Cycling first tank w/Dr Tims

[RWhitt907]

Just set up my 75g with sand and LifeRock, I'm on day 4 of Dr. Tims fishless cycle and my water Ammonia is constant at 2ppm and 0 Nitrite so far. Is this normal for 4 days in?

 

[brandon429]

yes, due to the test you're using/ the ammonia isn't really at that level it's probably already dropped and without a digital kit you won't know it.

to change your cycle into a testless one with a known end date, do this: add in a one ground up pinch of fish food/ground into powder into the system

let it all stew, adding nothing more/test nothing more until march 16th you are done cycling

if you continue to test with kits that upon search show a misread for literally half a million reefers, expect to doubt this system

but if you do exactly as stated, without testing, on the 16th your tank will carry life that you put in it/means it's cycled. an uncycled tank would kill the life added. this timing also covers you in case the bottle bac was dead, which I never believe is the case/its a form of worry the masses are given so they'll simply buy a lot more bac just to be sure.

 

[Jekyl]

Just set up my 75g with sand and LifeRock, I'm on day 4 of Dr. Tims fishless cycle and my water Ammonia is constant at 2ppm and 0 Nitrite so far. Is this normal for 4 days in?

If I remember Dr.Tims takes a little longer than some of the others. Patience is key and something you'll grow accustomed to with a reef tank. Don't dose any more ammonia until number hits zero. Also when dosing, keep in mind your 75g tank is probably only about 60g of water with the rocks and sand.

 

[Spare time]

Was the starting level 2ppm? If so, you might have gotten a dead bottle (which happens when they are shipped at very cold or very hot temperatures as they state themselves on thier website). If you notice no movement in nitrite, I would consider adding a different bottle. Lately I stopped recommending their cycling bacteria because several others get the job done without these issues.

PS ammonia tests can distinguish 2ppm from 0 easily. The issue that can arise is due to poor resolution when below 1-0.5ppm (based off of the hundreds of ammonia tests I have performed on hundreds of tanks with dozens of ammonia test kits (API, Tropic Marin, and Red Sea).

 

[Flea78]

Can I check the advice I was given by lfs is correct. Started up tank, added one and only in morning and was on understanding I could add 2 clowns that day. Tank is setup with dry rock, special grade sand. Was told to wait 5 days before adding fish?

 

[brandon429]

@Flea78

generally yes that's true. you'd have to have a dead bottle of bacteria for it not to work, and those happen so rarely I never factor for it in any cycling thread I run, ever.

there are dead bottles out there, but not many. water bacteria shipped in water tend to be ok

the bacteria are alive and well usually, vastly, and those 2 fish aren't much load is why that works.

 

[brandon429]

you can easily verify before adding fish if the tank can move ammonia down, depending on the test kits you have for ammonia. any common name brand ammonia test kit can be googled to see if it has a notable history of misreading for people, if so it won't likely be a reliable gauge for your ammonia command. seneye doesn't have a misread history, people like it

but thats $190 to test a parameter we can easily handle without testing...

this is exactly why I began testless reef tank cycling, so that anyone can cycle not even owning any test kits for ammonia nitrite or nitrate. merely count the # of days prescribed/reef on

the number of wait days is different among approaches, a little past ten days was spot on for the first poster here due to his startup details.

**ability to carry fish and handle ammonia has nothing to do with actual disease preps from the disease forum, those are independent to cycling choices. even though it's easy to cycle a reef tank nowadays calculating a certain number of wait days per arrangement, expect many fish losses if people are skipping fallow and quarantine.

expect massive losses to disease even if someone completes a perfect 90 day lead up cycle where api agrees the tank is ready, if fallow and quarantine are skipped. cycling isn't the issue, that's the easy part bc the sellers figured out how to package concentrated bacteria for us

disease preps are the issue, they're tedious and detailed