#16 in Aquarium water treatment products
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Reddit mentions of API QUICK START Nitrifying Aquarium Bacteria, Allows Instant Addition of Fish and Maintains Active Biological Filter, 16-Ounce Bottle
Sentiment score: 4
Reddit mentions: 7
We found 7 Reddit mentions of API QUICK START Nitrifying Aquarium Bacteria, Allows Instant Addition of Fish and Maintains Active Biological Filter, 16-Ounce Bottle. Here are the top ones.
or
- Contains one (1) API QUICK START Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Nitrifying Bacteria 16-Ounce Bottle
- Allows instant addition of fish when starting a new aquarium
- Reduces compounds harmful to fish when used routinely
- Helps prevent fish loss in freshwater and saltwater aquariums
- Use when starting a new aquarium, when adding new fish and when changing water and filter media
Features:
Specs:
| Color | Multi-colored |
| Height | 8.75 Inches |
| Length | 2.5 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Size | 16-Ounce |
| Weight | 1.4 Pounds |
| Width | 2.5 Inches |
I flipped through the 23 pages of "Pet supplies" and selected every fish-related item I saw. Times are in EDT.
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Your tank looks cool!
I’m sorry to say that I don’t think you’re actually cycled. Being cycled means that there’s a colony of beneficial bacteria that eats ammonia and converts it to nitrite and then finally to nitrate.
Having your tank cycled means that on your tests you’ll see zero ammonia, near zero or zero nitrites and some nitrates.
What the pic of your test tubes is showing is zero across all three meaning that the cycle has probably not really occurred.
Daily water changes in a noncycled tank is great for fish happiness but if you’re taking all of the ammonia out of the tank with daily changes there’s not much for the bacteria to eat to start your cycle. If I were you I’d buy some quick start from amazon and maybe cut down on the water changes a bit but keep testing the water to make sure there isn’t a huge ammonia spike.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006YG12F6/ref=sr_ph_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519272319&sr=sr-1&keywords=aquarium+quick+start
Quickstart has the bacteria already in it and after a few doses you’ll be cycled.
I would recommend setting up the 55g, flood the tank and make sure to use a water conditioner. Set up your plants in the 55g, then move your filter media over to the 55g. Use API Quick Start to help seed the new media, then transfer your fish.
Your plants and filter media all contain the bacteria you need in the new tank. If you've got any drift wood, rocks, ect, move them into the 55g too.
Give it a couple weeks, test everything, then buy more fish.
Good! They'll definitely need filters though, and that may be part of the problem. As for what kind to get, I'd recommend looking into sponge filters.
They're super easy to clean, cheap, and very reliable. They also hold a lot of good beneficial bacteria for your tank, which is great for your fishs health.
All you need for one is the sponge filter itself, some airline tubing, and an air pump. The sponge filter can usually be bought at local fish stores, or online, and the rest can be bought even at bug retailers like walmart or meijer. I'll link some amazon listings for visual reference, and find the best price I can too.
https://www.amazon.com/SLSON-Aquarium-Biochemical-Filtering-Gallons/dp/B07PF7T1QZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_25?keywords=sponge+filter&qid=1572619104&sprefix=sponge+&sr=8-25
https://www.amazon.com/Penn-Plax-Aquariums-Flexible-Standard/dp/B0002563MW/ref=mp_s_a_1_26?keywords=air+pump+aquarium&qid=1572619157&sprefix=air+pump&sr=8-26
https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Whisper-Easy-Aquariums-Non-UL/dp/B0009YJ4N6/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=air+pump+aquarium&qid=1572619198&sprefix=air+pump&sr=8-4
To clean them, which you'll only need to do like maybe once or twice every few months, just fill up a clean bucket with your tank water while doing a water change, put sponge filter in the bucket, squeeze it out, put back in tank, done. No need to buy more cartridges either.
As for decor, I don't know what you've got, but if its artificial, plastic plants and hard decor with sharp points can also tear and rip your bettas fins. If you do artificial, I'd recommend soft silk or silicone plants. If I'm being honest though, I always recommend live plants over fake, but I know that's not much of a possibility for everyone.
If you do want to try live plants, some good beginner ones are anubias nana, anubias frazeri, and java fern. All of these plants do not get buried, and if they do, they will rot. They can be tied to surfaces, or can have a small rock tied to the bottom to make them sink, but they will root themselves.
Java moss is great for bettas, they'll love to sleep in it. Water lettuce is a really pretty floating plant too.
Lastly, I'd HIGHLY recommend doing some research on the nitrogen cycle. Since you're setting up brand new tanks and moving the bettas once they're set up, you'll be doing a fish in cycle. This process is crucial for fish keeping, and good knowledge to keep your animals happy, healthy, and safe. I'll try to give a quick run down for it though.
