Reef aquarium not cycling 10 days after adding Dr Tim's

[Jax15]

hm, ya it's possible you had a dead bottle of one and only. Prolonged time in the heat can kill them. Microbacter7, etc, - you never know for sure if it's still live.

Maybe get a little more organics in there, throw a pinch of pellet food in and perhaps get a bottle of Microbacter7 to diversify things a bit. Dr. Tims has worked well for me in the past, but so has Brightwell. Another solution is to find a seed starter, a bio ball from someone's tank. Always a little risk, but your tank will probably get critters in it over time anyway. Unless you're going to be rigid about quarantining, might not matter.

 

[Shiva]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! IT FINALLY CYCLED! I went ahead and tried a few bacteria products (e.g. Microbacter Start XLM, Fritz Zyme 9, and Microbe Lift Nite Out II). Eventually it started to cycle and my ammonia and nitrites are zero now and my nitrates are at 10ppm. I honestly suspect that because the weather where I am is pretty hot, some of the bacteria products I got may just have been dead right off the get go. I relized this when I opened the bottle of Fritz Zyme 9 and it had intense rotten egg smell which apparently it wasn't supposed to (correct me if I'm wrong here). But in any case, I'm glad I got the cycle going! I'll post a pic of the setup soon!

 

[Reef.]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! IT FINALLY CYCLED! I went ahead and tried a few bacteria products (e.g. Microbacter Start XLM, Fritz Zyme 9, and Microbe Lift Nite Out II). Eventually it started to cycle and my ammonia and nitrites are zero now and my nitrates are at 10ppm. I honestly suspect that because the weather where I am is pretty hot, some of the bacteria products I got may just have been dead right off the get go. I relized this when I opened the bottle of Fritz Zyme 9 and it had intense rotten egg smell which apparently it wasn't supposed to (correct me if I'm wrong here). But in any case, I'm glad I got the cycle going! I'll post a pic of the setup soon!

was it ammonia you added? Did a quick search and it seems to be just bacteria? 10 nitrate after a cycle seems very low.