Cycle won't complete with the Dr. Tim's Method

[Fish Fan]

Seriously, I wish LR was still around, the good stuff from Fiji. Those that have never seen it or used it have no idea how easy things used to be. I guess the australian stuff is good but it's expensive. Maybe someday it'll return.

Maybe not Fiji, but you can still get real ocean rock:

Tampa Bay Saltwater - America's #1 Live Rock for Reef Aquariums

Tampa Bay Saltwater sustainably farms ocean aquacultured live rock and hand harvested sand. TBS Live Rock provides beneficial microorganisms, creates a less stressful environment for inhabitants and provides natural biofiltration by the lifeforms found in and on it. Healthy live rock, from our...

tbsaltwater.com

 

[KrisReef]

There is no need to keep dumping ammonia or food into the tank if you already had elevated readings. What you are waiting on is the nitrifies to catch up. Adding more food does not change this.

The process is simple. The idea is start with no ammonia. Increase it to a readable level and then watch for it to fall. Once it begins falling, you have nitrifiers :)

I think the microbes like the ammonia for breakfast and until a fish goes in they might get hungry?

No microbes should go hungry, maybe there is a need to feed them to reduce world hunger?

:cool:

For only $6/bottle you can feed a whole tank of microbes for a month.

 

[KrisReef]

The internet has certainly made something as simple as starting up a new tank a daunting and scary task. I'm sure glad the new science is here to guide us through it all.

Seriously, I wish LR was still around, the good stuff from Fiji. Those that have never seen it or used it have no idea how easy things used to be. I guess the australian stuff is good but it's expensive. Maybe someday it'll return.

@Eric Cohen at tank stop has some beautiful Australian live rock that was hand picked from the South Pacific Ocean by mermaids . :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

Live Goods - SPONSOR - NEW AUSTRALIAN LIVE ROCK SHIPMENT - DECORATIVE STYLE JUST SUNK IN THE H2O! VIDEOS!!!!!

NEW ARRIVALS....FIRST OF THE YEAR. THIS IS THE DECORATIVE STYLE REAL LIVE ROCK FROM AUSTRALIA! VIDEOS FOR YOU TO ENJOY. ORDER FROM OUR WEBSITE TANKSTOP.COM PLEASE ALSO CHECK OUT OUR THREAD ON OUR SPONSOR PAGE HERE ON R2R! WE HAVE MORE PICS AND VIDEOS THERE....AND I CAN TEXT YOU VIA CELL PHONE...

www.reef2reef.com

Right EC?

It’s good fresh rock and not just some tail.

 

[brandon429]

Right now in another thread, Red Sea ammonia has misled.

Bean said the thread above solely about Red Sea ammonia misreads has no basis

:)

The toil continues.

Old cycling science is this thread on page eight coming up, with a ready/not ready umpire call ratio of 2%/98% heh

If we took this long to decipher a cycle I’d have been as old as voldemoort on page two of any work thread.

Slow, hesitant, ever-verifying and for sure buying many bottles of bacteria and never discussing disease not one time, in the name of prepping a reef for fish, is OCS.

By page eight, there ought to at least be some alignment here, maybe

His tank was fine without the Fritz.

Crypto by June

 

[MnFish1]

Right now in another thread, Red Sea ammonia has misled.

Bean said the thread above solely about Red Sea ammonia misreads has no basis

:)

The toil continues.

Old cycling science is this thread on page eight coming up, with a ready/not ready umpire call ratio of 2%/98% heh

If we took this long to decipher a cycle I’d have been as old as voldemoort on page two of any work thread.

Slow, hesitant, ever-verifying and for sure buying many bottles of bacteria and never discussing disease not one time, in the name of prepping a reef for fish, is OCS.

By page eight, there ought to at least be some alignment here, maybe

His tank was fine without the Fritz.

Crypto by June

Actually - I'm going to change my opinion some from my last post - While its true that I have never cycled a tank using ammonia testing (over 3 decades+) - I view testing etc as sort of an insurance policy to prevent problems - and Lets say I had a new tank - and wanted to add a damsel - I might not care as much about testing/waiting a couple weeks than if I was adding a pair of peppermint angels. Additionally, for someone starting out, there is nothing wrong with testing, using bottled bacteria, etc - and many people with a lot of experience use these methods as well. So - to imply they are a waste of time/money IMHO is a little 'strong'

 

[klvnnunez]

I woke up this morning and the clocks had changed, therefore you do not need to add anymore Fritz or the Dr. Tim’s

Your tank is cycled, please do a large volume water change, 75% or more and you are good to go.

