# Cycling with Stability



## tchilds (Jan 12, 2010)

I've set up countless fish tanks over the past 15 years. I got into the hobby as a boy and was always taught, "a tank takes 6 weeks to cycle completely, using a small bio load to kick start it with something hardy like Giant Danio".

Well fast forward to my recent 55 gallon mbuna setup. Yellow lab, yellow tail acei, and some rusties. I started with 10 2" donor fish from my 125 mbuna tank, 3 giant danio, and a pictus (i know i know) from Walmart. The employee caught me netting my own fish and informed me I needed help, then proceeded to net the pictus... then TORE him from the net most likely damaging his barbs or worse... i felt sorry for him so decided to give em a shot at life.

The filter is an OOOOOLD aquaclear 300 with all new spong, carbon, and bio media. ~200 lbs in gravel, small cobblers/flagstone, and a 100 watt submersible. Basically a brand new tank, not a single piece of gravel from another tank. Granted the rocks were from a landscaping outfit and I did not scrub them off or clean them in any way, so this may attribute to my tank's success somewhat... not likely.

So I set up the tank, rocks, gravel... fish acclimating the whole time I'm setting up right along side my elbow. I turn it all on, plop the fish in, and everyone is happy!!! I made some quick additions like the pictus and danio from walmart within the hour. 30+ inches of fish in a completely sterile aquarium you say?

Enter Stability. I added this stuff per directions, one cap full to 10 gallons initially. Then half the initial dosage once daily.

day 1 ...
day 2 ...
day 3.) nothing wrong here wtf...
day 4.) still no ammonia/nitrites but starting to see some nitrates??!!
day 5.) pictus dies within 2 hours just randomly, was perfectly fine before. attribute this to walmart since half the pictus in the tank were dead. poor guys. last fish i ever buy at walmart, sry it was like 3am and i broke down. he was actually more expensive than the LFS pictus!!! and only had 3 day garuntee? screw walmart.
day 6 ...
day 7.) final day per supplemental dosage per directions. still just nitrates...
day 8.) 15% water change
day 9 ...
day 10.) two yellow labs float near surface, "gasping", water tested great showing only trace amounts. added 5 tbs aquarium salt, 2 cap full amquel, 2 caps Stability
day 11...
day 12.) all is normal, yellow labs are fine
day 13.) small lab sucked into intake filter (did not notice the guard on pickup was damaged and left enough room for 2" fish to get sucked in!!! fixed this
day 14.) lab sucked into intake tube barely moving (moved to hospital tank to be treated with salt)
day 15 ...
day 16.) lab returned to tank
day 17.) added an angelicus (i know premature but w/e)
day 18.) cat eats 1" labs over night

So far everything is great. Stability works!! I cycled my tank in 7 days with no fatalities for $11. I didn't really believe this stuff would work but a guy at the LFS assured me it was the best and only product that actually did what it claims. He even had company to back him up saying he had put thousands of dollars on the line in emergency situations before with ZERO problems from the nitrogen cycle. We're talking completely sterile tanks set up over night to house very expensive salt water exotics for weeks.

Anyway just to let ya know, stability works. It works better than all the snake oil out there combined. I plan on setting up my 50 gallon with an even more demanding bio load, monitored daily, to see what happens when stability is pushed to the limit. I'll admit, this go around I was very apprehensive and did not push the limits of my 55 gallon mbuna setup as far as Stability claims I could have. That is a fully stocked tank in 1 day... scary I know.

As far as it being the "wrong" bacteria or whatever, it works. I don't know why or how but it does. Botritus is bad to consume but somehow we figured out a way to inject it into people's faces. I mean it doesn't always have to make common sense with these sorts of things. Good luck to any of you that attempt this.


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## gbfan10 (Jan 7, 2010)

I have had issues with fish from Wal-mart as well! 1/2 the fish in their tanks are floating on their backs.


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## borohands8593 (Apr 15, 2009)

I tried the stabilty product on a new setup and it failed miserably. My ammonia was through the roof for weeks WITH stabilty and then the nitrites followed. Took about 8 weeks, just like a normal cycle for me to get everything to normal. 
I used Dr Tims and stability and niether worked. From what I heard, stabilty uses a type of bacteria that is in spore form and not the normal bacteria that we need, the problem with this bacteria Im told is that it doesnt multiply and continue to function in the aquairum. Not sure but I wasnt sold, the only stuff that ever worked for me was Dr Tims BEFORE he reformulated it to make it "room temperature safe". The old stuff was shipped refridgerated and works overnight, the new stuff is ****.


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

tchilds said:


> Anyway just to let ya know, stability works.





borohands8593 said:


> I tried the stabilty product on a new setup and it failed miserably.


The results have always been very mixed with these types of products. If the day ever comes where people are shocked that the bacteria in a bottle DIDNÃ¢â‚¬â„¢T work, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll make the switch. Until then, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m sticking with fishless cycling.


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## ssondubs (Nov 16, 2008)

I would never buy fish from a discount store for fear of disease. For me seachem stability worked without any issues on 100 % new tank setup.


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

It doesn't sound like it was very healthy for the fish though.

"I plan on setting up my 50 gallon with an even more demanding bio load, monitored daily, to see what happens when stability is pushed to the limit."

