My fish-in cycling experience using Dr Tims

[Cos.Min]

My cycling took a little longer than I expected (20 days) and I looked for something like this to see if it was going normally or close to normal so I thought I’d post my experience. I’m sure the length will vary from tank to tank due to all the little factors that affect cycling. I’m a newbie and this is my first salt tank.

30G tank
35 lbs dry rock
20 lbs live sand

I used Dr Tim’s one and only. About 15-30 minutes later I added two 1.5” regular captive bred clowns.

Ammonia showed up day 4, peaked at 0.25, and was zero day 13.

Nitrite showed up day 8, peaked at 0.5, and was zero day 20.

Nitrate started to register day 11 and now on day 22 is up to 5.

I didn’t have the lights on during this period and didn’t feed much more than the clowns would eat. Usually 5-10 pellets per day each. There were no water changes or cleanings during the cycle. The tank condition still looks new. I’m sure the lack of light is the reason and plan on cutting the lights on day 28.

 

[brandon429]

that matches about 400K in online posted fishless cycles. very on par

that the fish lived= always on par, they always do.

what ranges is what your ammonia would show on a digital kit compared to that 20 days on the non digital kit. there are no cycles that required more than ten days on seneye for example

that's a neat hidden part of your cycle. the outcome matches pretty much all cycles on file for the last 20 years plus that api ammonia tracking timeline/red sea the non digital ones are pretty much the same.

 

[Cos.Min]

You’re right there are countless fishless cycles online but I couldn’t find any fish in examples to alleviate my concerns while cycling. I expected different results for fish in vs fishless.

 

[brandon429]

The truth is bottle bac is engineered to carry fish on day one

It's no harm to the fish it's just skipping disease preps

If they have no disease there's no harm in fish-in cycling

If they have disease you'll need to fallow your tank all over

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My cycling took a little longer than I expected (20 days) and I looked for something like this to see if it was going normally or close to normal so I thought I’d post my experience. I’m sure the length will vary from tank to tank due to all the little factors that affect cycling. I’m a newbie and this is my first salt tank.

30G tank
35 lbs dry rock
20 lbs live sand

I used Dr Tim’s one and only. About 15-30 minutes later I added two 1.5” regular captive bred clowns.

Ammonia showed up day 4, peaked at 0.25, and was zero day 13.

Nitrite showed up day 8, peaked at 0.5, and was zero day 20.

Nitrate started to register day 11 and now on day 22 is up to 5.

I didn’t have the lights on during this period and didn’t feed much more than the clowns would eat. Usually 5-10 pellets per day each. There were no water changes or cleanings during the cycle. The tank condition still looks new. I’m sure the lack of light is the reason and plan on cutting the lights on day 28.

Welcome to reef2Reef, and thanks for the info.