[londonloco]

I was surfing MFK and came across this 23 page thread:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=324445

Bio Spira had such bad reviews, I never tried a cycle product before. I have 8 tanks, usually I take a small amount media from each canister basket and throw in a couple white clouds from one of my other tanks, watch the ammonia levels, WC’s as needed. Last tank was a 20g long, I never got any significant readings at all, I only did regular weekly WC’s.

The 125g I’m setting up has a sump, I could add some bio rings to the sump to start the cycle but after reading this thread, I went out and bought a bottle, Petsmart had em for 11$, treats 115 gallons.

Anyone here ever try Seachem’s Stability? I’m thinking about adding it to my 125g instead of using media from my other tanks. Kinda be nice to know it works in case I ever need to throw up a Q/sick tank.

 

[dotbomb]

Yes, after I read that thread I used stability on my 20g long. Worked like a charm. I did it with fish in the tank.

If you are setting up a new tank I would still cycle it w/o fish while dosing the tank with stability. That way you can see how it works w/o harming fish.

For QT tanks I use smaller bio media that fit into small HOB filters or sponges that I have bubbling away as spares in fry tanks, etc. But stability works too... as you will see.

Just make sure you shake the bottle really well so that it is frothy as you pour it out.

 

[londonloco]

Right, shake the bottle til frothy, thread must say it 50 times. I was wondering about going fishless with Stability, I have multi's and some sumbu's to put in tank, I'm getting 10 Razzo fish later in May. I really don't want to lose any of these fish, so I'm in a tither about it....

 

[dotbomb]

If you can, definitely go fishless with stability. Best of both worlds. Speed and safe for the fish.

Oh and shake that bottle until frothy

 

[londonloco]

OK, so here's why I'm hesitant on going fishless. The cycle process, over simplified: fish in, fish eat food, fish poop, bacteria multiplies to dissolve poop, fish eat more, fish poop more, bacteria grows, until it reaches stable levels for # of fish/eat/poop in tank. If I don't have fish to feed, do I feed empty tank? Does going fishless stall the "Seachem Stablity" process? I think I'm going to add water, a few WC minnows and serpae tetras I have swimming around here, add stability, watch levels, and hopefully in 7 days I'll get that feeling, I'll add multi's to start. Whadda think?

 

[dotbomb]

Ah, fishless cycling involves you putting pure ammonia in the tank to feed the bacteria. You don't feed an empty tank food.

Here's a couple of articles that covers it

http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/fishless/fishless.html

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... ycling.php

 

[londonloco]

I've never done fishless as in ammonia. I always use large danios and recently white cloud minnows (smaller tanks). Thanks for the articles.

 

[Glaneon]

I've used Stability, it DOES add something that measures as ammonia.
It's enough to get the bacteria going.

Got my 125 cycled in 15 days. (way better than 6 weeks!)