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Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:22 pm
by LilGreenPuffer
Irisis wrote:How safe after using the Tetra Safestart would it be safe for a puffer to be in the tank?
If I could I would simply change the sponges etc over, but as my old filter is a Fluval 305 I'm not sure it will fit 
-It would be safe right away.
-You could rubber-band it in front, where the water ccomes out, and wait a couple of weeks before removing it.
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:46 pm
by Bogwoodbruce
The best thing to do really is just add some establish filter media to the tank. What we do with customers who buy a new setup from us is squeeze out a filter sponge into a bag of tankwater and get them to setup the tank, and pour the bag of what is essentially crap in. It should then seed their filter.
We then do free watertests and very rarly get somone who it hasnt worked for. We usually reccomend a few hard fish such as danios, black widows or somthing similar in a small number to help fully seed the tank, as the crap from the filter contains the bacteria and the fish can feed it.
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:35 pm
by Irisis
Thanks for the help guys! 
Bruce, how long can the bacteria stay alive in the water like that? Would it be worth doing that on the morning of the move?
We're having to have the window of the appartment taken out to get the tank up (legal requirement for large items apparently ) so the filter won't be running for at least 24 hours. Unless its safe to get the filter up and running again in a polystyrene box? Could the heater go in there too?
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:49 pm
by LilGreenPuffer
It can stay alive for a few hours like that, at least. I would reccomend keeping it in the filter, though, since there would probably be enough to cycle instantly.
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:33 am
by Nick
How long a squeezed out sponge will last varies - a really filthy one with tons of debris breaking down as well as a ton of bacteria may have days worth of bacteria food along with it, as long as there is oxygen so the bacteria don't starve, while a filer media that is relatively free of rotting bits may have lots of bacteria growing on it(the biomax bag from an aquaclear is a common example of this), but they will starve fast with no ammonia source.
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:55 pm
by alexk3303
I'd be worried about the store's sponge debris because of the centrilixed filtration and all the disease from that..... And how often does the store change the sponges?
Re: Live Bacteria Products
Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:21 pm
by riggers
Hey, sorry to go back a little here, but if you're in the UK, tetra do do a marine version of safestart. Tetra and instant ocean are owned by the same company, so safestart marine and bio-spira are the same product, so I'm sure it works.
http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/ ... 8_933.html