DAY 8 CYCLING FIRST TIME USING DR TIMS

[cpalminteri]

Hi all! First time aquarium owner and I went with saltwater. I'm currently on day 8 of Dr Tims one and only (I've also added bacteria at some point prior), and I feel like my tank is almost cycled. I have Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate so I feel good about that. All the numbers are slowly starting to climb though instead of going down.. Should I just wait a few more days? Should I do a big water change and then see where I fall? When I do the big water change I'll be moving the water I remove to a quarantine tank so I have that set up as well. Numbers below:

Any help would be much appreciated! I'd like to get fish in soon as April 1st I'll be away for 4 days so I'd like everything to be established or at least able to survive for 4 days.

 

[3429810]

I would possibly do a water change if ammonia is really getting that high and then wait a few days to make sure what’s left gets processed. You should just start cycling your qt now as putting water from your dt in won’t really do anything for you. Throw a sponge or some bio balls in the main tank to seed for the qt for a couple weeks if you really want to speed things up.

if I were you I would just wait until after your trip to get the fish. Nothing good happens when you are rushing. Then you can have your qt cycled as well if you start now.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Ammonia is at 4 ppm ? how much have you dosed?
Ideally, your ammonia should be dropping, not rising.

what kind of tests/test kits are you using for these readings?

how/why did your salinity drop from 1.025 down to 1.020 over 1 day?
and your temps changed by 5 degrees in a day too? (80F to 85F ?)

Those kind of fluctuations aren't ideal.

 

[moorjames]

Make sure to only add ammonia when it's reading 0- don't dose ammonia if there is already some still left over from the previous dose

 

[cpalminteri]

I would possibly do a water change if ammonia is really getting that high and then wait a few days to make sure what’s left gets processed. You should just start cycling your qt now as putting water from your dt in won’t really do anything for you. Throw a sponge or some bio balls in the main tank to seed for the qt for a couple weeks if you really want to speed things up.

if I were you I would just wait until after your trip to get the fish. Nothing good happens when you are rushing. Then you can have your qt cycled as well if you start now.

If I leave the DT as is though wouldn't I need to still add amonia to keep the cycle going if there are no fish in it?

 

[cpalminteri]

Ammonia is at 4 ppm ? how much have you dosed?
Ideally, your ammonia should be dropping, not rising.

what kind of tests/test kits are you using for these readings?

how/why did your salinity drop from 1.025 down to 1.020 over 1 day?
and your temps changed by 5 degrees in a day too? (80F to 85F ?)

Those kind of fluctuations aren't ideal.

So I dosed it once when it was at like .25 which I think was last Thursday and it's been on the rise since, maybe it's just delayed?

I have the API Salterwater Master Test Kit and a refractometer

I have honestly no idea why it dropped, it's possible I read it incorrectly but it has been a little low. Last night I used saltwater to top off the tank to see if that raises it a little bit. My PH is also a little low but I haven't done anything for that yet.

I changed the temp from 80 to 85 as I read bacteria grows quicker in heat. Once it's cycled I"ll slowly bring the temp down.

 

[cpalminteri]

Make sure to only add ammonia when it's reading 0- don't dose ammonia if there is already some still left over from the previous dose

Yeah I'm def not adding any more ammonia until it's cycled or hits 0

 

[LeftyReefer]

If I leave the DT as is though wouldn't I need to still add amonia to keep the cycle going if there are no fish in it?

No, the bacteria will be just fine with no fish for that period of time.

 

[3429810]

If I leave the DT as is though wouldn't I need to still add amonia to keep the cycle going if there are no fish in it?

Not that much. You would have to look up a timeframe but it shouldn’t be an issue. My qt tank has been sitting empty for almost a month now and I have only dosed a small bit of ammonia twice and everything is still good.

 

[3429810]

So I dosed it once when it was at like .25 which I think was last Thursday and it's been on the rise since, maybe it's just delayed?

I have the API Salterwater Master Test Kit and a refractometer

I have honestly no idea why it dropped, it's possible I read it incorrectly but it has been a little low. Last night I used saltwater to top off the tank to see if that raises it a little bit. My PH is also a little low but I haven't done anything for that yet.

I changed the temp from 80 to 85 as I read bacteria grows quicker in heat. Once it's cycled I"ll slowly bring the temp down.

Buy salifert or Red Sea test kits to start. API is famous on this forum for being bottom of the barrel and causing more problems that it’s worth.

do you calibrate your refractometer? And not with rodi water. If you don’t buy a bottle of calibration solution it’s cheap and it will show you how often refractometers lose their calibration even if just by a bit. If you aren’t calibrating you honestly have zero idea what your salinity really is and that will be a problem.

I wouldn’t worry about your ph right now there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it without spending a buying more gear to complicate things so I would worry about that after you get your tank stable with other stuff if you really want to.

