bio-spira test and hello!!!!

[stephensturman]

well hello to everyone. this is my first saltwater tank and i am already hooked and have learned so much from this site! i just setup my tank on august 22. i have a 28 gallon bow front with 30 lbs of aragonite and 36 lbs of fiji live rock, i have a skimmer and filter turned into a refugium with a neptune 100 heater and a maxijet 1200.

i am going to do a bio-spira saltwater 1 week cycle and see how everything turns out!


before i added bio-spira!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b276/stephensturman/PDRM0179.jpg

20 min. after bio-spira!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b276/stephensturman/PDRM0180.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b276/stephensturman/PDRM0181.jpg

[Phurst]

Hello, and welcome! Nice looking tank there. Is that a modded MaxiJet I see back there?

[lReef lKeeper]

looks like it is just a standard MJ feeding the refugium buddy. looking good so far.

[Phurst]

looks like it is just a standard MJ feeding the refugium buddy. looking good so far.


Ah, I see it now. That's a prefilter, not a shroud.

[lReef lKeeper]

;) :D :cheers:

[stephensturman]

actually that is for my seaclone 100 skimmer that suprisingly works very well. lol bought before i read about them but so far so good!

[tim]

strong work. really looks good.

[stephensturman]

well i think that my tank can have fish added to it now but im going to wait till this weekend!

ph: 8.3
gravity: 1.025
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
amonia: 0

i was talking to a lfs and he said he has had a customer who used bio-spira and set up a reef tank within 48 hours and nothing has crashed and thats was over months ago! its almost scary how this stuff actually works!

[CarmieJo]

Hi Stephen and :welcome: to TR. I know how the products like this are supposed to work but, did you ever get any ammonia or nitrite reading?

[stephensturman]

no, i havent. but this product says it will prevent that!

[R. Deschain]

So far your tank looks great. Aquascaping is cool!

Nice to see someone doing a prospective observation on a product. My retrospective case study on BioSpira is as follows:

I used BioSpira about 1 year ago when I set up my freshwater African Cichlid tank. I added 10 fish (5 tiger barbs & 5 Cichlids) and biospira all at the same time (as recommended by the nice lady at the LFS store who assured me that this was the way to do it). Went through the the whole cycle routine with NH4 & NO2 spikes. I don't think the fish liked it, but 9 survivied (a tiger barb didn't make it the first 24hrs). In retrospect, I'm not really sure if the BioSpira did anything. These bacteria are ubiquitous, and will grow if they have a food source. I also question whether cycling with fish, and perhaps needlessly stressing them out, was the right thing to do. Don't think I would do it again.

Anyway, my .02 cents. Good luck with your tank.

[Phurst]

Yeah, I think I'd verify those bacteria are in place and in significant numbers. I'd try adding a little ammonia, or perhaps droping a piece of raw shrimp in the tank for 48 hours to see if you get any readings and how quickly they go down. No sense in risking livestock and money by rushing into things. My tank was up and running nearly 3 months before I added a fish.

[lReef lKeeper]

i would have to agree with everyone else. when i moved, i waited a couple of months to put ANYTHING back in my system. i have heard of these "no cycle" additives, but they kind of sound like "live" sand to me. let me explain that ... if i stuffed PHurst in a bag (sorry buddy) and shipped him half way around the world ... do you think he would live ?? i think the lack of oxygen would kill him, kind of like what i think of "live" sand ... it is stuffed in a bag and shipped with very little water ... how long could anything live without water or oxygen ??

[stephensturman]

ya i guess you have a very good point all of you! so i will throw in a piece of shrimp tomorrow for a while and see what happens! thanks for the input!

[CarmieJo]

I think that is prudent. (If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.) Add the raw shrimp and let it in there for a couple of days. If you get an ammonia spike then your tank needs to continue cycling until there are sufficient bacteria present to do the job. As James found out sometimes the LFS doesn't give the very best advice.

[stephensturman]

ok i will throw the shrimp in today when i get off work and see what happens!