Tetra Safestart Test

[sevenyearnight]

Day 2
pH 7.6
KH 6°
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0
Barbra Streisand is doing fine, eating her algae wafers.

[DrKennethNoisewater]

cool test. i was in a pinch once and used this product in BARELY cycled water and a few rocks out of a cycled tank and ilterally put a small yellow cichlid in the tank in 1 hour and he seemed unstressed and ate that day, survived without an issue. although that's not my regular practice, in a pinch it can be a lifesaver.

[sevenyearnight]

Well if these numbers hold, which at this point I don't see why they wouldn't, for 13 - 20 dollars, I think it's worth it if you don't have an established tank to seed from, and you don't want to wait through a standard fishless cycle. But ultimately, I just wanted to make sure that under the correct conditions, this product indeed does what it claims to do. If the water is too soft/acidic, our the ammonia levels are too high, I don't suspect this product would work. But those are easy fixes to do before adding the product.

[bertie 83]

This is amazing. However i will need a week or so's tests to believe it will do as it says maybe more. Keep those params coming. I just struggle with the concept lol. Look forward to reading more

[sevenyearnight]

Day 3
pH 7.6
KH 6°
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

Barbra was fed 2 bottom feeder tabs the first day, and 2 algae wafer tabs the second day. I would have to say that this would likely produce enough ammonia to register on the test if this were not a cycled tank.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I helped a friend of mine set up a 10g for a single betta. We have very hard water, and the tank was very lightly stocked. Didn't work. Got another bottle. Didn't work. I think there's a lot of factors at play with this product.

[xrayjeeper83]

I think Barb herself produces a lot of ammonia lol

From this test and what others are saying, seems like you have to have the hardness right for this product to work. To soft or to hard and it wont work.

[sevenyearnight]

I don't think there is a too hard, but the product may have been compromised during shipping. Or something.

[RTR]

Live bacterial products are fragile in general. No questions or arguments from me on that.

Very short-term tests do not tell the whole story. The bacterial strains have to establish stable colonies. They have to persist in the tank indefinitely. There are lots of nitrification bacteria in the wild. But only a few will make persistent colonies in FW tanks. You cannot be confident in the bugs until after 4-6 weeks.

[sevenyearnight]

Day 4
pH 7.4
KH 5°
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

This may be an incomplete test then, I'm going to be planting the tank before 4-6 weeks ends :/

[Iliveinazoo]

Day 4
pH 7.4
KH 5°
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

This may be an incomplete test then, I'm going to be planting the tank before 4-6 weeks ends :/

A tank will have cycled itself in around 4 weeks anyway so if the product can keep the tank cycled until then then you would expect not to suffer a crash?

[RTR]

The tank will not suffer a crash after 4-6 weeks if the bugs are the correct ones which establish indefinitely in your tank. If they are not, the tank will crash. There have been products marketed in the past which worked temporarily but then died out. Those required chronic addition of the product every two weeks. NIMFT. We need bugs which can maintain themselves indefinitely in our tanks.

In healthy heavily planted tanks, the plants will out-compete the biofilter during the light cycle, but the biofilter will continue to be supported by the ammonia released during the periods when the plants are not actively photosynthesizing. The colonies will be significantly smaller than those in unplanted tanks, but still adequate to meet and handle the ammonia/nitrite levels available to them.

HTH

I do keep biofilters operating on all of my planted tanks. I consider it cheap insurance.

[puffykid]

I've used this stuff for both of my tanks, and its been well over 6 months.

[sevenyearnight]

Sorry for the late post, I had a crazy day between errands, dogs shredding and decorating my living room with the contents of the kitchen trash, and giving my cat medicine, him grumbling and meowowororrrrrggggrrring, clawing my hands, me yelling ow, and the other very large cat attacking me because she thought I was hurting him and came to defend his honor.

Day 5

pH 7.4
KH 5°
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5.0

Changes: I topped off the evaporation, about a half gallon, and added some flame moss, 2 small crypts, a few snails and some moneywort.

[goldielocke76]

Sorry for the late post, I had a crazy day between errands, dogs shredding and decorating my living room with the contents of the kitchen trash, and giving my cat medicine, him grumbling and meowowororrrrrggggrrring, clawing my hands, me yelling ow, and the other very large cat attacking me because she thought I was hurting him and came to defend his honor.

What a day = / hope that your weekend is better!