Seachem Stability is used to improve the water quality in your fish tank. So, is this product also safe to use on plants, shrimps, snails, turtles and other aquatic living creatures?
You can find out in this guide from Aquarium Blueprints.
Quick Summary
Seachem Stability contains natural beneficial bacteria that will consume ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Therefore, this product is completely safe for use with axolotls, plants, shrimps, snails, turtles and many other aquatic pets you have in your aquarium.
The only potential issue you may run into is that you may not add enough Stability in your tank. As a result of an under-dose, your aquatic pets might get exposed to ammonia, nitrites and/or a high concentration of nitrates, which may lead to health issues.
To make sure you don’t under-dose, we recommend using a test kit to measure the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates levels. For a healthy environment, your aquarium should have 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites and less than 20 ppm nitrates.
What is Seachem Stability?
Seachem Stability provides beneficial bacteria in spore form. When added to your fish tank, these bacteria will become active and then attach to whatever surfaces they can find.
The beneficial bacteria of Stability are aerobic, anaerobic and facultative. The bacteria colonies that consume ammonia and nitrite are aerobic as they need good oxygenation. The bacteria colony that consumes nitrates is anaerobic and facultative as they can only grow in environment with little to no oxygen.
Seachem Stability can be used to cycle your fish tank. It can also be used if you have a disruption in your biological filtration when you get spikes in ammonia, nitrites and, to a lesser extent, nitrates.
Is Seachem Stability safe for axolotls, shrimps, snails and turtles?
The bacteria colonies from Seachem Stability appear in the natural aquatic habitats of axolotls, shrimps, snails and turtles. Therefore, the product should be completely safe for use with these creatures as long as you dose the correct amount.
If you are experiencing problems when you are using this product, then it is most likely related to something other than Stability.
Is Seachem Stability safe for aquatic plants?
Seachem Stability should also be completely safe for use with aquatic plants such as Anubias, Java Moss and Java Fern.
Most live plants will consume ammonia and nitrates. These plants will also provide surface area for the bacteria from Stability to grow on.
Both live plants and beneficial bacteria in your aquarium should keep your water quality pristine as long as you perform the occasion water change to help keep the excess nitrate levels low as well.
What else can you safely use Seachem Stability with?
According to Seachem, Stability should also be safe to use with aquatic frogs, calms, catfish, corals, eels, loaches, scale-less fish, rays, sharks, other invertebrates, other freshwater fish, other brackish water fish and other saltwater fish.
How Seachem Stability can become unsafe
While Seachem Stability won’t become toxic on its own, you can under-dose it in your fish tank, which may cause serious issues if you aren’t paying attention.
Seachem recommends that you should add 5 mL, which is on capful, for every 10 gallons of 40 liters of tank water for the first day if you are cycling a tank. For the next 7 days of cycling, you need to add 2.5 mL per very 10 gallons of 40 liters of tank water.
Every time you add new pets or medicate your aquarium, you should also add 2.5 mL per very 10 gallons of 40 liters of tank water.
Before adding Stability, you need to shake the bottle well. You also need to turn off any UV and/or ozone equipment and keep them off until the bacteria colonies can establish themselves.
Even if you follow the official directions, your tank may not be fully cycled when it comes to biological filtration. To be completely safe, we recommend using a testing kit to measure the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Ammonia and nitrite levels should be 0 ppm while nitrate levels should be less than 20 ppm.
If these levels are higher in your tank water, you can continue to wait until the beneficial bacteria colonies are able to fully consume all the ammonia and nitrites. For high nitrates, make sure you perform water changes to dilute it to under 20 ppm. Of course, you can continue to add Stability daily until you get to your desired levels.
As long as you can keep ammonia to 0 ppm, nitrites to 0 ppm and nitrates to below 20 ppm, your tank water should be safe for a majority of fish and other aquatic species.