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

My tank would not cycle until I quit using Prime, which makes sense if you think about it. If it ties up the nitrites and nitrates then what are the newly forming bacteria going to consume? It took eight weeks and multiple manufactures of this type of product including this one here to cycle my 75. At the time my tank cycled I was using Foster and Smith bacteria, but Im sure this is a good product and would have worked if I had not used Prime. Maybe my tank was about to cycle when I quit using Prime, I will never know... P.S. I use Prime and Safe on all my cycled tanks

What’s not to like??

Its really quality ... i will buy again

I love this product. However, this vendor shipped it without a cap... not even in the box. Just saying. Luckily I have old caps to measure doses. But this is my favorite product for its intended use.

Stability helped me start and establish a brand new 55G tall from scratch with only one fish departing to the Golden Pond in the Sky (loach swam up the intake into the filter impeller...messy). From day one I did daily testing with the API kit and made an Excel spreadsheet of the data. There were very small, irregular ammonia spikes at the 2nd/3rd week, but not into the danger zone and slowly decreased to 0ppm by the end of the 4th week. Nitrites and nitrates increased from the 3rd week and then hovered at a very acceptable range below danger zone and then gradually decreased to ~0 ppm for nitrites and ~20ppm for nitrates by the 5th/6th week. The results I got from the test kit were evaluated against a U of Floridas chart (I am a bio major) of Total Ammonia Nitrogen Toxicity (using pH and water temperature as the other parameters), and were in the range that is deemed not dangerous to FW fish for a short term period. With the results of these API test and my personal experience, I would definitely recommend and have been using Seachem Stability as a jump start product to establish the important biological filter in a FW aquarium or to boost or supplement the already existing bio filter in an established tank. For those interested about my experience, see below for in depth details. Products used: -Seachem Stability -Seachem Prime -API FW Master Test Kit 1st week: IMPORTANT: FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR THE FIRST WEEKS DOSING SCHEDULE BASED ON YOUR TANKS VOLUME. Added 7 Zebra danios. These are hardy fish and can survive a newbies foray into fishkeeping and hopefully any mistakes I make. First day: One capful( 5mL) for every 10G of NEW WATER, so 5 capfuls. Days 2-7: One capful for every 20G of water, so ~3 capfuls EVERYDAY. Added 4 black Java loaches/khuli loaches on day 3. Note: Directions says you can add fish/inverts immediately and at any time as long as you follow the all-important dosing schedule above for the FIRST week only. NOTE: After first week, one capful for every 20G once a month, or with each water change, or introducing new fish, or medicating. 2nd week: Added Dwarf gourami and 3 Albino cories. Did 25% water change with Prime, then dosed with 3 capful of Stability, which is the dose for ~60G. 3rd week: Added Bristlenose pleco. Did 25% WC with Prime, then dosed with 3 capful of Stability. 4th week: Added 3 more Albino cories. Added 1teaspoon/10G API Aquarium salt to counter increasing ammonia, nitrites and nitrate spikes. 5th week: Added 5 more loaches. Did 25% WC with Prime, then dosed with 3 capful of Stability. 6th week: Added 2 Amano shrimps. Did 25% WC with Prime, then dosed with 3 capful of Stability. 4 months later: 3 Bamboo shrimps, 2 Amano shrimps, 9 Loaches, 6 Cories, Dwarf gourami, 7 Danios, BN pleco, plants. All fish/inverts growing and healthy. I now only dose 1 capful of Stability with each 25% WC, as my biofilter is now well established and API tests show it doesnt need 3 capfuls for every WC. Thanks Stability!

I use Stability after changing filter media in my aquarium filter.

.Stability is a great kickstart for cycling a new tank , but that said, a tank still needs to be cycled. Newbies out there, you must cycle your tank for the it’s long term health. The secret to aquarium success - healthy fish- is water quality. If you cycle your tank properly and that takes time, your tank parameters ( ammonia nitrates nitrites Etc) will normalize/ stabilize. Fish will suffer if your tank has not cycled completely...due to ammonia spikes , high nitrites and nitrates amongst other possible complications for lack of proper cycling... Remember an aquarium is an animal eco system I recommend Aquariumadvisor.com ‘The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling‘

I’ve heard that BB starters are a waste of money, but here’s my experience. I started a new tank, fish in, and was pretty religious with the stability and the tank basically cycled in two weeks(I use api master kit to test and record my levels, I had nitrates and the ammonia and nitrites were stabilizing) . I made the mistake of removing the HOB filter and replacing with a sponge filter too soon, I thought the bb was built up enough. Completely crashed my cycle and had to start over. So I thought at this point it would build up on its own pretty fast, wasnt using stability during this time, wasnt even testing, just adding enough prime to make sure the fish were good, finally a week and a half later I test again, nitrites and nitrates are still at zero… Needless to say I’ll be adding stability everyday religiously till I see nitrites come online. Learn from my mistakes. Establishing a tank is such a pain, and in my experience this product does speed up that process.

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 was having a hard time getting my tank to cycle before the fish I ordered arrived in the mail. Because I was running out of time I ordered this product, started it on a Tuesday, put my fish in on a Saturday, and was done by the Monday. I just tested my water and have no ammonia or nitrates and between 5 and 10 ppm nitrates. You need to use the Prime with it every other day during the cycle (1 mL per 10 gallons) to bind any ammonia to make the tank safe for the fish while the tank is getting started. I would not have known this if I had not called Seachem support. Seachem support is AMAZING. So helpful. They explained how the products worked together and answered every single one of my questions, which there were many as this was my first fish. I recommend this product, but more I recommend this brand.