This thread is more a vent to my own lack of research, and hopefully can be useful to someone else just starting a Dr Tim’s cycle.
I spun up a new Reefer 250 this past weekend and decided to give fishless cycling a try as I’d like my first additions to be designer clowns and don’t want to subject them to any added stress.
For my cycle I decided to use Dr Tim’s One and Only fishless routine. I added the bottle on Saturday + the prescribed amount of ammonia minus 20% to account for rock/sand displacement.
Tested my water yesterday and saw ammonia and nitrite. Woohoo! Cycle has started! Went along my day happy as a clam. Added a little Microbacter7 as well for diversity.
Today I did some more testing, ammonia is through the roof according to my API kit. I think it’s at or over 8ppm, my partner says between 4-8ppm. Again added some Microbacter7.
To try and understand how ammonia managed to spike so high I hit the googles and landed back on BRS product page for the fishless cycle - which states to check ammonia before adding anything if using live sand. Something I hadn’t even considered given previous cycle success and it wasn’t mentioned on the recipe card.
fingers crossed I haven’t stalled the cycle. I’ll be keeping a close eye on things and hopefully we’ll be back on track. If I don’t see levels noticeably drop by Wednesday I’ll likely end up doing a 20% water change.
I spun up a new Reefer 250 this past weekend and decided to give fishless cycling a try as I’d like my first additions to be designer clowns and don’t want to subject them to any added stress.
For my cycle I decided to use Dr Tim’s One and Only fishless routine. I added the bottle on Saturday + the prescribed amount of ammonia minus 20% to account for rock/sand displacement.
Tested my water yesterday and saw ammonia and nitrite. Woohoo! Cycle has started! Went along my day happy as a clam. Added a little Microbacter7 as well for diversity.
Today I did some more testing, ammonia is through the roof according to my API kit. I think it’s at or over 8ppm, my partner says between 4-8ppm. Again added some Microbacter7.
To try and understand how ammonia managed to spike so high I hit the googles and landed back on BRS product page for the fishless cycle - which states to check ammonia before adding anything if using live sand. Something I hadn’t even considered given previous cycle success and it wasn’t mentioned on the recipe card.
fingers crossed I haven’t stalled the cycle. I’ll be keeping a close eye on things and hopefully we’ll be back on track. If I don’t see levels noticeably drop by Wednesday I’ll likely end up doing a 20% water change.