The Puffer Forum

It was one of those moment when after I walked out I thought "I should have asked him how old they were"

wait...walrus. alright so the bacteria die without the fish in it? because i took all the fish out of the old tank because the ammonia levels were sky high (3.5) and started adding the biospira to that tank to lower those levels. i didnt wanna leave the fish in there because thats painful. you're saying i have to leave them in there? what should i do?

could i possibly just change the water and add bio spira from the start or will that be too stressful on the fish??

Put one or two tough fish in there, and slowly add the rest. Ideally, you would have done a nearly 100% water change before adding the biospira to remove the existing ammonia and nitrites. Since the tank is filled with ammonia it will be ok for now, but just make sure as soon as you see the levels go down to near zero you add fish immediately, because it only takes a day or two for the bacteria to die without food.

Do a 90% water change, don't use any ammonia-removing products, add the B-S to your filter & then immediately add fish.

jfudge01 wrote:... and im adding biospira by the gallon...

Ummm... Biospira doesn't come in gallons commercially for home use, and if it did, it would be horrifically expensive. Are you sure what you got is really Biospira?