Seachem Stability: PUT TO THE TEST/blank slate (daily perams/pics)

[RD.]

Stability works, no question about it.





As far as;

For use with Stability you should be using "clean" filtering media not established as the Stability bacteria may not "take" if they have to fight or get eaten by another form of bacteria.

As long as there is someplace for bacteria to take hold, a food source for that bacteria, & a supply of 02, bacteria will establish itself. I have proven this many times over in established tanks by simply performing massive frequent water changes in the weeks prior to increasing my bio load in a tank. Sometimes by more than 10x the current load. In my case we have chloramine treated tap water, so with every large water change comes a spike in ammonia, which over time creates a large spike in the growth of bio-bacteria.

Yesterday I took on some fish from a friend with no real advance warning so no time to play around with water changes in the previous month, so I'm using Stability again. Stats on this tank are 6 ft 125 gallon, filtered by 3 established AC 500's. (110's) Previous fish in this tank was a single 7" cichlid, only resident in this tank for the past several months. Current stock as of yesterday AM - two 12" snakeheads, and five 5" clown loaches. Used initial double dose of Stability (1 cap per 10 gallons) - and 24 hrs later still no sign of any type of ammonia spike. I will continue with 1 cap per 10 gallons for the rest of the week and do not foresee any problems.

BTW - if it hasn't already been mentioned in this discussion, Seachem sells an Ammonia Alert device that sticks inside ones tank, they are very handy for checking for ammonia spikes when setting up a new tank, or building on established ones. The sensor is good for approx 12 months.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AmmoniaAlert.html


HTH

 

[joe jaskot]

Stability works, no question about it.





As far as;

As long as there is someplace for bacteria to take hold, a food source for that bacteria, & a supply of 02, bacteria will establish itself. I have proven this many times over in established tanks by simply performing massive frequent water changes in the weeks prior to increasing my bio load in a tank. Sometimes by more than 10x the current load. In my case we have chloramine treated tap water, so with every large water change comes a spike in ammonia, which over time creates a large spike in the growth of bio-bacteria.

Yesterday I took on some fish from a friend with no real advance warning so no time to play around with water changes in the previous month, so I'm using Stability again. Stats on this tank are 6 ft 125 gallon, filtered by 3 established AC 500's. (110's) Previous fish in this tank was a single 7" cichlid, only resident in this tank for the past several months. Current stock as of yesterday AM - two 12" snakeheads, and five 5" clown loaches. Used initial double dose of Stability (1 cap per 10 gallons) - and 24 hrs later still no sign of any type of ammonia spike. I will continue with 1 cap per 10 gallons for the rest of the week and do not foresee any problems.

BTW - if it hasn't already been mentioned in this discussion, Seachem sells an Ammonia Alert device that sticks inside ones tank, they are very handy for checking for ammonia spikes when setting up a new tank, or building on established ones. The sensor is good for approx 12 months.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AmmoniaAlert.html


HTH

Throwing three established filters on any tank should work whether stability was added or not. Still have not seen any real proof that stabiltiy works.

 

[petspoiler]

 

[RD.]

Throwing three established filters on any tank should work whether stability was added or not. Still have not seen any real proof that stabiltiy works.

Joe, perhaps you misunderstood. I didn't add anything to that tank, except some big fish. Those 3 filters had been on that tank for years, and the only fish in that tank for the past several months was a 7" cichlid. In theory, the bio-bacteria colony should have only been large enough to support the volume of food required for the BB within that tank. As in what that single 7" fish was producing.

So that BB colony went from supporting a 7" cichlid for several months, to suddenly supporting two 12" snakeheads, and five 5" clown loaches. 24+ hrs later, and no ammonia spike. If not due to Stability, perhaps a Xmas miracle?

