The Seachem Aquavitro Seed Aquarium Treatment add live beneficial bacteria to your fish tank, which will help it cycle and/or rebuild its biological filtration.
If this product doesn’t seem to be working as advertised, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article at Aquarium Blueprints.
1. The first step you can take is to make sure you don’t have any UV or ozone equipment turned on in your tank as these will harm the beneficial bacteria introduced from Aquavitro Seed.
2. It is also very important to note that the bacteria colonies require an ammonia source. Without food, these creatures will die out.
The simplest way to add ammonia to your fish tank is by dropping in a pinch of food. The food will decompose and convert over to ammonia, kick starting the nitrogen cycle.
We recommend adding a small pinch every day during the cycling process to help feed the bacteria colonies and keep them growing.
3. Water changes aren’t required when you are trying to cycle your fish tank with Aquavitro Seed.
If you needed to swap out water for some reason, then make sure you avoid using tap water if possible as it contains chlorine and chloramine, both of which are harmful to the beneficial bacteria.
If you have no other choice than tap water, then make sure you use a water conditioner like Seachem Prime to remove the chlorine and chloramine.
4. If you are only having issues with nitrates, then we recommend adding Seachem Matrix to your filter or directly in your tank.
The bacteria colony that consumes nitrates require surface area that are devoid of oxygen, which is not common in most aquarium setups. Thankfully, the Seachem Matrix media contains microscopic oxygen-depleted chambers.
5. You should also make sure that the Aquavitro Seed hasn’t expired. This product has a shelf life of 4 years from the day it was manufactured.
The expiration date can be found in the packaging of the container.
6. Moreover, you need to make sure that you are dosing enough of the Aquavitro Seed.
For the uninformed, Seachem recommend that you add 5 mL for every 10 gallons or 40 liters of tank water for the first dose.
For subsequent doses, you can add 2.5 mL for every 10 gallons or 40 liters of tank water.
Before each dose, make sure that you shake the container well.
7. While the packaging states that the you can cycle your tank in 7 days by using Aquavitro Seed, not every tank is the same.
So, if your aquarium test kit still shows that you have more than 0 ppm of ammonia and/or 0 ppm of nitrites in your tank water, then we recommend that you keep dosing Seed daily until you get rid of these compounds.
8. If Aquavitro Seed still isn’t working after you try all of the aforementioned potential solutions, then you might want to consider using another product.
Seachem has another product called Stability, which is also designed to add live bacteria in your fish tank.