Review on Safely Cycling New Aquariums with Tetra SafeStart Plus: An Efficient Solution by Nicole Thomas

It's been over 20 years since I've had an aquarium and either I've never heard of SafeStart Plus (TSS+) or it just didn't exist back then. It was a real gamble to get this tank to work. It's been a very different experience with my 5 and 10 gallon Betta aquariums with TSS+. The 10-gallon tank was rock solid from week one. Zero Ammonia. zero nitrite. And a maximum of 10-15 ppm nitrates. I do 25% water changes weekly and my giant betta is happy, healthy and safe. (Obviously having only 1 fish in a 10 gallon aquarium helps. This is sort of the starting point for community aquariums, while it is the beginning, middle and end for an aquarium with only 1 cockatiel. The 5 gallon Aquarium was more It was the first tank I had so I may have corrected my mistakes before I bought the 10 gallon tank (light yellow) and the specs on the TSS+ bottle aren't the best I have did a lot of googling to determine if I should be doing water changes for the first 2 weeks and if I should add some TSS+ with each water (I first read that you should NOT be doing water changes for the first 2 weeks in a new tank if You are using TSS+ and you should NOT add more TSS+ with every water change Changes in the first 2 weeks and you can add more TSS+ with every water change (until the tank is ready to use.) As the ammonia never overflows the "Warn" level (0.05%) went and again as there is only 1 fish in a 5 gallon aquarium I am glad that it only took a few weeks to stabilize/cycle. (By contrast, the 10 gallon tank was stable for the first few days.) Overall, I am completely satisfied with this product, especially for those with broilers. The most important thing I learned is that after the ammonia and nitrites have dropped to zero and remain zero for a few weeks, it is STILL important to regularly check for nitrates and change the water accordingly, as TSS+ does not eliminate nitrates . And when they rise, they can harm fish just like ammonia and nitrites. I was unaware of this and got a little cocky about zero ammonia and zero nitrites.