BioSpira Experiences

[GeffG81]

I originally started my 10 gallon with a zebra danio, a white cloud and 2 corys 2 weeks ago tomorrow.

A few days later I added biospira along with a loch, 3 ghost shrimp, another zebra danio, and 3 guppies(1 male, 2 females(1 alraedy preg))

Biospira claims to work instantly, however it definitly isnt instant. While it did speed up the process, my tank still hasnt fully cycled, and it tomorrow it will have been a week since adding the Biospira.

Im at work now and dont have my exact results, but since last Saturday, the amonia has been steady at 1, until yesterday when it dropped to .5. The nitrite has been steady at between 4 and 8 until yesterday when it went off the charts, and the nitrates have been steady at around 10.

I did a 20% water change a on Wedensday so this may have something to do with the amonia and nitrite changes.
Just wanted to see if anyone else has anything good or bad to say about Biospira.

 

[krash]

I posted some of this in reply to another post last night, but here's my experience with a bit more detail:

5 gallon, 1 betta:
Completely cycled in 9 days. Never showed ammonia. Nitrites peaked on day 2 at .50, went down to .25 for 3 days, showed a trace for the next 4. Nitrates held steady between 5.00 and 10.00 throughout.

5 gallon, 2 African Dwarf Frogs:
Completely cycled in 8 days. Ammonia peaked on day 3 at .50 and stayed there for 5 days, then came down to 0.00 in 2 days. Nitrites showed at .25 on day 6, never showed again. Nitrates steady at 5.00 throughout.

10 gallon, 4 male guppies:
Completely cycled in 9 days. Ammonia peaked at 2.00 on day 2, and stayed there for 4 days in spite of 20% daily water changes. Nitrites peaked at 5.00 on day 7, fell rapidly after that. Nitrates rose gradually from 5.00 to 20.00 on day 9, water change brought them back to 5.00.

5 gallon, QT tank, 2 guppies and an oto:
Completely cycled in 11 days. Trace reading for ammonia on day 6, never saw again. Nitrites peaked on day 6 also, at 1.00, gradually fell off from there. Nitrates rose from 5.00 to 10.00 prior to water changes.

20 gallon, 4 corydoras:
Cycled in 10 days. Ammonia peaked at day 7 at .50. Nitrites peaked at .50 on day 8. This one for some reason did not show any nitrates until day 6, then held steady at 5.00. I don't know that this one is completely done cycling as I've gotten random trace readings for nitrite since day 10.

3 gallon, 1 betta:
Not yet completely cycled as of day 13. This one was a bit weird - no readings for anything for the first 6 days. Has been showing .25 for ammonia since then, in spite of 30% waterchanges every other day. I think the nitrites peaked on day 10 at .50, and still showing trace amounts. Nitrates have been at 5.00 since day 7.

Every tank has cycled differently. What has been consistent is that they have cycled *very* quickly as compared to other cycling methods. The other consistency was that the cycles were all very gentle. The tanks that had the quickest gentlest cycles were the ones with a bio-wheel in the filter.

I love the stuff. Has made my intro into the hobby very pleasant and untraumatic. The only fish I lost was one cory, and he'd only been with me a day and a half. I suspect that his death was due to a contaminated ornament, and nuked the tank and started over (with Bio-Spira, without the ornament).

Sorry for the long post... but you did ask!

Stacey