The false hope of Bio-Spira

One of my patients recently asked me for advice on breaking in a new fish tank using Bio-Spira. She has a 20 gallon (long) that she intends to fill with a classic live-breeder mix of guppies, mollies and swordtails, and basically doesn’t want to deal with waiting out the nitrogen cycle. She heard about Bio-Spira in a trade magazine and asked me if it was worth trying if she could find a pet store that stocked it. The following is my emailed response, with some after the fact additions for the blog:

Dear (name deleted)
There are, generally speaking, two schools of thought on the topic of Bio-Spira. There are those who believe it is the most important innovation in the history of tropical fish-keeping since the invention of adjustable coil heater, while there are others who view it as a devils brew designed for amateurs and lazy dilettantes who will probably end up killing their fish due to incompetence anyway.

I am no expert on Bio-Spira, but I lean towards the “devil‘s brew“ camp. Last year during an unfortunate ick outbreak I had to get one of those 12 gallon Marineland Eclipse nightmares running as quickly as possible for service as a hospital tank (readers of the old blog remember this incident well). I forked over sixteen dollars for a satchel of the stuff and threw it in with a healthy beta and three red eye tetras. All of the fish survived, but I developed some serious reservations about the product. Here is why.

Bio-Spira tries to eliminate the danger of “new tank syndrome” by introducing the same bacteria that are produced naturally in the ammonia break-down process, only en masse (rather than the small colonies that usually begin a tank cycle) and prior to the production of ammonia wastes. Thus, the bacteria begin growing along with the waste as it is produced. Thus, you don’t have to go through the challenge of preserving your patience (or, probably more likely, your children’s) during the usual 3-5 week period it can take to break a tank in “the old way.” That, at least, is what Marineland wants you to believe.

When I used Bio-Spira, my beta had already lived in the tank for a day, but I had no significant ammonia readings when I put the stuff in. Over the course of seven days, however, my ammonia count climbed to 1.5 ppm, and during the second and third week I had nitrate readings in the same range. These levels are high enough to kill delicate breeds, and it’s only because I put a hardy beta and tough-as-nails tetras that they survived.

Now, if the package said that “this product is useless if you toss it in the tank after your beta’s been swimming in it for a day,” I’d fully accept that it was my fault, and that these readings were to be expected. However, the product clearly advertises itself as a not only for new tanks, but also to bolster the bacteria levels in existing tanks.

Furthermore, if the whole point of modern fish keeping is to emulate the “biotope” concept popularized by the late disgraced philanthropist Dr. Herbert Axlerod, then what benefit is there to hastening a cycle that naturally takes a certain amount of time to finish? I am not suggesting that a tank broken in with Bio-Spira will have an insufficient bacteria bed, but I am suggesting that a tank broken in the natural way will have a better balance, and will probably have less potential for a breakdown if ammonia levels start to rise due to new fish births or over-feeding.

In short, Bio-Spira is like all corner cutting products - it is fine if you don’t care that much about the results, but inappropriate to those who pride themselves in doing things properly. Save your money, take your time and do it the right way.

yrs,
Dr. A. Chestnutt