Help!!! Is turbo start lethal for fish?

[Aquarist2020]

The directions say to put turbo start before fish. I did that but can I still place the turbo start with fish inside(problem is i already put some with fish inside and just saw the directions)

 

[Fishmanic]

what is "turbo start"?

 

[Aquarist2020]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084GPBL98/?tag=ff0d01-20 Heres a link if that helps

 

[Madisonkeug]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084GPBL98/?tag=ff0d01-20 Heres a link if that helps

If that’s a way to fast track your cycle it’s not likely your fish will do very well as the cycle has not actually been started you just added the bacteria to start the cycle

 

[Aquarist2020]

If that’s a way to fast track your cycle it’s not likely your fish will do very well as the cycle has not actually been started you just added the bacteria to start the cycle

i've been cycling without fish for a few weeks already

 

[madmark285]

I did that but can I still place the turbo start with fish inside

It should not hurt the fish, it's just bacteria.

The issue with doing it this way, you have no idea if the bacteria in the bottle is still alive. What you should have done, add the bacteria in a bottle and ammonia before adding fish. Now you can easily test ammonia levels, if they go drop to zero in a few days, the bacteria was alive.

No clue on what you should do now.

 

[Madisonkeug]

It should not hurt the fish, it's just bacteria.

The issue with doing it this way, you have no idea if the bacteria in the bottle is still alive. What you should have done, add the bacteria in a bottle and ammonia before adding fish. Now you can easily test ammonia levels, if they go drop to zero in a few days, the bacteria was alive.

No clue on what you should do now.

I would just try and monitor the water as best as you can, see how the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels are and go from there. If you need to do daily water changes of 50% to keep the ammonia nitrite and nitrate below .25 ppm it’s probably your best bet to just do that and add bacteria to the water about three times a week to get a strong build

 

[Colin_T]

It's a liquid bacterial supplement to help speed up the cycling process and is safe for fish. You can add it to the tank while you have fish in the tank.

With filter bacteria supplements, add a double dose every day for a week and then pour the rest of the bottle into the tank. Try to add the supplement near the filter/ filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

 

[Essjay]

I agree with Madisonkeug - monitor ammonia and nitrite daily and do a water change whenever either read above zero. Once they both stay at zero for several days, the tank is cycled for that number of fish.

 

[Slaphppy7]

The link for this product indicates for "saltwater", is this a SW setup?

If I had a nickel for every product out there that is not needed for fishkeeping, but ones that people buy anyway, I'd be a rich man.

 

[Aquarist2020]

It should not hurt the fish, it's just bacteria.

The issue with doing it this way, you have no idea if the bacteria in the bottle is still alive. What you should have done, add the bacteria in a bottle and ammonia before adding fish. Now you can easily test ammonia levels, if they go drop to zero in a few days, the bacteria was alive.

No clue on what you should do now.

I could tell its alive cause the nitrates were 160 ppm, then i added the bacteria. Next day it drop to 40 ppm. And I recently finished a water change to kill the rest of the nitrates

 

[Uberhoust]

The bacteria are not going to reduce the Nitrates, just the Ammonia and Nitrites. If your nitrites, ie a spelling mistake, were at 160 ppm you wouldn't have fish anymore. Something doesn't add up unless you did a water change to drop the Nitrates. 160 for Nitrates is way too high, and I would consider 40 too high as well. The bacteria should increase the Nitrates because that is the last stage in the bacterial removal of Ammonia.

 

[Colin_T]

I could tell its alive cause the nitrates were 160 ppm, then i added the bacteria. Next day it drop to 40 ppm. And I recently finished a water change to kill the rest of the nitrates

If you had nitrites in the water, then a nitrate test kit will read nitrites as nitrate and multiplies the nitrites by about 10 fold.

If you had nitrites and added the liquid bacteria supplement, the bacteria could have eaten the nitrite and converted it into nitrate, thus lowering the nitrite level in the tank. This is turn would reduce the nitrate because the nitrate test kit would no longer be reading nitrite as nitrate.