Dr Tims tank cycle - Good or to good to be true?

[Johnd651]

New tank, 2 weeks since setup and dr tims added. Cycling with liferock dry rock and fiji pink from caribsea. Cycled with fish food, adding multiple days in a row. I have not been able to get an ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate spike, constantly 0, so I even tested liquid ammonia to verify the test is working. Currently using test strips waiting for the api kit to come in. Even added a piece of live rock yesterday tanks to another member on R2R.

Just wondering if Dr Tims really works that well?

I am not seeing any algea growing yet.

I keep the tank at 76F, lights on a 10hr photoperiod since day one.

Never used Dr Tims before, just cycled it the old fashioned way so this is weird to me.

No CUC or livestock yet.

 

[brandon429]

your cycle is done.

Dr. Tim's written rules serve to sell more bottle bac for him, from people concerned their cycle is broken/stalled/does not happen in reefing.

the bacteria itself works great. I had said you are cycled even without test confirmation because:

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Make sure your kit can read ammonia immediately after it is added. If it can and it drops , you are good to go.

 

[PotatoPig]

Have you added actual ammonia, or just the fish food?

 

[brandon429]

unless you have a specific test kit for ammonia, you're more likely to get misled by the readings we show for years on end above.

pretty much our whole thread above is people stating their direct ammonia testing didn't work, and they must be stalled (but they're not, for fifty pages of work)

you are cycled because there aren't any cycling charts from books with more than a two week long ammonia drop line


you are cycled because at two weeks, with feed and Dr Tims bac, all seneye audits will pass all the time if we are dealing with a reef tank / typical surface area up front.

Fish disease is the #1 thing you should be reading and studying, since that's what kills fish.

nobody on this site loses fish to cycling errors with bottle bac, I would like to see links of any patterned events if applic.

B

 

[Johnd651]

Make sure your kit can read ammonia immediately after it is added. If it can and it drops , you are good to go.

Have you added actual ammonia, or just the fish food?

I added some live rock that was in the mail from 9/20-9/25 and did not see any ammonia this morning. I was using fish food.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It may be cycled, or maybe not. I'd at least test it once with ammonia.

 

[Monad]

I messed up my cycle with Dr. Tim’s. I think it actually cycled very quickly so I added more ammonia to check. I ended up overdosing and completely stalled my cycle.

If it did cycle my tank the first time, it’s a great product but I can’t say for certain because I’m afraid with the amount on ammonium chloride I added, I may have killed the bacteria or put them into some kind of dormancy.

I brought my ammonia down to the proper levels and now I’m waiting for the cycle to finish.

I can’t say for certain, but it seemed to work well before I messed with my cycle.

 

[PotatoPig]

I added some live rock that was in the mail from 9/20-9/25 and did not see any ammonia this morning. I was using fish food.

If the rock was wet out of the ocean with critters, coralline, sponges, etc alive on it then you’re cycled to start with.

You won’t see an ammonia spike from biodegrading food - only way you’ll detect any is if you add actual ammonia and then test.

That said, your rock is live, so don’t do this, certainly not up to the 2ppm suggested by for cycling.

 

[Johnd651]

I am so used to live rock and die off, that this magic elixir just seems strange to me.

 

[Dan_P]

New tank, 2 weeks since setup and dr tims added. Cycling with liferock dry rock and fiji pink from caribsea. Cycled with fish food, adding multiple days in a row. I have not been able to get an ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate spike, constantly 0, so I even tested liquid ammonia to verify the test is working. Currently using test strips waiting for the api kit to come in. Even added a piece of live rock yesterday tanks to another member on R2R.

Just wondering if Dr Tims really works that well?

I am not seeing any algea growing yet.

I keep the tank at 76F, lights on a 10hr photoperiod since day one.

Never used Dr Tims before, just cycled it the old fashioned way so this is weird to me.

No CUC or livestock yet.

Dr. Tim’s is slow to start when given ammonia. Since your approach is for fish food to be decomposed to generste ammonia and then Dr Tim’s bacteria are stimulated to grow, you might have a long wait.

To check if anything has happened in the last two weeks, dose ammonium chloride to the aquarium to about 0.5 ppm and observe how long it takes for it to disappear.

