# My experience with tetra safe start



## MantisX (Aug 25, 2004)

I just wanted to share my experience with TSS. I have a 6g edge that was taking forever to cycle. Ammonia was around 2ppm and nitrites were off the chart. I bought a bottle of TSS and dumped in half. 2 days later and ammonia is .25ppm and nitrites are .25ppm. I also added it right after dosing prime which they say not to do. I also did no water change to bring down the nitrites. 

If you have a stubborn tank, I'd say it's definitely worth a try. 

MantisX


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## prighello (Aug 19, 2007)

Thanks for the input, I've heard good things about this product.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

I might try this out, I'm like 3 days into my cycle with .25ppm of ammonia level lol. It will not go up. I'm going to have to buy some ammonia or something.


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## Aqguy (Oct 30, 2013)

I cycled a new 75g in 8 days with this product my tank was heavily planted


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

I'm using the supplied Nutrafin Cycle that came with my Edge. Tonight I'll add the third and final dosing of it but so far my ammonia has been at .50ppm and my Nitrites and Nitrates have been 0.

Did you try the Nutrafin Cycle that came with your tank or was it unsuccessful? Based on my testing it appears to not be very effective. Tomorrow night will be the true test if it worked (That will make it 3 full days of treatment)


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## MantisX (Aug 25, 2004)

The nutrafin cycle didnt go well for me. Maybe I got a bad batch. It clouded my water, then cleared, but none of the parameters budged for weeks. I dosed 2ppm of ammonia to start and that hardly moved. I saw results in days with TSS.

Glad to hear the nutrafin is working for you though!

MantisX


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

Tetra Safestart+ worked well for me only, 14g planted tank. Had .25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 10-20 nitrates within 2 days. Totally cycled in 7 days. Ammonia never went above .25. Be sure to fully shake the bottle, as the only time if didn't work 100% was when I didn't shake the container. However, that was with it's predecessor BioSpira.....still, it says to shake well so be sure to!


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

It worked really well for me, cycled my tank within a day. I thought it was too good to be true and kept testing nitrites and ammonia for 3 weeks straight with two different test kits but they kept reading 0 ppm. Very satisfied with the product. As a note, petsmart overprices it at 14 dollars but you can get a bottle of tetra safestart (not plus) at walmart for 6 bucks. Haven't tried the safe start and the only difference I think is that safestart plus treats more gallons. I also noticed that the bottle of safestart doesn't include any mention of the "patented formula for Biospira.


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## Virto (Dec 6, 2012)

I've used it and had nothing but good experiences with it. Even when moving established media from tank to tank, I add a bottle of SafeStart for good measure.

Just buy the newest, freshest bottle possible, make sure it doesn't overheat and that it doesn't get too cold and you're golden. It's like a snakeoil product, but it actually works.


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## gSTiTcH (Feb 21, 2013)

wade0328 said:


> I might try this out, I'm like 3 days into my cycle with .25ppm of ammonia level lol. It will not go up. I'm going to have to buy some ammonia or something.


Nitrites/Nitrates going up?


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## jrman83 (Nov 22, 2010)

fandsw said:


> Tetra Safestart+ worked well for me only, 14g planted tank. Had .25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 10-20 nitrates within 2 days. Totally cycled in 7 days. Ammonia never went above .25. Be sure to fully shake the bottle, as the only time if didn't work 100% was when I didn't shake the container. However, that was with it's predecessor BioSpira.....still, it says to shake well so be sure to!


Was there an ammonia source in your tank? Fish maybe?



neilshieh said:


> It worked really well for me, cycled my tank within a day. I thought it was too good to be true and kept testing nitrites and ammonia for 3 weeks straight with two different test kits but they kept reading 0 ppm. Very satisfied with the product. As a note, petsmart overprices it at 14 dollars but you can get a bottle of tetra safestart (not plus) at walmart for 6 bucks. Haven't tried the safe start and the only difference I think is that safestart plus treats more gallons. I also noticed that the bottle of safestart doesn't include any mention of the "patented formula for Biospira.


