Bio-Spyra cycling
- Thread starter Elfinbrook
- Start date
The point would be if anything goes wrong with your Bio-spira, before or after it is added, you don't have the work and hassle of a high bio-load fishy cycle.
Ideally adding the bio spira, dosing ammonia and testing would give you a tank ready for full bio-load within a few short days.
If you add the fish and bio-spira and the bio-spira is dead or dies, look at where that leaves you. It isn't impossible to deal with but it is very high workload, and creates emergencies that are otherwise unnecessary.
I use the same system when seeding bacteria from other tanks, Add bacteria and ammonia test for result and if it's good add fish, if it isn't I have no emergency on my hands just a slight delay in the process.
Ideally adding the bio spira, dosing ammonia and testing would give you a tank ready for full bio-load within a few short days.
If you add the fish and bio-spira and the bio-spira is dead or dies, look at where that leaves you. It isn't impossible to deal with but it is very high workload, and creates emergencies that are otherwise unnecessary.
I use the same system when seeding bacteria from other tanks, Add bacteria and ammonia test for result and if it's good add fish, if it isn't I have no emergency on my hands just a slight delay in the process.
Sounds reasonable. Just not sure how probable it is for experienced aquarist. I can see how it might be a better recommendation for a newbie by the manufacturer. How ever, it seems better not to run the expense for a newbie and just do a fishless with ammonia. Wonder what the "failure" rate is for bio-spira? Anybody have a guess?
Well, its been a few days and my water parameters are still the same as before: ammonia, nitrate, nitrite all at zero. I've done a 35% water change, My betta is looking good and has a healthy appetite; over the past week I've lost three rasboras out of the ten I originally brought home. The rest look fine, with good appetites. Chickiepooh was right; I should have waited to put the betta in last of all. I have that nauseating feeling that only a newbie knows when a needless mistake has been made. However, my bioload of fish is currently very small, and I must add more, especially bottom cleanup fish, but I will first put them a little at a time in my 5 gallon hex for a few weeks before adding to the big tank. I don't know if my tank is cycled after all, since I never had any measurable readings. My melted Crypts are starting to grow back and I'm dosing excel every other day. Thanks for all comments and advice.
It's hard to take a guess at it, But we see a lot of folks on the boards who do have failures. It almost always goes back to poor handling, so it seems to be location specific in a lot of cases. Too many LFS, and shippers do not handle the stuff properly. In the case of those who do failures are pretty rare.
