The Puffer Forum

kilofey wrote:These employees would tell them that and then they would come back later and buy a ton of fish and theyd come back like 3 days later with a water sample and a bunch of dead fish and then get pissed off when we say we couldnt give their $ back cause their ammonia levels were too high then theyd be like well the person told me to wait a week then id be fine. I just wished I could work full time in the fish department so customers would get accurate info so their fish dont die and they dont waste their money.

I put my 2 dp in an uncycled 10 gal but ive been doing small water changes every other day. Since theres only 2 little guys, ive only been taking out about 4 cups of water at a time cause theres just no need for huge water changes since theyre so small. Theyre doing great so far.

Well dont we all wish that fish shop employee did their research and I bet the fish trade would be even better.


About that 10 gal., you could seed that tank and or could add some kind of bacteria in a bottle. Or do them both.

Ive never found a bottle of bacteria that ACTUALLY works. Im jus keepin a close eye on the water quality. I may borrow my boyfriends betta filter for a week or 2 to help seed it.

I have used the PetSmart brand Topfin Bacterial Supplement. Great stuff believe it or not. And I heard that the Micro Lift FW Aquarium products do pretty good too. Never hurts tryin a small bottle of the TopFin product I mentioned. Cheaper then the other stuff, also.

Theres a product I remember pufferpunk reccomending as well as alot of other people reccomended it... I tried it but I dont remember the name or results. I believe it was a refridgerated product that had some bacteria "food" in it or something. Bene bac? Maybe that was it but I dont remember if it worked.

I highly doubt there could be any live bacteria at all in any product that spends months on a shelf, then you factor in the changing shipping climates. Think about it... You let your tank sit without fish for a month and no air circulating, your bacteria will die... Same with the bacteria products. If I recall, most brands are just a bunch of garbage that speeds up the cycleing process... so it will still spike but it will spike quicker than if you had just fish. Its basically a bottle of pollutants that help grow the bacteria quicker... Which can be done with pure ammonia. So... Im a skeptic I suppose

(hoping puffer punk will jump in on this thread)

Safestart has been tested here and the results were incredible.

Is it refridgerated and is it for fw and sw or are there separate products? Is there a shelf life? Im interested if it has been proven to work. I know the vast majority dont do anything, so one that actually does, makes me curious

Never used Safe Start by Tetra but heard it was a good one like stated above. Forgot about that one.