Was there anything in your tank when you added it? Was this an empty tank?



Menace said:


> I'm using the supplied Nutrafin Cycle that came with my Edge. Tonight I'll add the third and final dosing of it but so far my ammonia has been at .50ppm and my Nitrites and Nitrates have been 0.
> 
> Did you try the Nutrafin Cycle that came with your tank or was it unsuccessful? Based on my testing it appears to not be very effective. Tomorrow night will be the true test if it worked (That will make it 3 full days of treatment)


Is there anything else in your tank? Fish?


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

gSTiTcH said:


> Nitrites/Nitrates going up?


Nitrites are 0 nitrates are a dark yellow on my test kit but i think it's 0. Not much ammonia popping up. I'm going to run to walmart and get some of this stuff!


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## jbrady33 (Jun 7, 2012)

I like this stuff as well - be sure to check the date on the bottom (this stuff does expire)

I used it on my tank, but did a 'cycle' - feeding the tank Ace ammonia for a 4 weeks and watching levels. maybe I wasted my time, maybe I encouraged a larger bacteria colony, who knows. 

Stuff seems to work though :smile:


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Just bought some and dumped the whole thing in my 20 long. Hopefully it works! Will update!


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

jrman83 said:


> Was there an ammonia source in your tank? Fish maybe?
> 
> Was there anything in your tank when you added it? Was this an empty tank?
> 
> Is there anything else in your tank? Fish?


Yep, I added the fish at the same time as the Safestart+. Not a problem to them at all.


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

neilshieh said:


> It worked really well for me, cycled my tank within a day. I thought it was too good to be true and kept testing nitrites and ammonia for 3 weeks straight with two different test kits but they kept reading 0 ppm. Very satisfied with the product. As a note, petsmart overprices it at 14 dollars but you can get a bottle of tetra safestart (not plus) at walmart for 6 bucks. Haven't tried the safe start and the only difference I think is that safestart plus treats more gallons. I also noticed that the bottle of safestart doesn't include any mention of the "patented formula for Biospira.


Safestart+ is a DIFFERENT formulation than Safestart and does not contain the bio bacteria that makes Safestart+ effective. I would not recommend it. Plain Safestart has been on the market for quite a while, even when the Safestart+ was still sold as BioSpira by Marineland. Tetra bought the rights for freshwater BioSpira and now sells it as Safestart+. I really don't know why they still sell the old formula. As for Safestart+ it does come in different sizes for more or less gallons.


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

fandsw said:


> Safestart+ is a DIFFERENT formulation than Safestart and does not contain the bio bacteria that makes Safestart+ effective. I would not recommend it. Plain Safestart has been on the market for quite a while, even when the Safestart+ was still sold as BioSpira by Marineland. Tetra bought the rights for freshwater BioSpira and now sells it as Safestart+. I really don't know why they still sell the old formula. As for Safestart+ it does come in different sizes for more or less gallons.



Ahh that makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why i didn't see them parading the whole "patented BioSpira formula" all around the bottle. It's actually cheaper to buy this stuff online but for all intents and purposes it's probably easier to just buy it locally at petsmart so you don't have to deal with shipping and whatnot.

On a sidenote, I really want to see if the fosters and smith brand is also equally as effective. It's quite a competitive price (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+27572+3975+25252&pcatid=25252)


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> Was there anything in your tank when you added it? Was this an empty tank?


When I added it I only had 5 ghost shrimp in my tank and then a two days later I added 6 fish. My tap water has 1 ppm of ammonia and i had a bunch of dying algae from my neglected DSM so there was probably a lot of ammonia. Every time i did water changes and tested the water the day after I'd get 0 ammonia so I figured the bacteria must have been established. As an FYI for those using api test kits, I can't get that perfect yellow but it's not quite that yellow green color of 0.25. Best way to tell is to test distilled water at the same time. When I tested my distilled water it showed the same color so I was comfortable saying that there was no ammonia.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

fandsw said:


> Safestart+ is a DIFFERENT formulation than Safestart and does not contain the bio bacteria that makes Safestart+ effective. I would not recommend it. Plain Safestart has been on the market for quite a while, even when the Safestart+ was still sold as BioSpira by Marineland. Tetra bought the rights for freshwater BioSpira and now sells it as Safestart+. I really don't know why they still sell the old formula. As for Safestart+ it does come in different sizes for more or less gallons.