A number of years ago I used Stability to kick start a system when I managed to wipe out the BB in a tank that had several fancy gold fish in it. (I was treating with meds for anchor worm etc) I honestly didn't expect it to work due to my experiences with similar products over the years - but this was my wife's tank, and I was desperate. It actually did work as advertised (although I used a double dose throughout), and within 7 days I was back on course with a fully cycled tank with a BB colony that could once again support the system.

The BB colony in this tank had flat-lined, and not only could I bring it back within 7 days using Stability, I did so with the fish in the tank the entire time & with no noticeable stress occurring among any of the fish.

Clearly I'm not the only experienced fish keeper in this discussion that has had success with using this Seachem product. If you want more real *proof* than what we have collectively offered, I guess that you'll have to run your own in house experiments and provide proof to show that we are all wrong.

 

[guano]

Bump for a great thread. Used the stability a while back on setting up a new tank with new media. Worked like a champ!

 

[letstalkfish]

What a great time for this thread to come back to life! I just started using stability for the first time. I am cycling a brand new 75 with new substrate/live plants, etc. Running an eheim 2217 with new media and an ac110 that has bio media in it that I pulled from an established tank (although it was only there about a week.)

Unfortunately after three days I noticed the bottle I had recently purchased was expired. After using the new one for just 2 days, I have seen ammonia drop from 1 ppm to 0.50 ppm. Has anyone used stability and achieved perfect parameters just to have any sort of spike shortly after? There are currently 6 giant danios in the tank for some ammonia, and I overfeed a little for the purpose of ensuring it is there. After I get my params right I'll be adding a 2.5" green terror that I'm growing out and I would hate to have them spike.

 

[Ancient_Fish_Master]

set up my 30 gallon 5 days ago and my levels are near perfect with stability. always loved this stuff.

 

[guano]

What a great time for this thread to come back to life! I just started using stability for the first time. I am cycling a brand new 75 with new substrate/live plants, etc. Running an eheim 2217 with new media and an ac110 that has bio media in it that I pulled from an established tank (although it was only there about a week.)

Unfortunately after three days I noticed the bottle I had recently purchased was expired. After using the new one for just 2 days, I have seen ammonia drop from 1 ppm to 0.50 ppm. Has anyone used stability and achieved perfect parameters just to have any sort of spike shortly after? There are currently 6 giant danios in the tank for some ammonia, and I overfeed a little for the purpose of ensuring it is there. After I get my params right I'll be adding a 2.5" green terror that I'm growing out and I would hate to have them spike.

If you got an establish/cycled tank already, take some of the media from that and transfer it to your new 75 tank and you should be good to go. Just watch your water params till the bacteria gets established. I think over feeding is unnecessary, danios should poop enough to help feed them. I'm a big believer in redundancy so I would still dose stability per instructions since you got it anyway. Once you're set, I would add fish slowly so the bacteria can catch up with the load. Dosing stability probably won't be a bad idea too when you add new fish.

 

[4D3]

Throwing three established filters on any tank should work whether stability was added or not. Still have not seen any real proof that stabiltiy works.

+1 - I broke the cycle in my tank somehow, I bought the biggest bottle of Seachem stability they had, and treated accordingly, had ZERO effect on the regrowth of my bacteria, my tank seems to be going through a NORMAL cycle.

I though i would test this out so I grabbed AquaMaster - POND concentrate same thing but neither worked...these products are a margeting scheme.

(I LOVE Seachem Products) Seachem Stability and ANY product that claims to be like is snake oil

 

[letstalkfish]

+1 - I broke the cycle in my tank somehow, I bought the biggest bottle of Seachem stability they had, and treated accordingly, had ZERO effect on the regrowth of my bacteria, my tank seems to be going through a NORMAL cycle.

I though i would test this out so I grabbed AquaMaster - POND concentrate same thing but neither worked...these products are a margeting scheme.

(I LOVE Seachem Products) Seachem Stability and ANY product that claims to be like is snake oil

Starting to believe this. My tank seems to be going through a normal cycle despite following the dosing instructions to a T and buying a new bottle.