I'm curious--why would you do this? Why not just dose with ammonia after you have added the Stability and wait until your bacteria have grown enough to deal with the bioload and _then _put in your fish. You would still be conducting an experiment, but by controlling the amount of ammonia put in, you would have much more reliable results. Plus, you wouldn't be risking the health of your fish.


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## RDTigger (Jul 4, 2009)

Stability helped cycle my first tank... Used Prime as well to help water quality...

Not all species of fish are bred well. I stocked my initial tank with firemouths and less hardy fish in neon tetra and german blue rams....

The only fish other than sensitive tetra came from a LFS that i have since discovered has terrible stock...

Test your water quality and do WC at a good rate during the cycling and you should be good. As for the pictus, I am sorry.... Prime helps with ammonia levels but not nitrite spikes. I did some daily WC's to keep my levels respectable but certainly cycled my tank better than your results...


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

[b:2tzocgdh said:


> scrubjay[/b]":2tzocgdh]
> Why not just dose with ammonia after you have added the Stability and wait until your bacteria have grown enough to deal with the bioload and then put in your fish. You would still be conducting an experiment, but by controlling the amount of ammonia put in, you would have much more reliable results. Plus, you wouldn't be risking the health of your fish.


 :thumb: These bacterial starter products work for some and not for others. Keep in mind if you come on CF and highly endorse these products, you may just be encouraging someone who may try it and not have the same good results. Posting that it worked for you is fine, but I'd always add the disclaimer YMMV.


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## tchilds (Jan 12, 2010)

Yeah well I'm talking 1" ******* mbuna. I definitely wouldn't set up a new tank for old mbuna with this stuff. If it works or not, it isn't worth it to risk the fishes. I've been feeding these guys twice daily since day one. Except for the day they were acting "funny".

I've cycled tanks and ponds the old fashioned way for a very long, long time. I would notice the difference in the cycle if this stuff didn't do what it claims. I've got no problem endorsing a product that works. I realize there is a lot of snake oil out there, but this stuff works and my endorsement may save someone a huge headache. We've all seen tanks that can't cycle or people in a bad situation with no way out. To these people I would definitely recommend cycle. If you have nothing else to lose, this $11 bottle to treat up to 115 gallons (for 7 days) isn't bad at all. My tank may have cycled naturally this fast. I wouldn't know because this is the first time in my life I haven't cycled a tank for 6 weeks, then slowly increased the bio-load, ever in my life!

I would not recommend relying on this stuff! I'm simply stating it does what it claims in my very basic situation with a 55 gallon, some ******* mbuna, and minimalist setup. No spikes, no fish kills, stable nitrogen cycle after full treatment.

I just wanted to add one other thing. They had two bottles on the shelf. One was 6 months old, the other was 14 days. I grabbed the 14 day old one! Check the date on these bottles for best results. The product is stored in a suspended state by a solution that dilutes and allows bacteria to activate once in the aquarium water. I don't know what the shelf life of it is as a result of this neat little trick, but fresher is always better right?


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## gfry (Oct 20, 2009)

*tchilds*
How were the bottles labeled? I stopped in to my local big-box pet shop and there were two bottles on the shelf. The one in front was stamped "07/12". The one in back was stamped "01/10". Wasn't quite sure how to interpret that... :-?


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## gfry (Oct 20, 2009)

gfry said:


> *tchilds*
> How were the bottles labeled? I stopped in to my local big-box pet shop and there were two bottles on the shelf. The one in front was stamped "07/12". The one in back was stamped "01/10". Wasn't quite sure how to interpret that... :-?


My thought was that it is an expiration date but usually old stock goes in front and new stock goes in back. Just curious as to how yours was labeled.


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## borohands8593 (Apr 15, 2009)

the date on the bottle shouldnt matter. If I am correct the reason why seachem claims this product can work at room temp better than all the others on the market is because the specific bacteria they have in the bottle is in spore form. spores last many many years, this is also what contributed to the arguement that stability isnt the answer due to the fact that the actual bacteria that are most beneficial to our aquaria do not exist in spore form.

Not that it matters but the bottle I used was stamped 7/12 and didnt work for me at all. I went a couple weeks with my ammonia off the charts using this product with no sign fo a drop before i found dirty sponge water and bought a biowheel filter, then it was a matter of days and my ammonia dropped, from which a few more days and my cycle complete. It ended up being a loooong process with lots of snakeoil and wasted money and the only thing that worked was either the dirty sponge water from a seeded filter and biowheels, or time itself hard to tell.


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## Cleicu (Apr 6, 2012)

Seachem says Stability is shelf stable for 4 years, and the expiration date is stamped on the bottom. I have read that it's best to get it within the first 6 months, and also that it's important to shake the holy heck out of it each time before you add it to the tank.

I am currently using it on a new 55 gallon that I only have 9 Glowlight Danios in (just in case it didn't work!) So far (day 4) I have seen these changes:

2 days before fish added, one day after plants:
PH 7.4
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Amm. 0ppm

4 days after fish added: :fish: 
PH 8
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Amm. .25ppm

I've been pairing the "Stability" with API's "Stress zyme+" putting 80% of the stability into the Marineland Penguin 200B filter, directly between the charcoal filter and the biowheel. Then I put 10% of the Stress zyme into my Aquaclear 50 filter, pouring it directly onto the bio media.

Were I to hazard a guess, I would say if the Stability works it's because you dose a new tank every day for 7 days, whereas with the other products you only dose once a week for 2 weeks.

But time will tell.


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