Hmm. Tetra's website agrees with you, but my recently purchased bottle looks exactly like this:










It's not Safestart+, but proclaims BIO-Spira on the front. The back lists ingredients as purified water, Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, and Nitrospira. Maybe they've changed product lineup recently.

BTW, worked well to accelerate a partially cycled tank with ammonia and nitrite. Nitrite disappeared within one day, ammonia took two; which was a little odd, but I can't complain.


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

neilshieh said:


> Ahh that makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why i didn't see them parading the whole "patented BioSpira formula" all around the bottle. It's actually cheaper to buy this stuff online but for all intents and purposes it's probably easier to just buy it locally at petsmart so you don't have to deal with shipping and whatnot.


One of Tetra's sub brands "Instant Ocean" still sells the saltwater marine formula as Bio-Spira. I guess they didn't want to confuse the 2 products, but if that's the case why have both Safestart and Safestart+??? I'm sure that made sense to somebody at the Tetra corporate office......


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

DarkCobra said:


> Hmm. Tetra's website agrees with you, but my recently purchased bottle looks exactly like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hmm, when I checked them at my local store last month the Safestart there did not mention the Bio-Spira.....you maybe right, maybe it is a recent change and they are combining them into one name. It sure would help with the confusion in the long run, however for now everyone should read the label carefully and look for the ingredients you mentioned above.


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## prighello (Aug 19, 2007)

fandsw said:


> One of Tetra's sub brands "Instant Ocean" still sells the saltwater marine formula as Bio-Spira. I guess they didn't want to confuse the 2 products, but if that's the case why have both Safestart and Safestart+??? I'm sure that made sense to somebody at the Tetra corporate office......


I recall reading somewhere on Tetra's FAQs that the difference between TSS and TSS+ was just the concentration of bacteria, but otherwise they are the same thing.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I must have gotten a bad batch.

I tried safe start on my 55 since it was taking a long time to fish-less cycle with ammonia (was partially cycled, nitrites were not going down (staying about 2 ppm). I added the whole bottle (said it could start up a 100 gallon). Water was well cured since its been cycling for several weeks at that point.

It crashed the whole cycle! 

Ammonia went from 0 to 4 and nitrites off the charts again. I tried leaving it be, testing daily and adding ammonia only to keep tank ppm at 3 ppm. Nitrites took even longer to get back down to 2ppm than before. I think i added an extra few weeks to the cycle using that product.. but again.. might have been given a bad batch. 

I tried contacting Tetra about it, they refused to refund the price of the bottle unless I sent them the bottle, original recite, and a water sample. they wouldn't even specify the size of the water sample... I pay shipping and they would not reimburse. They would not send my recite back (though it had other purchases on it). They essentially made it more expensive to get my money back for the original purchase with these shipping costs (and container for the water). I won't use their products again after such horrible customer support, even if it was just one bottle.


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

AquaAurora said:


> I must have gotten a bad batch.
> 
> I tried safe start on my 55 since it was taking a long time to fish-less cycle with ammonia (was partially cycled, nitrites were not going down (staying about 2 ppm). I added the whole bottle (said it could start up a 100 gallon). Water was well cured since its been cycling for several weeks at that point.
> 
> ...


Ouch...how long ago was this? Was it the Safestart or Safestart+? What you described sure sounds like something I had heard about before with the original Safestart, that it really didn't do anything for you.


