Bio-spira: Thoughts? Too good to be true?

ck_503

ck_503

Member
Has anyone heard of Bio-spira? It's sold at a few LFS here in town and it promises that after putting in your saltwater tank overnight in a new tank, that you will be able to start putting fish and corals in the next day without having to wait for your tank to cycle in 4 - 6 weeks when it's just been set up. It supposedly has some unreal amount of live bacteria in it which is why it's supposed to work. I just was curious what everyone's opinion is on that. I am not going to use it but thought it might be a nice supplement while waiting for the cycle to complete. Has anyone tried it with success? Is this an avoid at all costs product? I had never heard of it before today and haven't seen it mentioned on the boards so I thought I'd ask....
 
feixjai

feixjai

Active Member
i have just finished my bio spira thing today. and my trusted lfs recommends its also. she starting adding fish on her like 3 day or so. well if you use it make sure you pour it all in. then turn off your skimmer and your filter. your tank would be really cloudy for about 1 day and you could see all these white tiny particles floating around. just wait until the bacteria find a home on the live rock or walls.
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member
I'd say rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the ocean..
Don't rush or you're gonna get bit...plain and simple..
You can't fool mother nature..
 
threenemos

threenemos

New Member
I just used it when starting up my 72 gallon. LFS swore by it so I added it.
A week later I added one yellow tang, three clowns, and a hawkfish over the course of a week.
Exactly one week later I lost a clown and had a high ammonia reading.
After an immediate 20% water change I lost another clown 3 days later with another high ammonia test. So more water change....
All has been great ever since except for my two losses.
It is almost as if it cut the cycle time in half, but did not eliminate ammonia spike and loss of fish.
Just my opinions...
 
hot883

hot883

Active Member
Originally Posted by ThreeNemos
I just used it when starting up my 72 gallon. LFS swore by it so I added it.
A week later I added one yellow tang, three clowns, and a hawkfish over the course of a week.
Exactly one week later I lost a clown and had a high ammonia reading.
After an immediate 20% water change I lost another clown 3 days later with another high ammonia test. So more water change....
All has been great ever since except for my two losses.
It is almost as if it cut the cycle time in half, but did not eliminate ammonia spike and loss of fish.
Just my opinions...
So in theory, it did not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
rberhow

rberhow

Active Member
I'm not sure about cutting cycling time but my rare and trusted LFS and I were discussing how his tanks can handle all the different bioloads he has to deal with between shipments and sales since they are all single tanks and not run together. He said that when he has to add alot of fish to one tank, like his chromi tank, he adds bio-spira to help with the increased bio load. Sorry no first hand experience.
 
bret61081

bret61081

Member
I used the frytzmine(spelling) about 3 weeks in to my cycle...had traces of amonia still....afte a few days...everything was pretty level...but I still waited a week before I added anything just to be on the safe side...
 
kablamo

kablamo

Member
BIO-spira is FW only, I use it on my cichlid tanks, in the pamphlet that came with it, it said a SW version was in the works but wouldn't be available till summer 2006! Maybe I am wrong, but I think you are using FW bacteria and they won't work.
Just use a mix of cured and uncured LR.
Add uncured to start it, add cured a week later, two days later, cycle over.
 
threenemos

threenemos

New Member
Originally Posted by hot883
So in theory, it did not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are allowed to say that on here, that is what I am saying. It did not work.
Where I think it does work are two things we mentioned in this thread:
1.) Speed up normal cycle time
2.) Help with increased load of addition of new fish to an environment
If I had to do it again, I would do it the old fashioned way.
I may use it when adding some fish, but not for the start up.
BTW, it is now available for saltwater.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Bacteria is only one part of cycling a tank. The populations of the different types need to mature and stabilize. I may decrease the Ammonia spike duration but it will not do anything for the cycle time.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Isn't the stuff also pretty pricey? For me, spend that $25 or whatever on 5 lbs of LR or whatever...MUCH better investment for the same price, and probably far greater "help" for the tank.
Its kinda like reef safe ick medicines to me...if they REALLY truly worked all the time, everyone would use it and push it like its THE way to go, and skip the much harder things (like hypo and QT for Ick, spending time and $$ on cycling and LR in this case). The fact that it is not the "greatest thing since sliced bread" in, for example, the New Hobbyists forum should be indication that it is not a tried and true way to go.
 
jer4916

jer4916

Active Member
just buy rock with your money, its a long term invest for the tank...that bio stuff only helps for the first stage of the cycle..and its done...and you cant even really add anything during that time anyawys...nor can you put in expensive fish....just buy rock...wait 3 months...and then start adding your favorites :)
 
neoreef

neoreef

Member
LR cuts the cycle time.
With 40 pounds of live rock in my 55 gallon tank, my cycle was over in 1 week.
Then I waited 2 more before adding a fish.
 
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