Tetra Safe Start And Cycling My New Tank

[Dieses Madchen]

I should say I haven't cycled a filtered tank with plants. I have plants in my unfiltered better tanks, and I know they keep ammonia out of the water. I still do water changes twice a week because of poop and stuff, but i do not have ammonia in my unfiltered betta tanks. I do not use Prime on those tanks either so what the plants are eating is NOT ammonium.

 

[snazy]

I do not use Prime on those tanks either so what the plants are eating is NOT ammonium.

I am not certain about that part, but it's not what Diana Walstad thinks. To be honest, changing water twice a week in a non-filtered tank with plants doesn't mean the plants eat all the ammonia/ammonium as with just one fish inside depending on the tank size there may not be too much ammonia produced either. Do your bettas get finrot and such often? If yes, there is still toxic chemicals there regardless.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

My bettas have never had finrot. My boys are very healthy

 

[snazy]

I wish them the best and I don't want to sound rude, but why were you treating them with melafix/betafix if I remember right as in the post i quoted from another thread below. Or was that before you got plants, or you had different bettas?

I have never had adverse affects treating my bettas with either melafix or bettafix. in fact its done more good for me than anything.

I just want to ask one question, if the plants are going to cycle my tank instantly, shouldn't I just do a water change, add a few fish and forget about doing a fishless cycle.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I just want to ask one question, if the plants are going to cycle my tank instantly, shouldn't I just do a water change, add a few fish and forget about doing a fishless cycle.

It depends upon how many fish you intend to introduce. You don't have that many plants so your stock level would be quite low. You can add a huge bunch of hornwort or similar fast growing plants and just add fish if you want to but I thought the idea here was to prove whether Safe Start works or not?

 

[snazy]

Well, my idea is a bit more fish than a betta in a 90 gallon tank, and I don't really want to heavilly plant and run any CO2, then I guess I'll try to cycle it the way I can.
Whether cycling with tetra safe start and plants is a valid test to prove the tetra stuff works, I'll leave it to the people reading the thread to decide for themselves.
At the end of the day, the last thing I want is to force anyone to do anything that doesn't suit them for one reason or another and it is not cheap to buy the tetra safe start product.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I wish them the best and I don't want to sound rude, but why were you treating them with melafix/betafix if I remember right as in the post i quoted from another thread below. Or was that before you got plants, or you had different bettas?

I have never had adverse affects treating my bettas with either melafix or bettafix. in fact its done more good for me than anything.

I just want to ask one question, if the plants are going to cycle my tank instantly, shouldn't I just do a water change, add a few fish and forget about doing a fishless cycle.

I was treating my betta with bettafix because after he escaped into my other bettas side of the tank, he turned to nipping his owned tail out of stress. The bettafix was to prevent fin rot and help it grow back. That is the beauty of bettafix/melafix. It's not just a treatment, its a prevention. I'm really sure you are not trying to be rude, but do you have to try and turn everything into an argument to take the attention off yourself? I have seen you pull this trolling keyboard hero stuff before

And I do not have a betta in a 90g tank, he is in a 3 gallon tank, and between food and waste, the ammonia level will rise.

And as prime already said. The reason why I brought up the plants eating ammonia, or ammonium as you claim, because you clearly know everything, or at least this is the impression i get from you seeing everything you put out in threads and advice, is that I also was under the impression that you wanted to prove that this product works. Do some research to find out how to properly pull off a scientific experiment.

 

[snazy]

Well, in you post(http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/382726-melafix-and-its-effect-on-bettas/page__p__3211781__fromsearch__1#entry3211781) you spoke about your bettas in plural, so I thought you were using it for fin rot. I didn't know it was because your fish were biting their own tails.
I am happy for your fish and that it works for you, but obviously people is entitled to have a different opinion based on the information that I already shared in that thread at the time.

I am of course very careful not to be rude with anyone, as I believe there is no need. Unfortunately, I find your last comment a bit derogatory. I certainly ask many questions and benefit from other's experiences, not like you make it sound that I think I know everything. I've never pretended to know more than I know. But I do know what I know, because I like doing research and keeping informed. I do not understand what you mean by taking attention off myself? At the end of the day of course, I express my own opinions like everyone else.

Regarding the ammonium, it is not my claim, it is Diana Walstad's claim. If she is wrong then I am wrong which is just fine with me if that is the case.

Well, I am not a scientist and I never started off this thread pretending to be one or trying to pull a scientific experiment. I am a fish keeper who likes the hobby. I have experienced cycling with tetra safe start in two tanks already, and it has worked perfectly for me. My only intention was to prove that to have a cycle lasting for numerous weeks is unnecessary.
This time I wanted to do it a bit differently by doing a fishless cycle. It seems that I made a mistake by putting plants since everyone so far seems to have a problem with it. I certainly don't want to upset anybody . So I think I am going to stop this thread here.
Thank you all for your comments and valuable points of view non-the-less.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Hi all,

After so many debates over whether bottled bacteria works or not, I agreed to open a thread and keep a log of cycling my new tank.

 

[Tolak]

Sort of wondering what her bettas have to do with your experiment. I'd pull the plants & substrate for the test run, put them in another tank & add them later, once it's cycled. Or, try a second product test, identical tank & filtration, with the substrate & plants.

 

[snazy]

Plants or no plants, I thought it would have been interesting for some people to see the progress of the cycle using tetra safe start as it is a popular product. But you know, I do this for fun, and I use my own time to publish the results and pictures, I just don't think it is worth it to continue, as it seems the "experiment" as people wants to call it, has turned into an opportunity for some very obnoxious people to start a sudden quest for the perfect test (which I never said it would be).

They can do their own test if they wish. I am happy enough with the results I get from this product and at the end of the day, I have no need to let anyone know more than that. If people choose not to believe that it works, that is of no consequence to me. Sorry but I will not post on this thread anymore.

Taking out the plants and the substrate is not really an option at this stage for a tank this size. I have a small tank that contains my guppy fry. Once they are ready to be moved out, I want to change the undergravel filter anyway. I may do a more "scientific" test using that tank then (it will also be cheaper given that the tank is 7gal not 90gal).

 

[Prime Ordeal]

snazy, forget about the science of it then and just post your daily test results. I'm interested to see how it pans out whatever the scenario.

 

[Akasha72]

yes, agreed. I'm interested too

 

[parker313]

I've got a 55 US gallon tank that I am starting. I have tried to find ammonia but live in a small town and the ammonia I got from Wal-Mart has surfactant in it, so that's a no go. I stopped at PetSmart and talked to the employee who actually knows about fish. There were a few "cycle" products there and she gave me the pros and cons. She said that she, personally, has started multiple tanks with the Tetra StartSafe and that it has worked. Now, she still does a slow, gradual stocking but she stood by the product. I got some, added it on Friday and got some platies today. So far, there has been no ammonia spike and I will do a full test tomorrow. I have no live plants.

 

[FishFanatic04]

hmmm..posting this here because it's related, sry snazy....The company I'm purchasing my plant package from suggested using Seachem stability...I was planning to plant right away but now I'm wondering if I should wait and try to fully cycle first...He said he was able to cycle in a week using it and then plant all plants and introduce all the fish on the 8th day... Maybe I can run a similar test on that product.