No need to cycle with Dr Tim's One and Only?

[MarSch]

Hi,
On Dr Tim's website, when demo'ing the One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria product, he says that there is no need to do a nitrogen cycle of the tank when using this product, and that you can add fish straight away.

Does anyone have any views/advice on this?

I phoned my specialist fish store and they said that they always suggest doing a nitro cycle as a matter of course, but what I could do is add the One and Only and then also add a snail as a test. If the snail stays healthy, then the tank is good to go for fish.

This sounds better than waiting several weeks for a full cycle, but not sure what the snail's chances are, or how reliable the "snail test" will be for fish? Are fish more sensitive?
Also, what will the snail eat? Do I need to give it some food or something?
And how long should I wait with the snail to see if the tank is ready for fish?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[Retro Reefer]

This is a hobby of patience, rushing things and taking short cuts will most likely not end well for you.

 

[mfinn]

In theory you could skip doing the whole cycle/waiting game.
You are just using fish to produce ammonia.
IMO it's pretty rough on the fish because there is more likely to be a period of ammonia present.
I use the One and Only product but also use ammonia and test out the cycle.

 

[FindingPonyo]

Hi,
On Dr Tim's website, when demo'ing the One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria product, he says that there is no need to do a nitrogen cycle of the tank when using this product, and that you can add fish straight away.

Does anyone have any views/advice on this?

I phoned my specialist fish store and they said that they always suggest doing a nitro cycle as a matter of course, but what I could do is add the One and Only and then also add a snail as a test. If the snail stays healthy, then the tank is good to go for fish.

This sounds better than waiting several weeks for a full cycle, but not sure what the snail's chances are, or how reliable the "snail test" will be for fish? Are fish more sensitive?
Also, what will the snail eat? Do I need to give it some food or something?
And how long should I wait with the snail to see if the tank is ready for fish?

Thanks for any and all help!

I would still do it for about a day just to let it settle

 

[MarSch]

I would still do it for about a day just to let it settle

Do what for a day? Add ammonia and do the full nitro cycle? For a day? Would that work?

Or do you mean add One-and-Only and then add a snail, and see how it goes for a day?

 

[MarSch]

In theory you could skip doing the whole cycle/waiting game.
You are just using fish to produce ammonia.
IMO it's pretty rough on the fish because there is more likely to be a period of ammonia present.
I use the One and Only product but also use ammonia and test out the cycle.

Thanks for the response.
I hear you about subjecting the fish to it straight out the gate. What about using the snail though? they produce ammonia too, so could leave the snail with the One-and-Only and let things settle for a week or so and then add fish?

 

[mfinn]

Thanks for the response.
I hear you about subjecting the fish to it straight out the gate. What about using the snail though? they produce ammonia too, so could leave the snail with the One-and-Only and let things settle for a week or so and then add fish?

IMO, just a snail or 2 wouldn't provide enough ammonia, unless they died.

The last 2 times I used Dr. Tims, and ammonia, it only took 2 weeks one time and 3 the other.

 

[MarSch]

Thanks! Exactly the sage advice I needed. I'll be patient and run the proper cycle.

 

[InvaderJim]

The Dr.Tim's ammonia is great. I used it and just hit the nitrite spike stage in my cycle which hasn't been long at all.

 

[brandon429]

Ammonia is not a slightly annoying compound to a reef, inability to control ammonia is never a stuck reading of .25 or .5 while the fish look normal, true lack of ammonia ability kills a tank overnite.

You are able to google/utube thousand of fish in cycles not being harmed in the least. Bottle bac instantly controls your ammonia or the tank dies as a cloudy stinky mess, overnite.

This is cycling 2020, fish aren't harmed by skip cycling or you'd see death and breathing issues in one million skip cycle examples.

Disease vectoring is what kills the fish, thinking one can skip fallow and qt requirements using pet store fish...no, that'll be 80% fish loss within six months, 100% more loss than skip cycling.

Thousands of entrants into macna conventions/500 instant reefs do fish in skip cycling. It's not bad or dangerous, but to be accurate you should verify ammonia can be lowered before adding fish, this rules out dead bottle bac in shipping extremes etc

Before adding fish, read fish forum disease forum here and be able to answer:

What method other than fallow/quarantine can you see in pattern, fixing the tanks there posting for disease help

What percent of help posters skipped fallow/qt prep

What is a fallow period and what can you add before it starts

After reading ten pages in the fish disease forum, did you find a better way to not lose all your first fish other than fallow qt, post it pls if so

 

[Salt & Peper]

This is a hobby of patience, rushing things and taking short cuts will most likely not end well for you.

+1

 

[BeejReef]

It's tedious. Those first 3-6 weeks of a glass box w no fish are painful. It's better though to do it without a fish. I'm not expert enough to debate the nitrogen cycle and all that, but a few weeks of letting your equipment break in and ironing out any bugs with salt mixing, ATO, flow and pumps, getting some practice in testing... it's worth it in the long run.

 

[Paulie069]

+1

I’d like to jump in for a second,, when I started my tank I used fresh ocean water from 10 miles offshore, then got live rock from a person that had it in a tank with pumps n air for long time. Well with those two things I got a 100 percent cycled tank in only 2 weeks and now I have ,, 15 seahorses,3 cardinal fish,1 hawk fish,5 peppermint shrimp,4 snails, and 10 blue legged hermit crabs. All doing awesome.
By the way I have a 55gal tank with 20gal sump

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I used Dr.tim bacteria and ammonia to cycle my tank and wait about 3 weeks to add a pair of clowns. That give me some time to look for other details like adding an ATO. Like other reefers mention before, Patience is the key for success on this hobby. An snail will die fast because they are more sensitive to water parameters.

 

[Paulie069]

I’d like to jump in for a second,, when I started my tank I used fresh ocean water from 10 miles offshore, then got live rock from a person that had it in a tank with pumps n air for long time. Well with those two things I got a 100 percent cycled tank in only 2 weeks and now I have ,, 15 seahorses,3 cardinal fish,1 hawk fish,5 peppermint shrimp,4 snails, and 10 blue legged hermit crabs. All doing awesome.
By the way I have a 55gal tank with 20gal sump

Sorry didn’t mean to post pic of coroline additive I just orders

 

[Reefman71]

Day 14. I used established live rock and about 10 biospheres that all came from my 125 gallon. I used to dry sand and rinsed it really good. I use Dr. Tim’s one and only after I put the water in. It’s a 20 gallon waterbox. I never did show any ammonia or nitrate now I’m starting to show a little trace of nitrates, I’ve had a clown fish in there the whole time. There’s really nothing that would die off to cause a cycle? If my thinking is correct here. Is my tank cycled? Or since I used all established rock and ceramic steers with my tank just skip the cycle using the Dr. Tim’s one and only?