 

[cpalminteri]

Buy salifert or Red Sea test kits to start. API is famous on this forum for being bottom of the barrel and causing more problems that it’s worth.

do you calibrate your refractometer? And not with rodi water. If you don’t buy a bottle of calibration solution it’s cheap and it will show you how often refractometers lose their calibration even if just by a bit. If you aren’t calibrating you honestly have zero idea what your salinity really is and that will be a problem.

I wouldn’t worry about your ph right now there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it without spending a buying more gear to complicate things so I would worry about that after you get your tank stable with other stuff if you really want to.

Interestingggg. I'll try both suggestions thanks

 

[cpalminteri]

While I'm here, do you guys always cycle your quarantine tanks? I would like to avoid cycling it and just do daily water changes every time I buy a new fish. Or I guess I can just start it with some filter media from my DT and call it a day no?

 

[3429810]

While I'm here, do you guys always cycle your quarantine tanks? I would like to avoid cycling it and just do daily water changes every time I buy a new fish. Or I guess I can just start it with some filter media from my DT and call it a day no?

Ya the best way to do it is to keep a sponge or something in your dt that you can take out to instant cycle a qt. Especially since you are already cycling a tank I would just put the sponge that comes with what ever filter you have for your qt tank in your filter or sump on the dt until it is cycled and you should be good to go for your qt. Daily water changes would also work but require way more testing and depending what salt you are using and how big the changes are you would be spending a lot of money just to do more work and that doesn’t sound great to me so I’ve avoided that method. Ideally if you do it the sponge way you can tear down the qt and bleach it then restart already cycled in all in a couple day time period if anything goes sideways with a fish in qt. I am fairly new to this hobby so I’m sure others will have some other tips for you as well. He’s not on here any more but going through humblefish’s qt threads on here or going to his forum site will definitely give you more help than I ever could.

 

[cpalminteri]

Ya the best way to do it is to keep a sponge or something in your dt that you can take out to instant cycle a qt. Especially since you are already cycling a tank I would just put the sponge that comes with what ever filter you have for your qt tank in your filter or sump on the dt until it is cycled and you should be good to go for your qt. Daily water changes would also work but require way more testing and depending what salt you are using and how big the changes are you would be spending a lot of money just to do more work and that doesn’t sound great to me so I’ve avoided that method. Ideally if you do it the sponge way you can tear down the qt and bleach it then restart already cycled in all in a couple day time period if anything goes sideways with a fish in qt. I am fairly new to this hobby so I’m sure others will have some other tips for you as well. He’s not on here any more but going through humblefish’s qt threads on here or going to his forum site will definitely give you more help than I ever could.

Thanks for the information!

 

[ReefRusty]

Leave it and wait, mine got up to 8ppm using redsea test kit. Took 15 days to cycle but waited extra 3 days. Did a large water change for me was able to do 95% only because my Nitrates were at above 50ppm.

Don't dose any more ammonia, maybe throw in some fish pellets on day 10 and 12 and leave it.

 

[cpalminteri]

Leave it and wait, mine got up to 8ppm using redsea test kit. Took 15 days to cycle but waited extra 3 days. Did a large water change for me was able to do 95% only because my Nitrates were at above 50ppm.

Don't dose any more ammonia, maybe throw in some fish pellets on day 10 and 12 and leave it.

I’m on day 10 and the last 3 days nothing has come down. It hasn’t increased either but it’s stayed the same. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I also switched to Red Sea test kit, looks like the numbers don’t really go as high but everything is still staying up. Hopefully I didn’t stall my cycle

 

[ReefRusty]

Mine were still 4ppm come day 15 it never really dropped to 0ppm did a large WC on day 18. Dr tims bacteria will adhere to the rock after 10 days. Anything is bonus. But I'd wait to day 20 and do a large WC and you will be right. So many threads on here with high ammonia levels.. unfortunately dr tims recommend ammonia dose is 5x more than what is required. Remember nh3 and nh4 are different. One is toxic and other isn't and the is total ammonia combined.

 

[cpalminteri]

Mine were still 4ppm come day 15 it never really dropped to 0ppm did a large WC on day 18. Dr tims bacteria will adhere to the rock after 10 days. Anything is bonus. But I'd wait to day 20 and do a large WC and you will be right. So many threads on here with high ammonia levels.. unfortunately dr tims recommend ammonia dose is 5x more than what is required. Remember nh3 and nh4 are different. One is toxic and other isn't and the is total ammonia combined.

Thanks! I’ll wait and see what happens

 

[pecan2phat]

Normally you would have added the ammonia to get to 2ppm and the One and Only on the same day and wait until the ammonia gets to zero. As the ammonia is coming down usually nitrites starts going up and then nitrates is your end result. So getting ammonia so high will only result in a slightly longer cycle with a lot of nitrate as the end result in which you will need to do large water changes to rid.

 

[GARRIGA]

Something is off if ammonia is rising. Fact is that when using bacterial products I don’t even register ammonia except first few days unless I stress test the tank by upping the dosage of ammonium chloride.