Fishless cycling with Dr. Tim's one and only

glb · Feb 14, 2017

I'm starting up a 40g breeder with pure ammonia and dr tim's. I read the Supreme Guide stickie and have a question. Will I still get diatoms and cyanobacteria before green algae starts to grow? Do I still need to wait for the green algae to add cuc's and then fish. I bought the Dr. Tim's at a coral show and the vendor said I could pour in the bottle and then add fish immediately. I know the cycle is shorter when using bacteria, but his advice doesn't sound right to me. Even in a shorter cycle, will I still get the same 6 stages mentioned in the 'supreme' article?

brandon429 · Feb 14, 2017

That's only if you ascribe to that method of cycling. There are alternates

Ones that have no invasions, ever, because the keeper cleans them out and never purposefully seeds a tank with myriad natural invaders that colonizes reefs missing coralline and coral tissue.

By hand-guiding those cyclics out of the tank your chances of loss is lessened, cycling is only about the measured point your tank converts ammonia to zero within 24 hours

Whether we purposefully grow cyano or algae can be done at any phase, even after five years problem algae threads show. What you farm on purpose in the beginning sets the stage for many lost tanks, be different is my offer and you'll have zero ugly stages.

saltyfilmfolks · Feb 14, 2017

glb said:
will I still get the same 6 stages mentioned in the 'supreme' article?

probably yes, but not if you don't introduce this algaes or importantly overfeed.

glb said:
I could pour in the bottle and then add fish immediately. I know the cycle is shorter when using bacteria, but his advice doesn't sound right to me.

The bacteria Is in fact processing the ammoina. I dont like this as well, we also know the parameters in a brand new tank will fluctuate rapidly and really that cant be good for an animal IMO.

Also this lends to my case that the "cycle" should be used only in reference to the nitrogen cycle and not the ugly phase. IE." will this cause a recycle in my tank if I stir stuff up". because no, the tank will only stop cycling if you kill all the bacteria. It may cause an algae cyano flare up because we release ammonia and other nutrients diatoms, silicates and crud, "mini cycle" is not a correctly used term in most cases.

brandon429 · Feb 14, 2017

agreed

and I forgot to state an alt way of using clean up crews...never as target removers. use them as motion entertainment/hijinks and as preventers if you get lucky. the entertainment is the guarantee

the way that technique factors into the above statement is the cleanup crew isn't a reactive addition to remedy something we've already farmed on purpose (we saw algae and didn't remove it 100% immediately)

when they work correctly, they'll eat your small holdover offerings during a mostly clean running tank, and when X invader pops up, they may or may not eat that and save you the hand removal. As you can see, the only way to make a tank algae free guaranteed is to work from that kind of angle. all else w present you an algae challenge, and the tank and other variables will decide when to present it. my advice is the literal opposite tracking of how ten thousand wrecked algae tanks went down:

see algae, start an id thread
add a cuc
try to lower nutrients
algae grows

add something to water
start to consider crazy methods like peroxide

and dumping various things in tank
immediately stopping algae the second you see it is the rarest habit in reefing. the uninvaded reef tank is the rarest phenomena in reefing. every algae challenge tank ive ever seen purposefully it made it that way and tried to get serious later in the challenge.

glb · Feb 14, 2017

I'm not trying to remove the algae. I know it's an important part of the cycle. I'm just wondering if I will still have diatoms/cyano if I use Dr. Tim's. I also want to know if I should wait until the green algae shows to add cuc's. Thanks foe the help!

Brew12 · Feb 14, 2017

glb said:
I'm not trying to remove the algae. I know it's an important part of the cycle. I'm just wondering if I will still have diatoms/cyano if I use Dr. Tim's. I also want to know if I should wait until the green algae shows to add cuc's. Thanks foe the help!

The Dr Tims will have no impact on if you will have Diatoms or Cyano.

The fact that you are using pure ammonia may help reduce the likelihood of Cyano since you are more strictly controlling nutrients when compared to using decaying food or fish.
Diatoms are more directly related to silicates in your system which Dr Tims and the pure ammonia will have almost no impact on. These are typically dictated by your substrate and quality of your RODI.