Thank you, Thor...I think my tank has cycled using the Tetra SafeStart. Not quite sure what is going on.
I added a generous amount of this product to my small 5.5 gallon fluval tank. There were 4 guppies and 1 betta in the tank and the highest the ammonia ever went was .50 ppm. Within 24 hours it zoomed down to 0. Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, pH 7. It has now been 10 days (and I only did 1 water change in that 10 days) and the readings have all stayed at 0. They have been fed every day.
I was expecting there to be some sort of rise in the nitrite/nitrates at some point, but this never happened. Did the Tetra SafeStart supply all the bacteria that automatically took care of this?
The fish are all VERY happy, and VERY VERY active and eat well. No problems at all with the betta in the tank...I must have gotten a docile one as he swims with the guppies and has never once flared up at them. Whenever I've seen bettas they have always been lazily hanging around the top of tanks...not this one, he's extremely active and swims constantly only taking short breaks from time to time. He particularly loves swimming hard into the current of the filter output.
I'll continue to do two complete water tests every day to make sure things are staying stable. If things stay stable like they are I guess I should now just do 1 one gallon water change a week?
I'll have to say....if this indeed worked, that was certainly a 'quick fix' for cycling a tank!!! The SafeStart did in 24 hours what I've been waiting for a month to happen on it's own.
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