I also would recommend throwing away the API ammonia test kit to cast out the evil that had been haunting your tank.

When ammonia is eaten by microbes it ends up as nitrate. Accumulating nitrate is the indicator that your microbes are established and the tank is cycled.

(What degree made Tim a doctor?)

Understood. I will not add anymore ammonia. I will let it get consumed. and do a 75% water change as recommended. I will update again in the next few days.

 

[fish_collector]

Maybe not Fiji, but you can still get real ocean rock:

Tampa Bay Saltwater - America's #1 Live Rock for Reef Aquariums

Tampa Bay Saltwater sustainably farms ocean aquacultured live rock and hand harvested sand. TBS Live Rock provides beneficial microorganisms, creates a less stressful environment for inhabitants and provides natural biofiltration by the lifeforms found in and on it. Healthy live rock, from our...

tbsaltwater.com

Of course there's TBS rock, and I suppose it's better than nothing, but I miss the "good stuff". I've got 2000 lbs of OG pukani dry rock, I'd love to put that on the bottom off of the Florida coast for a few years.

 

[MnFish1]

(What degree made Tim a doctor?)

this one: Dr. Hovanec earned his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he investigated the phylogenetics of nitrifying bacteria in aquaria and Mono Lake, California. Dr. Hovanec was the first to demonstrate that bacteria of the phylum Nitrospira were the active nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems such as aquaria. His work on nitrifying bacteria has led to the discovery of many new species of nitrifying bacteria in freshwater and saltwater systems and the granting of several U.S. and foreign patents, with additional patents pending. He has also conducted much research on topics such as ammonia excretion and toxicity in aquatic organisms, bio-filtration systems design and fish feed formulations.

 

[MnFish1]

this one: Dr. Hovanec earned his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he investigated the phylogenetics of nitrifying bacteria in aquaria and Mono Lake, California. Dr. Hovanec was the first to demonstrate that bacteria of the phylum Nitrospira were the active nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems such as aquaria. His work on nitrifying bacteria has led to the discovery of many new species of nitrifying bacteria in freshwater and saltwater systems and the granting of several U.S. and foreign patents, with additional patents pending. He has also conducted much research on topics such as ammonia excretion and toxicity in aquatic organisms, bio-filtration systems design and fish feed formulations.

I'd like to see him debate Brandon:)

 

[fish_collector]

this one: Dr. Hovanec earned his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he investigated the phylogenetics of nitrifying bacteria in aquaria and Mono Lake, California. Dr. Hovanec was the first to demonstrate that bacteria of the phylum Nitrospira were the active nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems such as aquaria. His work on nitrifying bacteria has led to the discovery of many new species of nitrifying bacteria in freshwater and saltwater systems and the granting of several U.S. and foreign patents, with additional patents pending. He has also conducted much research on topics such as ammonia excretion and toxicity in aquatic organisms, bio-filtration systems design and fish feed formulations.

I think KrisReef was being facetious and wasn't looking for an answer :smiling-face-with-halo:

 

[Fish Fan]

I think KrisReef was being facetious and wasn't looking for an answer :smiling-face-with-halo:

Honestly, you never know :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[KrisReef]

I think KrisReef was being facetious and wasn't looking for an answer :smiling-face-with-halo:

No, I wanted to know if someone would know?

or if AI would claim he was a doctor of anesthesiologist or some other specialty?


@BeanAnimal - excellent write up for the good Dr.

 

[Freenow54]

I am almost on week 4 of the cycle with Dr Tim One and Only and Ammonia Chloride. My experience with the cycle has been subpar. The first time dosing one and only (almost 4 weeks ago), following Tim's instructions, the cycle failed after day 8 due to extremely high ammonia. I had to perform an emergency 50% water change to bring it down to about 4ppm. I kept dosing ammonia according to his instructions to only notice the ammonia was going down. So basically had to start the process again from scratch. Then I went to purchase a second bottle of O&O and tossed it in the tank, letting precipitate for an hour before turning the return pump on. A few days later, the parameters were as follow:

Salifert:
Ammonia 2
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 10
pH 8
Temp 82 F
Salinity 1.026
Tank 40g to include sump volume
1" crushed coral sand bed
20 lb marco rocks

The ammonia at one point hit 0 with some nitrite still in the water (I'm not sure if letting the ammonia go down to 0, harmed the process). I added another 4ml of ammonia chloride from Tim to bring it back up to 2ppm. It stayed at 2ppm for a few more days, mind you, this is testing with both API and Salifert. About a week ago, I took a water sample to the LFS and ammonia at that point was 0ppm, nitrite .25 and nitrate 25. I was baffled at the results as I was constantly testing with salifert and I was getting different readings which made me question the reliability of salifert.

