BIO-spira, does it work?

When I first started with freshwater aquariums back in the day, people used to rave about this stuff. I utilized it a few times and it appeared to work. I was highly doubtful that it would work, but it did cycle my tank pretty much instantly. However, the thing they do not tell you is some of the times you need to dose it more than once and BIO-spira can be pretty costly for a bag that's like 90% water. Now the question is, would I recommend it for saltwater marine aquariums? No. I think it's much better to cycle your tank naturally with live rock.
This is the description that is given for this product: "Introduce fish safely within 24 hours, not weeks. Prevents ammonia and nitrite toxicity in saltwater aquariums during the initial critical period...It literally works overnight to prevent fish loss due to ammonia and nitrite toxicity...BIO-Spira is, perhaps, the most important aquarium product ever as it will make "new tank syndrome" a thing of the past. Fish can be safely introduced to new aquariums within 24 hours rather than weeks and kept alive and healthy through the initial critical period."


The thing to remember is, most local fish stores are trying to make a profit off of you. Generally, any bottled product that is designed to speed up a cycle doesn't work very effectively, as the bacteria in the product needs oxygen and often the stuff sits on the shelf forever causing the bacteria to perish. And we don't want to take any chances with our reef tank since the creatures that we will be putting in there depend on a near perfect environment.
So then, there's nothing more dependable than a naturally cycled tank. There isn't just the nitrogen cycle occurring but many other things that need time to create a stable tank. Any decent live rock will deliver more than enough to get you started. If diversity is what you are after, its improbable the bottled bacterial cultures will supply it anyways. If you think about it, there's nothing better than live rock at reanimating the bacterial cultures of a natural reef.
So load up with some live rock, take it easy, and wait for your cycle to finish naturally.

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