Dr Tim’s cycling

[TheXpander]

Hi,

I’m planning a fishless cycle with Dr Tim’s ammonia and One and Only.

In his video he advises to remove the filter sock during this process. I’ll be using a SICCE whale 350, should I remove some of the media while cycling ie the first sponges, not adding the carbon?

Water will be RODI with salt, 40g FOWLR.

Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

it will complete the same whether you remove the filters or not, our filtrations systems cannot block bacteria from mixing around. Once you add the bacteria, a pinch of fish food and some cycling ammonia, wait ten days as it mixes, change out the water and you will be cycled. an updated way to read the end cycle (vs the old way which will have you waiting a month, after buying 10 day bottle bac) is to dose that liquid ammonia after your end water change, to bring up baseline ammonia just a little bit in the vial, light light green (not 2 ppm, specifically not that high for many reasons) and then see if that color change goes back down overnite, if it does you are cycled and met the # of days on the directions of the bottle. it cannot fail or stall.

 

[brandon429]

100% Water Change

So in my previous thread, I had an ammonia issue that was out of hand. As suggested, I did a 100% WC and now i’m wondering when I should start adding fish back. If anyone has suggestions, let me know!

www.reef2reef.com

a direct example of the final stage test using ammonia up, then down (does not have to be zero, just moved like we show)

this is updated cycling science 2020 the old ways are inconsistent, costly, and leave us buying multiple bottles of bacteria when just one would do fine.

If you were using seneye for measuring ammonia while cycling we could be more exacting with the ammonia. but for using red sea, or api, we look only for the up/down motion of ammonia it doesnt have to be hard zero. I have links handy for cycles that were taking 90 days waiting for hard zero on api, it takes ten using dr tims.

you add fish food for a reason, that wasn’t made up

it comes from a 90 page thread studying bottle bac, the carbon speeds things up per Dr Reefs thread

the reason you do not dose to 2ppm is because api ammonia isn’t likely to give the right reading, scaling it down helps the tester work for the masses.

 

[TheXpander]

it will complete the same whether you remove the filters or not, our filtrations systems cannot block bacteria from mixing around. Once you add the bacteria, a pinch of fish food and some cycling ammonia, wait ten days as it mixes, change out the water and you will be cycled. an updated way to read the end cycle (vs the old way which will have you waiting a month, after buying 10 day bottle bac) is to dose that liquid ammonia after your end water change, to bring up baseline ammonia just a little bit in the vial, light light green (not 2 ppm, specifically not that high for many reasons) and then see if that color change goes back down overnite, if it does you are cycled and met the # of days on the directions of the bottle. it cannot fail or stall.

Sound advice!
Thank you. It’s great to have assurance from experienced reefers!

 

[brandon429]

Excellent. I guess if the bottle had been heated / killed it wouldnt work by then but thats so rare I’ve never seen it in thousands of cycles. the final up down ammonia test rules that in or out

 

[Pistol Peet]

This is how I cycled everyone of my tank I just followed his directions exactly you don't have to put a pinch of food in there either this is what the ammonia additive that he provides is for ammonia is what bacteria eats off of and lives off of bring your ammonia levels up to about two parts per million with the ammonia additive give it a couple of days and when it reads back down to zero re-add them ammonia wait till it reads 0 again and stays there and you're good happy reefing

 

[Pistol Peet]

I did all this testing with an API ammonia test kit as well

 

[TheXpander]

Thanks! I’ll let you know how it goes, got my RODI to finish installing a rock to cement first!

 

[jpnegrete14]

Just posted about this. Highly recommend you check out the video in the link below. Everything will make so much more sense. Good luck

A must watch for anyone wanting to better understand cycling a tank

If you're planning on cycling a tank or you simply just want to better understand nitrifying bacteria in the marine aquarium THIS is the video for you! Dr. Hovanec explains cycling your tank in a manner in which you can walk away from this video with a meaningful plan to action and not feel just...

www.reef2reef.com