 

[Johnd651]

Dr. Tim’s is slow to start when given ammonia. Since your approach is for fish food to be decomposed to generste ammonia and then Dr Tim’s bacteria are stimulated to grow, you might have a long wait.

To check if anything has happened in the last two weeks, dose ammonium chloride to the aquarium to about 0.5 ppm and observe how long it takes for it to disappear.

I don't have any.

Does this also mean no ugly stage?

So no cuc first? Cause they would starve?

I'm not sure if I like this method in comparison

 

[Reefahholic]

Mine just cycled in about a week or so. Added one and only.

 

[Dan_P]

I don't have any.

Purchase some. Dr. Tim’s sells a solution. Right now you have no data on the condition of your nitrifying bacteria population.

Does this also mean no ugly stage?

Sorry, no. That’s still coming.

So no cuc first? Cause they would starve?

Correct. The aquarium is barren.

I'm not sure if I like this method in comparison

Are you referring to the approach you took?

 

[Johnd651]

Purchase some. Dr. Tim’s sells a solution. Right now you have no data on the condition of your nitrifying bacteria population.


Sorry, no. That’s still coming.



Correct. The aquarium is barren.



Are you referring to the approach you took?

My thing is I added some live rock this week, and even with it travelling for about 5 days and going in on Tuesday, I am still not seeing any ammonia/nitrates/nitrites this morning from die off.

Yes, I have had reef tanks back in the early 2000's and even though it was longer, putting in live rock, getting the die off, going through the uglies, adding a CUC, then fish/coral seemed to be so much more predictable. (Even my FW tanks are predictable) Like I said, adding Dr Tims (magic elixir) just seems strange to me... i must just be old fashioned, walking up the hill both ways to pick live rock out of a tote in the back of a fish store.

 

[brandon429]

back in the day nobody discussed, factored, or cared about contact time (the recurrning ten day ammonia drop theme from millions of published cycling charts)


new cycling science knows you don't need nutrient spikes to cycle, time is the ruler. example: a contact only cycle completed:

Build Thread - My SPS Waterbox Peninsula Mini 15

What cabinet did you go with for the WB15? I have the 25 and Got the same cabinet as you I thought, but mine doesnt have the semi circle cutout on one of your panels.

www.reef2reef.com

-that's feed only, 4 weeks wait time, producing a completed cycle in one month.

you used bottle bac (skips cycle per thousands of threads we can find online, with fish, day one) plus you're at the ammonia drop date from a cycling chart plus you have live rock. the reason you aren't seeing test readouts: because you're cycled and the daily bioload is very low.


once you stock the tank, expect fully to think your ready cycle is now stalled once animals are within. they'll be acting normally, but your test kits will show a broken cycle everyday, be ready for that. it's what test-based cycling causes for the masses.

 

[Dan_P]

My thing is I added some live rock this week, and even with it travelling for about 5 days and going in on Tuesday, I am still not seeing any ammonia/nitrates/nitrites this morning from die off.

Yes, I have had reef tanks back in the early 2000's and even though it was longer, putting in live rock, getting the die off, going through the uglies, adding a CUC, then fish/coral seemed to be so much more predictable. (Even my FW tanks are predictable) Like I said, adding Dr Tims (magic elixir) just seems strange to me... i must just be old fashioned, walking up the hill both ways to pick live rock out of a tote in the back of a fish store.

The bottled bacteria method is used when live rock is not available to inoculate the system with nitrifying bacteria. The way this works is bacteria are added and fed with ammonia chloride. This wakes them up if they are dormant or if they are alive, gets them growing and settling in the tank. Easy, right? Well, not all nitrifying bacteria products are the same. Dr. Tim’s might be one of the slowest bacteria to get going, weeks maybe. Turbostart is one of the fastest, only taking days.

What you did was a hybrid of old and new procedures. The rotting food in the aquarium technique generates ammonia to feed nitrifying bacteria that happen to fall into the aquarium. It can be slow and was never an overnight process. In your current case your have a slow to start bacteria being fed very little ammonia from the rotting food.

With introduction of live rock, you might be introducing nitrifying bacteria into your system, but who knows. I think most folks would assume it to be true.

 

[Johnd651]

Thanks all. I guess I'm just more frustrated with myself for not just sticking to what I know.