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

DarkCobra said:


> Hmm. Tetra's website agrees with you, but my recently purchased bottle looks exactly like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Now that's odd haha. The one I saw at walmart looked like this








This one doesn't mention anything about BioSpira however I looked at the ingredients and it also said "purified water, Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, and Nitrospira" 

Thus we can probably conclude the green cap ones are old stock (pre BioSpira buyout) and probably do not work. The new bottles have yellow caps should have that yellow bubble saying BioSpira on the front and the difference between safestart and safestart + is the concentration and how many gallons it can treat.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

AquaAurora said:


> I must have gotten a bad batch.


That's a frightening outcome.

The possibility comes to mind that the bacteria were dead, and decomposed into copious amounts of ammonia (plus other toxins) right in the bottle, which was then added to your tank. Probably equivalent to adding a dead fish to the tank, rotten to the point of liquification. _Eww._

I still have some of my bottle left, which has been in the fridge since I used it a month ago. Out of curiosity, I filled a test vial with distilled water, added one drop of Safestart, and ammonia tested it. The result was zero.

It's long shot, but... Do you still have the bottle? If so, can you perform the same test?

Or does anyone else have a suspect bottle, perhaps one that performed only sluggishly, they could test?

It would be awesome if a simple test like this could reliably distinguish between a good or bad bottle, making future disasters preventable.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

neilshieh I just got some from Walmart today and it looks just like that too!


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Tetra Safe Start or other products:
Look for Nitrospira species of bacteria in the ingredients. 
These bacteria are not as shelf-stable as the species in the other cycle-in-a-bottle products, but they are the right species. The wrong species may include Nitrobacter winogradsky, and comments about helpful enzymes. 
Healthy (fresh, live) Nitrospira bacteria will cycle the tank in a day or so, certainly under a week when conditions are right. If you are ordering it shipped think about a cool pack for the summer, or a heat pack for the winter, if it is freezing. The bacteria do not survive freezing, so the cool pack needs to not touch the bottle, just keep it cooler. 

AquaAurora, that sounds like a nightmare! Not the typical results at all.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Well I used the Tetra Safestart yesterday around 5:00 pm. Its 9:30 am now and I just tested my water and it is still saying no ammonia.. Have I tested too early? I's hard to tell the color sometimes so it could be between 0-.25ppm. But still..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

fandsw said:


> Ouch...how long ago was this? Was it the Safestart or Safestart+? What you described sure sounds like something I had heard about before with the original Safestart, that it really didn't do anything for you.


SafeStart plus and it was about mid October that I added it. It really messed up the system and pissed me off to no end, especially their terrible customer support.




DarkCobra said:


> That's a frightening outcome.
> 
> The possibility comes to mind that the bacteria were dead, and decomposed into copious amounts of ammonia (plus other toxins) right in the bottle, which was then added to your tank. Probably equivalent to adding a dead fish to the tank, rotten to the point of liquification. _Eww._
> 
> ...


It was safestart plus, and that would be quite gross and explain the ammonia jump.
I have the bottle, but its empty (I poured the whole thing into the tank.. as the instructions on it say to do). When I got it, it had not been exposed to extreme heat or cold via shipping (shipped early fall), and had not expired yet by its "use by __"date... But that doesn't mean much if it was not subjected to proper inspection/quality control at the factory before/when bottling.


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

wade0328 said:


> Well I used the Tetra Safestart yesterday around 5:00 pm. Its 9:30 am now and I just tested my water and it is still saying no ammonia.. Have I tested too early? I's hard to tell the color sometimes so it could be between 0-.25ppm. But still..


No, shouldn't be to early....Do you have any bioload in the tank, i.e. fish? No ammonia is good, are you measuring nitrites and nitrates? Ammonia and nitrites should be zero, with some nitrates showing.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Nope no bioload, but shouldn't some ammonia show up first before nitrite or nitrates?


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## jbrady33 (Jun 7, 2012)

You have to ADD ammonia, with the actual chemical, decaying food, or fish waste.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

So I could have some nitrites or nitrates as of now then?


