# Cycling with Tetra Safe Start question



## posnera (Apr 28, 2012)

I have a new 20 gallon long. The substrate is half sand, half gravel. I put in a big piece of mopani driftwood, 1 ball of christmas moss, 2 anubias and 2 crypts. The water was originally treated with Seachem Prime. That sat for about a week, then I added the Tetra Safe Start and 3 Glofish Danios.

It is now 2 weeks later. The fish seem happy. Some snails that must have hitchhiked in from the store are also doing well. I now count about 5 of them.

My water parameters are confusing, however. Basically, I am reading 0 to 0.25 for ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. It seems that the tank is handling the ammonia well, as it isn't rising, and I think the TSS is supposed to be able to handle nitrites fairly quickly, but why are there no nitrates? Are the plants consuming them?

Am I missing something? I would like to add more danios to the school, but I don't want to cause problems.


----------



## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

You are still going through your cycle, basically ammonia is created which the plants eat, then eventually nitrites will start to appear, which plants will also eat, then lastly nitrates will appear. When a tank is fully cycled it will read 0ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, and xx ppm nitrates (you want to keep them below 20). If your nitrates are at 0 is means nothing is creating any. You are still in the early stages of a cycle.

I hate to inform you, but generally speaking "instant cycle" chemicals don't really do anything. 

Watch your parameters as you will probably get spikes of ammonia and nitrites and you want to keep those under 1 pm. Nitrates are more forgiving and you can't let those get to 40 ppm before it is absolutely necessary to do a water change. Heavily planting your aquarium will help to avoid the spikes in ammonia or nitrites.


----------



## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

You will have to go slowly for at least a couple of more weeks. And I second the opinion that the instant cycle products are largely ineffective, especially any that are liquid.


----------



## posnera (Apr 28, 2012)

I have no problem going slowly, but I think you may be confusing TSS with other, older cycling products. TSS is a live bacterial culture, not a chemical detoxifying agent.
My thinking was that the fish are producing ammonia, whicj is not building up. Something in my tank is processing it, but no nitrites or nitrates are being produced. If the plants are handling some (or all) of the ammonia, then how can a bacterial culture grow (whether from the TSS or from the air)?


----------



## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

Ignore this post. I accidentally double posted


----------



## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

posnera said:


> I have no problem going slowly, but I think you may be confusing TSS with other, older cycling products. TSS is a live bacterial culture, not a chemical detoxifying agent.
> My thinking was that the fish are producing ammonia, whicj is not building up. Something in my tank is processing it, but no nitrites or nitrates are being produced. If the plants are handling some (or all) of the ammonia, then how can a bacterial culture grow (whether from the TSS or from the air)?


If you read my post again you will see I made no mention of a water conditioner. nI started my findings on instant cycle products (aka bacterial colonization product). You should always use a water conditioner.

Your fish are producing ammonia, but if you are showing no nitrates you are still going through a cycle. From what it sounds like your fish haven't produced enough ammonia for it to start converting into nitrites. Same goes for converting nitrites into nitrates since it seems like no nitrites have been produced yet. 

Those bacterial colonization products tend to be iffy a at best. This is a topic often discussed and there is more evidence to support those types of products as ineffective.


----------



## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

I did not refer to water conditioner either. I have seen no signs that any of the supposedly live liquid bacteria cultures are live by the time you buy them. I had decent results once experimenting with a powdered bacterial product sample from Germany, but it proved too expensive to stay on the market, and is no longer available to hobbyists.
There may be minimal effects from these products (and I have never played with TSS), but I see the ones I have experimented with as homeopathy for the aquarium. They ALL say they are state of the art live bacterial cultures. 
You are looking for a quicker result, and I hope you get lucky with that, but I expect that if you monitor your cycle, the proof will be that it will follow the regular patterns. I think JBrown is right that you are in the early days - exactly where you would be if your money were in your pocket and the product were still on a shelf somewhere.
As an experiment, it's clouded by your adding moss and plants, as if they came from a working ecosystem, they(especially the moss) will be your source of bacteria.
If you are doing 25% weekly water changes, a tank that size, uncycled, can support 6-8 Danios easily.


----------



## posnera (Apr 28, 2012)

Thanks for the advice. I was getting ready for a water change this weekend, and will add a few more danios.


----------

