time to grow to full size and bioload. Setting my biofilters for maximum bioload initially is heavy overkill and I do not bother.
I don't recall if I have seen the article by the original author. I do remember searching for fishless cycling, and finding a number of articles, and choosing to follow the one that seemed the clearest in its direction (
http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_article.php?aid=31.) This article simply mentions a target of 3-5ppm. As I mentioned, my first fishless cycle was with 2-4ppm. Would you mind posting the link to the original article?
However, it certainly is overkill to try for a really high number if you're going to be conservative when adding fish.
2-b) Too many folks are unaware of the importance of the KH on the water during fishless cycle, or of the need to monitor pH/KH throughout the cycle. KH depletion and the resulting pH crash does the bacteria no good at all. Nobody knows what it will do to the Bio-Spira bacterial strains. And for some peculiar reason many folks are terrified of doing a water change(s) during the cycle process.
I think, for some, there is a misundertanding of the process of cycling in general, and there is a lack of awareness or understanding of what the relationship is between pH and KH. In that case, fishless cycling isn't going to make much more sense.
Following directions can be difficult for some as well, especially when the fishless cycling process is slow...I think there can be a tendency to try to push to speed up the process and skip important steps along the way.
#3: When a product is advertised as doing Job A (say perhaps a new tank with new fish), it is reasonable to try it out on Job A and see how it does for you on that. If you then want to try it on Job B (say perhaps fishless cycling a new tank), you have baseline data for comparison between the two distinct but related jobs. But do remember that the goals of the two jobs are not the same. Marineland and Dr Hovanec do not say that their product will compensate for a grossly overcrowded tank - which is exactly the colony scale projected from fishless cycling. There is no implied promise that an apple-peeler will do the same job on a peach. There is no guarantee that your tank handling is really a very good match for any other particular individual on these boards, so anecdotal results presented here may or may not have significance in your operations. Statistics are a non-starter in such an area.
All of course JMHO & IME.
I guess I'm viewing BioSpira as no more than seeding a tank (really well.) I don't expect it to be an instant cycle when using it fishlessly, especially if one is going for a max biofilter. I think it's worth a shot...and that it has the potential to shorten the fishless process...of course there is a risk that it won't work, whether it's because of improper handling, or failing to follow fishless procedure, whatever. If it doesn't work with fishless, at least you didn't harm any fish to find that out.
