Seachem Safe vs Aquascience New Pond

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Please read readings posted


Anyway I will test back Safe and see how... may be due to over dosages of Safe
 
Galantspeedz said:
S skjl47

Please read the readings I posted

Tank setup 10 months
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Hello; I get that the tank has been set up a while and under normal conditions would be fully cycled. Yet you are reporting a problem that should not exist with a cycled tank. By cycled I mean a tank with a healthy population of the beneficial bacteria (bb) that will quickly convert ammonia and nitrites into the less toxic nitrates.

So there are a few ways to have ammonia in a tank and one is there is a problem with the bb population. My suggestion that the overdose of SAFE may is some way lead to a reduction of the bb population is a guess.

Another possibility is the test kit is not working properly or some error in the technique you use. I suggest trying the water tests on some distilled water. Distilled water should be neutral when tested.

I do not recall the size of the tank and the stocking level of the tank. Maybe I missed this or you have not mentioned these things. If the tank is stocked too heavy for it's size then that might add to the issues.

last thing in this post is have you tested the source water? Bad water is becoming more common around the world. Some folks just have source water that is too poor to keep a tank healthy.
 
I doubt that Safe is killing off any bacteria. Lots of reasons why the BB may not be built up to a seasoned level in 10 months. He has already posted tank size etc. The OP lives in Singapore, water there is fine. It better be, it's the epicenter for the ornamental fish trade. lol

Let's not complicate this more than it already is, the OP is going to start by adjusting his dosage of Safe, and then we can go from there.

What I can add, is after checking a few forums out in the OP's part of the world, hobbyists in Singapore have been using Seachem Safe for years, without issue. No big surprise there.
 
RD. said:
More from S'pore .......

http://arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=502449

Some of those guys were overdosing as well, and overall pretty confused as to how to properly dose their tap water. lol
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Hello; My hat off to you for going so far into the details of these threads. I tend to follow such threads to see if some bits of new information can be had.
I have a bottle of SAFE and determined the amount needed to treat is very small for many, if not most, tanks. I can see how it can be difficult to measure out a proper dose for one WC.

I had an idea a year or so ago to mix up some of the powder form which is SAFE in a bottle of water as that might be an easier way to parce out the portions. I learned from this forum, perhaps from you, that SAFE once mixed in water is not stable for more than a few weeks. So that approach would only be useful with the amount of water used in WC for a duration of about three weeks.
 
RD. RD. Yeah I read the reviews both here and on aft and arofanatics before I decided to try seachem safe...

It may just be a coincidence that things happen so I will switch back to safe and try again

And it only affects my aro tank and only the fire eel and blood parrots

No such issues with my cichlid tank even though I overdose by the same percentage

S skjl47

Tank is 6ftx2ftx2ft. Inhabitants are a 1ft malaysian crossback arowana, a 1ft albino clown knife fish, 3 x 5 inch blood parrot, a 14 inch spotted gar, 7 silver dollars, 2 x 1ft and bichir, a 1.5ft fire eel and a 5 inch common pleco

Before you say the bioload is too high I wish to repeat that I do not face shedding of slime coat with my fire eel and blood parrots on my regular water conditioner till after 5th day and even then it is very slight as compared to when I use seachem safe

I have no issues with more regular water changes but just wondering why with Safe the changes are 3 days while with my regular conditioner it is 5 days

Like what RD mentioned, the ammonia reading may be an anomaly since it was only present in 1 out of 4 tests
 
Just a guess, but with the overdose and high bio load I think it is possible that the amount of dissolved oxygen was reduced to a level that it inhibited the the aerobic nitrifying bacteria. Resulting in some of the ammonia not being processed as fast as it was produced.
 
Just a guess, but with the overdose and high bio load I think it is possible that the amount of dissolved oxygen was reduced to a level that it inhibited the the aerobic nitrifying bacteria. Resulting in some of the ammonia not being processed as fast as it was produced.
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Without knowing more about the filtration on that set up, how much is fed daily/weekly, the temp of the water, and ultimately the 02 levels, - I would agree. That is a LOT of fish for a tank that size, and with only being 10 months along I suspect that it doesn't take much to tip the scales. This is always a risk when one pushes the envelope between bio bacteria, and bio load, and that is exactly why everyone posting has suggested the bio load/bio filtration as being a potential issue. In the grand scheme of things 10 months in the life of an aquarium isn't much more than a hiccup in time.
 
I generally would agree but it seems 1 reading of ammonia seems to supersede all previous readings of zero ammonia

Seachem safe
1st reading 0 ammonia 40 nitrate - 3days
2nd reading 0.25 ammonia 40 nitrate - 3days
Switch to water conditioner
1st reading 0 ammonia 20 nitrate - 3days
2nd reading 0 ammonia 20-40 nitrate - 4days

All 0 nitrite

My initial thought was also too much bioload but I get better reading with water conditioner which make me puzzled
 
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