The nitrogen cycle is the process where your tanks build up beneficial bacteria that break down waste from your fish and fishs food into ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. The bacteria are needed to maintain a healthy tank and grow on surfaces such as gravel, decor, plants, heater, filter, tank glass, but they are not in the water itself. And a filter is necessary to keep beneficial bacteria because it circulates water, provides aeration, and has a ton of surface area for them to grow in.
Ammonia and nitrites are harmful and deadly to your fish. Nitrates are less deadly, and are what you're aiming to get to in the cycling process, but you still don't want a bug buildup of them either. The absolute most important thing for cycling your new betta tanks for the next few weeks is to be on top of your water change game to keep your bettas safe.
For the first 2 weeks, you will want to do 40-50% water changes every other day. After that, for another 2 weeks, water changes every 3 days at 40-50%. The next 2 weeks, water changes every 3-4 days at 30-40%. After the initial month and two weeks of water changes, you can move onto water changes once or twice a week at 30-40%. It sounds like a lot, but it will keep your fish safe from ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spikes during the cycling process.
Some good things to keep on hand to help during cycling is some Seachem Prime, or Seachem Neutral Regulator. These are all in one water conditioners that remove chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals, AND detoxifies ammonia and nitrites for 48 hours (not a replacement for water changes though. Those are still very much necessary)
https://www.amazon.com/Safe-250-g-8-8-oz/dp/B0002A5WOC/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?keywords=seachem+prime&qid=1572620732&sprefix=seachem+&sr=8-6
https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116030601-Neutral-Regulator-250gram/dp/B000255P9E/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=seachem+neutral+regulator&qid=1572620778&sprefix=seachem+neu&sr=8-1#immersive-view_1572620800767
And a great way to kick start your bacteria bloom and speed up cycling is with some live nitrifying bacteria. I use topfin, and a big bottle is about $10. But api is great too.
https://www.amazon.com/API-Nitrifying-Aquarium-Maintains-Biological/dp/B006YG12F6/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=top+fin+live+bacteria&qid=1572620840&sr=8-2
And, if you need more information on the cycling process, feel free to reach out, or look up "nitrogen cycle" in google, or check out a very helpful video by KGTropicals called "everything you need to know about the nitrogen cycle."
https://youtu.be/es7spyo5RJ4
Apologies for long post, but I hope this helps you and your little dudes! ☺️
15 years? An elder from the golden years of fishkeeping... yowzers!
If it's a plain water pump, simply wrap a thick (untreated) sponge around the intake and hold it in place with 1 or 2 rubberbands. kitchen-type sponge or generic sponge from walmart works great
Try API quick-start. A highly-improved bacteria culture. This skips the entire cycling period and makes your tank fish-ready in a matter of a couple hours.
https://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Saltwater-Aquarium-Nitrifying/dp/B006YG12F6
That's expected of an uncycled tank and that's great that you were able to change it in time. And I agree on the waiting for the tank to be cycled before purchasing a new filter. Is the current one an overhang filter or an underwater one? I prefer the overhang ones since they generate more water flow (and thus more oxygen) for the tank. I really like the Aquaclear ones, easy to clean and fairly durable. I have the 70gal one on my 20 gal and it does a pretty good job. I've had the 110gal on the 20 gal tank but the current was too strong even at the lowest setting.
As for adding more tetras, it would be a good idea to wait until everything has stabilized. Tetras are small fish with a low bioload and would benefit very much in a large group. Even at least 7 or 8 in your tank would be a good start. I would not worry about overpopulation as I've seen people with 20 gal tanks with 30-40 tetras in it! It looks amazing to see these brightly coloured fish swim back and forth as a group as well :)
Hopefully your tank would be cycled by then! They also sell bottles of "beneficial bacteria" in the petshop to help start your cycle. I used one from API which I cannot find online anymore (they might have discontinued it) but they have this one now which is probably the "new and improved" version. Of course, nothing beats a water change but this will help stabilize the water a bit as the tank cycles. The water may get very cloudy after a while but it just means a bacterial bloom has occurred and it should clear up on its own. You can also purchase some hornwort (fairly cheap plants) to help with the high ammonia/nitrite problem. They are very fast growers and small fish love to hide in them.
You can do a fish in cycle if you can get ahold of some established media from a friend or the local fish store, and add a bottle of this. https://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Saltwater-Aquarium-Nitrifying/dp/B006YG12F6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1541607669&sr=8-4&keywords=beneficial+bacteria+aquarium
I did an instant cycle on my more recent tank (120 gallon) by using media from my other tanks (and some hardscape from them) along with a bottle of api quickstart. I was able to move in 8 male cichlids as soon as I had water in it, and the sump seeded. There's no point in doing a long cycle.