Seachem Stability Fish Tank Stabilizer - For Freshwater and Marine Aquariums, 16.9 Fl Oz (Pack of 1)

Seachem is my go to product line for all my aquarium chemical needs. Its worth the extra money...just trust me

Pros: -Fast-acting. I rely on it often during emergencies, and its potent. For example, I recently used 3 caps on a terribly neglected 3-gallon tank of water with ammonia readings as high as 8ppm (-In other words, ultimately lethal to most any fish that dont have the ability to draw oxygen from the water surface like bettas and gouramis. And even they will eventually chemically burn their gills by breathing it in, anyway), and 8 hours later the ammonia readings came back at 0ppm. Cons: -Make no mistake; ammonia concentrations over .50ppm WILL kill the beneficial bacteria colony youre trying to estabilish from your bottle of Stability. If you really cant do a full water change and need to use this on an already highly polluted setup, use a generous amount of Seachem Prime to temporarily detoxify said ammonia so that the beneficial bacteria have time to eat it before it kills them. -It is not uncommon for a fresh bottle of Stability to arrive carrying pollution of its own. I would suggest immediately using an ammonia test kit (-Do NOT use tests in the form of strips if youre new to aquarium keeping) on the contents of the bottle. If concentrations are higher than 1ppm you will likely only be adding dead microbes to your tank, and as they decay they will make things even worse for your fish. -Although harmless, large quantities of Stability can cloud your water. If you experience this and it really bothers you, take it as a sign that you need to cut back on the size of your doses. -Although it does have a decent life expectancy, do not assume your Stability will last until the purported use-by date. I would not recommend buying large bottles of it unless you know, for certain, that youll be using it within a few months.

Helped me to get my aquarium ready to add fish once the product helped to cycle my tank

I always have my seachem products stocked at all times. Ive in an emergency had to cycle a 60g Adult African Cichlid tank and had no casualties, thank goodness. One thing I do want to make clear, this will not instantly lower Ammonia, Nitrites or Nitrates. Stability helps by shortening the time it takes for your tank to cycle. In order to keep your readings down and your fish alive, ANY Fish, you must also use Prime. Prime does not rid your tank of Ammonia Nitrites or Nitrates but binds them so they are not toxic, for roughly 48hrs. So please do not buy this product thinking it will keep your fish alive. It is one of a combination of products that will or do.

Bought this because I was having trouble cycling my 3 gallon, heated/filtered betta tank (with him in it), and kept getting high ammonia levels, but no nitrites or nitrates, despite frequent partial water changes. And always ending up with cloudy water (despite using a different brand of water conditioner). I also bought Prime. I like how Stability can be used daily, and with Prime. My only complaint is that its hard to figure out exactly how many drops of Stability to use if you have a smaller tank, without doing tons of internet research. I ended up determining that I needed to use only 1.5 ml initially, then .75 ml for 7 days in my case, to help boost the good bacteria my tank needs in order to break down the ammonia. I use a 1ml syringe, but you could also use an eye dropper you can buy at any dollar store. If you use a dropper, a 3 gallon tank would use 10 drops per gallon initially, then 5 drops per gallon daily for 7 days (if youre in the same predicament as me). Then use it monthly or with each water change. Just be sure to shake the bottle well before use, and add the stability to the filter, not the general tank water. Apparently it works better that way, but Prime can be added to clean water changes OR directly to the tank if needed. Our betta seems to be tolerating both products well, and something has kept the ammonia level controlled finally. He seems to be happier now too, so Im happy. Since using both Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability, my tank is clearer than its EVER been, and I dont know which product is helping with that, but its wonderful!!

Ive been using this product for a while, its pretty good stuff but you need to take into consideration that the instructions on the bottle are not going to have your tank cycled in 7 days. The way to use Stability is along with Seachem Prime water conditioner, and water changes. You want to dose both of these daily while you fish-in cycle your aquarium. The formula that I have been doing is as follows. If you have less than 1 ppm ammonia or nitrite - dose Stability and Prime, wait 24 hours and check again If you have more than 1 ppm ammonia or nitrite- do atleast 50% water change, sometimes 75% is best depending on how high your ammonia and nitrite is. Then dose Stability and Prime. The key to cycling your tank and keeping your fish healthy is to keep ammonia and nitrite below 1 ppm, by using Prime Water Conditioner because it will bind these into non toxic forms for 24 hours. This also allows your growing bed of bacteria to have something to eat on. I am currently cycling a 20 gallon long tank, with one Oranda Goldfish. They are large waste producers, so I normally double my prime dosage and quadruple my stability dosage just to be on the safe side. Amazon by far has the best price for the 500ml bottles!

Some people say it allows you to speed up the cycling process even in a complicated reef tank set up... Others say its just snake oil, meaning, it doesnt do anything and you just have to trust it works. My verdict? Ive set up numerous reef tanks, some using this product, some without. Ive also done water changes with and without this product (with, per instructions). Guess what? I have no clue what this does. If it does something, great. If it doesnt, well, at least it didnt make anything worse. So my advice is if you think this will help, it may- and it wont kill anything. If you dont think it will work, it wont. Duh! Its only real if you believe, man. So why 4 stars? I can only assume the guys at Seachem did their research and theyve concluded improvements in the system using the product versus not. Im not a microbiologist, marine biologist, chemist, or alike... Im just a hobbist and enthusiast with a decent noggin. Youre not the fish whisperer, nor am I. Even the tiniest fractional change in water conditions is detected and deeply felt by marine animals. Imagine if earths gravity changed by 0.1 lbs. Imagine if there was a little less oxygen... Youd feel it, youd know, and it would play an epic toll on your body. So remember, whatever it does it doesnt kill your fish. It could be making things better for your tank, or making minor non-painful changes, but until I see death Im not concerned. I can only assume that real scientist developed this solution for a real problem and we should consider using it. Skeptics, shut up unless youve spoken to swimmy the fish. You can never conduct a perfect one to one experiment between using and not using, even if you two identical tanks, water, sand (impossible), rocks (impossible), filters, etc... Every minor difference, even where each tank is resting in the room (slightly different air exposure) makes a difference. Believe, and it works miracles.

I have used this product twice now to successfully cycle my 90 gallon tank, second time I was forced to do a fish-in cycle due to a medication I used that killed my cycle. I had 5 amano shrimp in my 90 gallon when ammonia was reading 0.5. I knew that I didnt have much time to fix it so I started dosing stability - by day 5 now ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are at 5. Does what it says and saved the lives of ALL 5 shrimp. I dosed it together with Prime. For comparison, I set up a 5 gallon hospital tank for the other group of 6 shrimp that I had, and for that I used the Tetra SafeSmart that promises to cycle a tank in 1 day. I was extremely skeptical but since I had lost my cycle I gave it a try. I got a used sponge filter from a pet store along with the SafeStart and my 5 gallon was, indeed, reading ammonia at 0, nitrites at 0, and nitrates at 5 when I woke up the next morning. I put 6 amano shrimp in there and 5 survived. All in all, both Tetra and Seachem did what the promised.

great product

I try to do a water change once a week, and add Stability each time in the recommended amount. It really seems to help keep the chemistry stable.