# How Long for Tetra SafeStart to Work?



## Flying Unagi

I'm a bit new to this, so please bear with me. 

Last Friday, I added an entire bottle of Tetra SafeStart to my 20 gallon aquarium, hopping it'd speed up the cycling process. I already had two comets and one fanfail in the tank (yes, I know the tank's too small, but the friend I adopted them from kept them and six other goldfish in a 30 gallon before she gave them to me and I WILL upgrade eventually) for about a week prior to adding SafeStart. I've been doing water tests every other day and the ammonia levels have slowly been rising, but there's still no sign of nitrites. Yesterday's ammonia test read between 2.0 and 4.0ppm.

I'm about ready to conclude that SafeStart didn't work as intended and will do a 50% water change today after work and 25% daily after that. I've only waited this long because I've read that SafeStart could take up to a week before you see any results and that it's normal for ammonia and nitrite levels to remain at around 2.0 before dropping. In this case, the product's probably not going to work since it's already been so long...right? Any other thoughts?


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## eaglescout316

I personally don't trust the bacteria colonies that don't need cooled. They work by putting the bacteria in a hostile environment so that the bacteria "shut down" (enter a spore state) and then your aquarium dilutes the inhibitor. I believe that they are playing fast and loose with how biology actually works. When you take antibiotics the same thing happens to the bacteria making you sick; that's why you feel better long before the doctor lets you stop taking the drugs. Bacteria can't keep up the suspended state forever, they eventually fall out and if in a hostile environment die. That's why you continue taking the drugs; you catch them as they fall out of their protected state. Otherwise they wake up and are fine and make you sick again. I theorize the same kind of thing could be happening here. Depending on the age of the bottle, the bacteria could've been waking up and dying before you put it in your tank.

Another problem is that if you used a big bottle designed for something like a 55 or 75 gallon aquarium and dumped it in a 20 gallon, there's a chance there wasn't enough water to dilute the inhibitor so you have a bunch of bacteria in suspended animation. A third possibility is you dumped too many bacteria in leading to a starvation situation. Think about if you have 5 people starving to death on a life raft with enough food to barely support 2 people. If they split it 5 ways, they die anyhow.

If your friend you got the fish from or any other friend has an established tank, get some gravel or used filter media from them. I've used the filter media technique to rapidly cycle my quarantine tank in the past. I don't know if it matters, but i put the used media behind the quarantine tank's filter media so the water flow would potentially help transfer the bacteria to the quarantine tank's media.


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## sbetsy

I think that the above logic makes sense, but I have had great results using stability by seachem, which is one of the shelf-start bacteria products. I'd be very concerned about your ammonia readings. Definitely do a water change and if you can get some bacteria from an established tank, that would be really good. Yes, ammonia levels can stay high before they drop, but in the meantime, the fish can be permanently damaged. Their gills can get "burned" by the ammonia. I think. I'm not a fish biologist. But, it's not good for them in the meantime.


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## TheOldSalt

I find that SafeStart works just fine, and works fast. Your tank is simply probably underfiltered for such a heavy load. Most folks majorly underestimate the waste producing capacity of goldfish.
It is possible that your bottle got overheated somewhere along the way, thusly reducing it's effectiveness. Do a water change to remove toxicity, which also harms bacteria, you know, and the bacteria should be able to start getting busy soon enough.


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## Flying Unagi

Thanks for all the helpful advice! All the hypotheses sound reasonable, and it's probably a combination of a lot of factors that the bottle hasn't worked. Eaglescout, I was hesitant about adding a bacteria colony to my tank as well, so I did some research and knew my success rate wasn't insanely high to begin with. It seemed like SafeStart had a success rate (success can be defined loosely here) high enough to take a chance, so I actually bought the smallest bottle. I'm thinking I might have underdosed, actually, by using a bottle intended for 15 gallons on a 20 gallon tank (I assumed that only about 17 gallons of the tank was actually water, so I figured close enough since the next bottle up was for an 80 gallon tank). Also, like TheOldSalt mentioned, there's already a pretty big bioload in the tank to begin with - which doesn't help things at all.

I'll try and see if I can get some media from my friend's tank as suggested. I know she threw out her old gravel, but maybe she has a used filter sponge or something...all I know is that yesterday's 50% water change did bring the ammonia level down to 1.0ppm, but it jumped back up to 2.0ppm today. Did a 30% water change today and we'll see how things are tomorrow...


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## Peeps

> I find that SafeStart works just fine, and works fast. Your tank is simply probably underfiltered for such a heavy load. Most folks majorly underestimate the waste producing capacity of goldfish.
> It is possible that your bottle got overheated somewhere along the way, thusly reducing it's effectiveness. Do a water change to remove toxicity, which also harms bacteria, you know, and the bacteria should be able to start getting busy soon enough.


I agree, goldfish are VERY messy, I would add more filtration. You could get a canister.


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