# bio-spira question



## injection11 (Aug 30, 2007)

hey guys i'm buying a 55gallon tank this weekend, i realllly want to get my fish by next weekend. i bought some biospira from shark aquarium and just wondering if it would most likely be cycled in a week? also when i add biospira should i put it in the filter or in the water? anything else i should know about using it?


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## ChilDawg (Apr 30, 2006)

Dump it in the water within 24 hours of getting your fishes and as long as you're not overstocked, things should go well. (As long as you kept it refrigerated, of course.)


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## swack (May 29, 2007)

I dont know if bio spira is the miracle cure that a lot of people say it is, sure its good as an additive but I dont believe its really an "instant cycle" as said before


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## injection11 (Aug 30, 2007)

yea i'm sure it's not instant either, but hopfully it'll work within a week =)


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

As mentioned dump it in the water but if you are getting your fish next week you need to add an ammonia source now if you want to get started on it immediately. Temperature in the tank is important so keep it steady at 80 during the cycle. My experience with bio spira (years ago) ranged from 7-10 days


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## wartooth (May 11, 2007)

Make sure to monitor the ammonia & nitrite levels. They should go up then back down to zero. I used a different brand of beneficial bacteria and my cycling time was 3 weeks. Maybe bio-spira will work faster. If your fish are small, you may not have to worry too much about cycling because the amount of ammonia produced may be tolerable.


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## skubasteve! (Feb 14, 2007)

Ive used it twice without any problems.


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## injection11 (Aug 30, 2007)

what could i use for ammonia? i already added the bio spira so now i have to add something with ammonia?


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## wartooth (May 11, 2007)

injection11 said:


> what could i use for ammonia? i already added the bio spira so now i have to add something with ammonia?


You can use a product like Seachem's Prime to detoxify ammonia. It does not remove the ammonia, it only detoxifies it so that it is much less harmful to the fish. The beneficial bacteria that is starting to colonize your filter, gravel, and wood will still have the ammonia to feed on.


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## injection11 (Aug 30, 2007)

i thought bio-spira was supposed to just stop the ammonia from coming, thats what they advertise? on the packages it says stops ammonia and nitrate.. which is what you want.. i don't understand why you would add ammonia to your tank if you want 0 ammonia on your reading?

Prevents New Tank Syndrome
Introduce fish safely within 24 hours, not weeks. Prevents ammonia and nitrite toxicity in freshwater aquariums during the initial critical period.

and they say to add bio safe before just to take out clorine.. which my water shouldn't have after a week. i guess tomorrow i'll take a water samle to the local pet store and see if the water is good.. i guess thats the only way i'll know. i know the water got cloudy for 2 days and today when i woke up it seemed to be much more clear then last night.


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## swack (May 29, 2007)

A test kit will make your life much easier, and its not that bio spira eliminates ammonia, its that it contains bacteria that "eat" it for lack of a better word

A test kit will make your life much easier, and its not that bio spira eliminates ammonia, its that it contains bacteria that "eat" it for lack of a better word.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

If you already have the fish in the tank when you added the bio spira then you need to do nothing but feed sparingly and monitor your core water parameters, otherwise without an ammonia source your bio spira will die.


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

Think of it this way...

We want to populate the moon with humans, so we drop off 10 humans on the moon. But we forgot to give them food or water to survive, so all the humans are going to die off. Same with bio spira, it feeds on ammonia which keeps the levels down... In order for bio spira to work it needs food in the tank to feed on. Without ammonia it WILL die..


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## injection11 (Aug 30, 2007)

alright thank you guys for explaining that to me. thats what i didn't understand. i have an oscar in there with a couple feeder fish, a couple of the feeders died. so my other question is.. say i add in the bio spira and i don't put fish in right away.. isn't the "ammonia spike" as some call it going to come within a few days and then the bio spira can have that ammonia to feed on? or would it be dead within a couple days without the ammonia? how does it stay alive in the package? what if i buy a package that has been on the shelf for months and the bacteria is dead? is that possible?


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

injection11 said:


> alright thank you guys for explaining that to me. thats what i didn't understand. i have an oscar in there with a couple feeder fish, a couple of the feeders died. so my other question is.. say i add in the bio spira and i don't put fish in right away.. isn't the "ammonia spike" as some call it going to come within a few days and then the bio spira can have that ammonia to feed on? or would it be dead within a couple days without the ammonia? how does it stay alive in the package? what if i buy a package that has been on the shelf for months and the bacteria is dead? is that possible?


If you dont "pre Load" your tank with ammonia and put bio spira in then the chances are it will die off and take just as long to cycle..


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

It stays alive in the package because when the package is refrigerated the bacteria is not active. Once the bacteria reaches a warmer temperature they become active. This is how marineland explained it to me years ago. The stuff on the shelf does not contain the right nitrifying bacteria necessary for a cycle so in a nutshell it is BS in a bottle.


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