unclenedsfishfactory.com

Does this stuff work as advertised, and do you carry it?

Heya,

I have used it a few times. Twice it worked like a charm, once not at all. The bad experience may have been a dead batch of bacteria because of mishandling somewhere along they way. I DID NOT GET ANY OF THESE (BUT ESPECIALLY NOT THE BAD ONE) from Ned.

But, be careful they play legalistic word games with their description. It lowers nitrite spikes to a level that will not kill, but perhaps could just injure your fish. Still not great. The upside is that the spikes do not last long. In the two good cases, I had a fully cycled tank in about 2-3 weeks and still lost a few of the more senstive fish. Maybe a month before I could be secure in not getting some kind of evil bloom.

Give the bacteria a lot of stuf to settle on with a lot of surface area and CRITICAL to aerate very well. This made a huge difference. And shake the package well, a lot of the goodness can get blobed on the bottom and thrown out.

I would strongly recommend it, but because it may not work at all or it may allow a large spike, I would still not put expensive fish in the tank for a good few weeks or until your levels look good.

Bio-Spira

never heard of it, can't comment on it

Ned's law 1:
never put anything in your tank unless you understand exactly what it does.

Heya Ned:

This is what it is. More people are probably gonna start asking for it because it's getting pretty popular. Only can get it at specialty shops.

http://www.marineland.com/products/mlla ... ospira.asp

M

"BIO-Spira, containing several newly discovered patented and patent pending species of the actual nitrifying bacteria found in closed, freshwater aquatic systems is "biological filtration" in a bottle. It literally works overnight to prevent fish loss due to ammonia and nitrite toxicity."
Above is a quote from their site.
I already give this away free.
I call it "Uncle Ned's bag 'o' good dirty water."
Anybody who has an aquarium with live fish in it for more than 1 month already has it.
It grows on its own.
It's the brown goo that grows in the filter pad.
Actually it will grow on any surface that is constantly wet.
If you have ammonia (fish wee-wee)
in water (your fish tank)
in a non-sterile environment (your home, your pond, or anywhere on the planet except for a bleached cubicle)
then you are already growing it.
...that being said...if you want me to sell you Spiro-Gyra
then I must. Just let me know.

Ned - I'll be up this weekend to pick up about 4 quarts of that special juice you call "dirty water". Please don't let this secret out.

4 quarts!

Guess I'll have to rinse the stingray filter or the koi filter.
Again.

BIO-Spira is great. I've always been suspicious of stuff claiming to speed up the cycle, but after seeing the great reviews this has gotten (if properly handled--ie. refrigerated) in other forums, I decided to risk it.

Skip the following paragragh if you aren't interested in detailed ammonia and nitrite readings :

I had a newly set up 90g that had a few valisneria in it. They had died back a little, but seemed to be recovering. Even so, I had something between .25 and .50 ppm ammonia in the tank before I added the fish. Looking back, I probably should have done a water change before adding the fish, but really didn't have time that day. I added 12 cyp. leptosoma, and 8 n. brichardi, plus the shaken 3oz. packet of BIO-Spira (enough for a 90g) last Wednesday afternoon (the 5th) --also added the 2 java fern and 1 anubias nana I bought with the fish (from Ned's, of course!). The next day I found just over .5 ppm Ammonia, no discernable nitrite. Friday the ammonia started to go down. I measured between .25 and .5 again. There was the barest hint of nitrite that I could see. On Saturday, I measured something between .25 and .5 ppm ammonia again. Nitrite measured just under .25 ppm. Sunday: Ammonia was down under .25ppm, but not zero. Nitrite was about .50 ppm. Monday, ammonia was a zero, and nitrite was just above .25ppm. As of Tuesday evening, the tank is fully cycled--both ammonia and nitrite were zero--it might have been that way in the morning, but I didn't have time to test the water.

The water is very clear now, after being slightly cloudy during the last week. I guess because the bacteria was still settling in the filter and tank furnishings. To have a tank cycle in less than a week is amazing. And while no amount of ammonia or nitrite is good for the fish, the levels stayed very low. I will always use it whenever I set up a tank. Ned's Fish Factory should DEFINITELY carry it!

They claim that even if it isn't refrigerated, it still is somewhat effective--the product life just shortens considerably. Personally, I wouldn't use it unless I knew that it had been kept cold the entire time. I think Marineland requires dealers to have it refrigerated, and they only sell it directly to eliminate the possibility of having a middleman mishandle it.

Gentle reader,
I go back to my original statement.

I have 2 main problems with bio-spira & similar products.
The first is that it seems to imply water changes are not required.
The other problem is that it seems to be perishable.

All that stuff that brings ammonia & nitrite to zero is already
living in any healthy established aquarium filter.
I'm not saying that stuff in a bottle does not work,
I'm just saying that I already own barrels of it.

I have never done a written study on transfering
my good dirty water to a brand new tank,
so I can't tell you the exact numbers and times to get to zero,
but I do it all the time in the store and the fish don't die.

Furthermore,
there is an underlying insinuation that one doesn't need to do a water change to have zero ammonia and zero nitrite
if you use their product.
This is probably true,
that does not mean that you don't need to do a water change.

There are many reasons to change water
besides the ammonia and nitrite levels.
For example, only an airtight tank will never evaporate.
Fish do not want an airtight tank, anymore than humans want an airtight room.
So, you need to add back evaporated water.
The only thing that comes out with evaporation is water vapor.
The tiny ammount of disolved solids will build up & up & up
because you keep adding top-off water.
I have water-tested aquariums that had no water changes
for many months, and what I usually find is very, very hard
and very, very acid water. There is almost no kind of fish that likes this chemistry of water, but some of our poor beasts get used to it.

I have customers that ask
"what can I put in my tank so I don't have to change the water?".
My wise-guy answer is always "someone's hands that will."

The other problem is that the stuff is apparently perishable,
which makes me unexcited about stocking it
because it might remain unsold.

All that being said,
if commanded to sell you some, then I must.
Let me know how much you want and when you want it.