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Here is my nitrite test (blue) 0. Here is my Nitrate test, what would you say it is? The yellow color is always freaking hard to tell if it's not elevated enough to tell a difference. Could it be possible that my tank is cycled in like a day lol?


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

wade your tests look good, but you need to have something in the tank producing ammonia like jbrady mentioned, like fish producing waste, leftover food, etc.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Okay I'll throw a couple danios in there and see what happens I guess! Why do I need to spike the ammonia? I must have a different view of what this tetra safestart is supposed to do


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

Hi wade,
you don't need an ammonia spike, however the bacteria NEED food which is ammonia. If you put the bacteria into your tank and there's no ammonia to convert into nitrite and then into nitrate then your bacteria will just die off. 
Once you've added the fish test periodically for two weeks to be safe, if the results show a consistent 0 ppm for nitrites and ammonia then you should be good. I wouldn't worry about measuring nitrates, ammonia and nitrite are what you should be watching out for. After the first week you can increase the bioload and feel free to start adding a bunch of plants.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Okay makes since now! Wasn't catching that, thanks for explaining!


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

wade0328 said:


> Okay makes since now! Wasn't catching that, thanks for explaining!


According to Tetra Safestart you are supposed to add fish immediately. I guess that explains why things aren't quite working out for you and myself included (Although I used nutrafin cycle.) We both want the water to cycle without the inhabitants but at the rate at which the products cycle instead of the weeks it takes otherwise and I don't think it's designed to do that.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Tested my Ph today and it was 8.2, seems kind of high lol, should I do anything to it for the cycle? Could it be hindering it? Ammonia and nitrite is at 0 again today.


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## Fiftymeatballs (Mar 30, 2011)

A alkaline PH in the 8's is ideal for bacteria growth. When I cycle tanks I raise my PH with baking soda to create an optimal environment for the bacteria to grow. When the PH is acidic the bacteria work half speed and when it's very acidic will go dormant and or die. 

Are you adding an ammonia source to the tank? Tetra SS does not put ammonia into your tank it puts bacteria that feed off your ammonia. Without an ammonia source (aka fish or ammonium chloride added to reach 3-5ppm) your tank will sit there un cycled forever. If you did add some fish it will take a few days for ammonia to build up. If you added safestart days ago with out an ammonia source you may have wasted your money and the bacteria could have starved.


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## wade0328 (Jul 10, 2013)

Well it was right at 24 hours before I put fish in the tank with the safe start. Is that okay? Should I buy more and put it in to be safe?


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## fandsw (Jan 30, 2004)

wade0328 said:


> Well it was right at 24 hours before I put fish in the tank with the safe start. Is that okay? Should I buy more and put it in to be safe?


You should be ok. Just monitor your water parameters daily. If they hold for a week your tank should be balanced and settled in, then you can start cutting back your water parameter monitoring to a once of twice weekly thing, probably best to do before a water change.

After that the only time you really need to be careful is if you do something that could upset that balance, like replacing a filter, adding a large amount of fish, etc. Most tanks can withstand changes if they are applied in small amounts, just need to be aware.


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## jbrady33 (Jun 7, 2012)

Do a little reading on the "nitrogen cycle" and it will make more sense.

1. Fish and animals produce ammonia in their waste. it's poisonous and kills fish
2. Bacteria #1 reduce ammonia to nitrite, It's also poisonous and kills fish.
3. a different bacteria (#2) reduce nitrite to nitrate - still technically poisonous but very mildly - we reduce this with water changes.

That's the cycle! without SafeStart the bacteria build slowly from the environment (they are everywhere). #1 comes first, then later #2. SafeStart puts a large concentration of both in the tank at one time.

Now the ammonia part - if we fill a tank with water an let it sit there - nothing happens. For a fishless cycle we add something that produces ammonia - my favorite is Ace Hardware brand janitorial ammonia. Some people use a piece of rotting shrimp.

With SafeStart you still need that ammonia source or the bacteria starve and don't multiply and grow. You can add fish right away (like you did) or do the fishless thing described above.

JB


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