Bacterial balence

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:47 pm

If we purchased a product like "Stress Zyme", sold for fish tanks, and mixed it with the water that we're using to dampen our substrates, would this help with the bacterial balence in our tanks, or is this a bad idea?

Stress Zyme

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:21 am

Speaking from my knowledge as a fishkeeper, StressZyme is worthless as a bacterial supplement. The only bacteria "seed" product that's any good is Bio-Spira. And it's crazy expensive. I have no idea if it would do any good in the substrate, or if it only works in water. It's an interesting idea, though.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:50 am

Thanks. I was hoping a fish keeper might answer.

I bought soil testing kits and coud test it out, so I'd consider it. Just how expensive is expensive, and where could you get Bio-spira?

BAB · Post by **BAB** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:19 am

Just a thought on something I used in my fish tanks, when I had them. What about Cycle? It wasn't too expensive. I'm not sure if it was truely effective or not, but it seemed to work well for my tanks.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:44 pm

I was reading cycle reviews. 8 out of 9 said it worked for them, one said buy Bio-Spira.

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:31 am

Bio-Spira is about $20 an ounce (enough for a 20g aquarium) around here. Might be cheaper somewhere else. I've heard that Cycle isn't really effective, either, since it's not refrigerated----with any non-refrigerated brand, the beneficial bacteria are going to die off, same thing if Bio-Spira is allowed to heat up.

BAB · Post by **BAB** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:54 am

Non refrigerated? I thought I read on there that it needed to be... but it isn't when purchased in the store. I still always kept mine in the fridge. I don't have any sitting around or else I'd check it again.

I guess with it being just out in the store though that would be harmful for the little bacteria. Never thought of it before....

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:56 am

Doing further research I found that although other brands may have kept the water clearer and helped between cleanings the only brand I came acrossed that actually works for a full nitrogen cycle was the Bio-spira which I found Marineland website and they gave me stores in my area that sell it. I found it online a couple of places cheaply but I wasn't sure they were reputable sites.

I'll do my soil testing and then evaluate the need for it at that point.

Thanks all!

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:38 am

BAB wrote:Non refrigerated? I thought I read on there that it needed to be... but it isn't when purchased in the store. I still always kept mine in the fridge. I don't have any sitting around or else I'd check it again.

I guess with it being just out in the store though that would be harmful for the little bacteria. Never thought of it before....

Yeah....the coolness keeps the bacteria dormant, if they warm up and have nothing to eat, they'll die. So they need to be kept cool until they're put into the tank. Every pet store I've been to that sells Bio-Spira keeps it refrigerated, maybe you should point out the instructions on the bottle to your pet store.

mrbonzai211 · Post by **mrbonzai211** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:15 pm

If the goal is to use chemicals that promote bacterial growth in fish tanks to enable the same bacterial cycle in the substrate of your crabitat, then wouldn't it make sense to--instead of using the chemicals in your spraying water-- to just use the water from a fish tank instead?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:26 pm

mrbonzai211 wrote:If the goal is to use chemicals that promote bacterial growth in fish tanks to enable the same bacterial cycle in the substrate of your crabitat, then wouldn't it make sense to--instead of using the chemicals in your spraying water-- to just use the water from a fish tank instead?

Bio-Spira is not a chemical, it's a live bacterial culture with the species of bacteria that help break down ammonia into nitrite and then, nitrate.

The bacteria that do the dirty work in aquariums are lithotrophic. These bacteria do not colonize the water column, they attach to surfaces within the aquarium (usually areas receiving the most oxygen) and multiply there.

Dumping water from an aquarium is simply just dumping dirty water (depending on how often the keeper does water changes, it can be full of nitrates and other waste products) into your crab tank.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:02 pm

I'm going to do a soil test soon on my tats. It was very difficult for me to get my mind around the nitrogen cycle in the soil and what I'd be testing for, but I think I was making it harder than it needed to be. I'm not ready to do a deep clean yet, so I'm anxious about the soil test. I'm afraid what I might find will freak me out.