Last week on Friday, I added a dose of ammonia to bring it to 1ppm to see if the tank would handle it I was traveling for 4 days. My hopes were that when returning ammonia and nitrite would be 0. It was not the case, ammonia and nitrite stayed the same. I went and bought Mricrobe Lift Nite Out 2 and started dosing 15ml as of 3 days ago to try and fortify the nitrifying bacteria.

Today, going almost on week 4 and adding more nitrifying bacteria to the tank, it still not able to process it. I'm still battling ammonia and the tank seems to no be cycling.

Today's parameters are as follow:

Salifert:
Ammonia .15
Nitrite .1
Nitrate 25
pH 8
Temp 82 F
Salinity 1.026

For the past 2 weeks, these parameters has been stalled, meaning they haven't move at all. I'm in desperate need of help as I would like to completely cycle the tank. Any thoughts? Your help or input will be greatly appreciated.

Sorry about your experience the article and method I used says it can take 45 days. I kept ammonia at 4ppm. Only added bacteria once at the beginning. To me things look good almost done. When ammonia , and nitrites are zero the goal is to bring ammonia to almost 5 ppm , and ammonia, and nitrites should be zero in 24 hours. Then done do 75 % water change. Your ammonia reading is probably your misreading that's pretty hard to be sure of reading 0.15 and 0.1 to my memory. I would try to stop adding bacteria and stop dosing as well

 

[Freenow54]

Yes - my opinion was based on the fact that that this has been going on for 4 weeks.

Very strange My article wants the tank fully set up

 

[BeanAnimal]

Bean said the thread above solely about Red Sea ammonia misreads has no basis...
...The toil continues.

Please stop reframing comments to fit your narrative. There is only "toil" because you continue to post in such a manner that purposefully inflames everyone around you.

Old cycling science is this thread on page eight coming up, with a ready/not ready umpire call ratio of 2%/98% heh

Except that there is no "old" or "new" science.

By page eight, there ought to at least be some alignment here, maybe

Almost every experienced hobbyist is in alignment with basic science of nitrifying bacteria. You appear to be the odd man out.

Crypto by June

Help me out here -- Isn't predicting a drop-dead, doom, gloom and tank livestock crash date to every new reefer that doesn't listen to you -- the very "fear mongering" that you constantly decry?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Of course there's TBS rock, and I suppose it's better than nothing, but I miss the "good stuff". I've got 2000 lbs of OG pukani dry rock, I'd love to put that on the bottom off of the Florida coast for a few years.

The "good stuff" had its share of issues also. The die off was significant by the time it reached most of us and there was typically a good bit of cleanup or "cooking" that had to be done. It was common for people to "cook" the rock in big bins with a skimmer and heater for a few weeks to remove the mess.

 

[fish_collector]

Well maybe if one bought it straight off of the boat in the 45lb boxes. I could go to the LFS and buy it, and add fish the same day with zero issues. In other words, everything I bought had already been prepped for immediate use. You gotta admit, it was better than what we do now.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Well maybe if one bought it straight off of the boat in the 45lb boxes. I could go to the LFS and buy it, and add fish the same day with zero issues. In other words, everything I bought had already been prepped for immediate use. You gotta admit, it was better than what we do now.

It depends on how you define better :)

My tank is over 20 years old and was started with dry rock. I couldn't afford to have live rock shipped at the time. I could barely afford the dry rock. "cycling" is not the issue, one way or the other. The time difference between starting dry and with LR (or bacteria, or whatever) is really irrelevant. The LR gets you seeded fauna and help to bypass the wait for mature rock and help reduce nuisance algae. At the same time, any number of other problems can be introduced, especially with a large volume of ocean rock.

I think all of that is beside the basic point here though :)

 

[MnFish1]

I think KrisReef was being facetious and wasn't looking for an answer :smiling-face-with-halo:

With Kris one never knows lol:). and I was joking - but I thought It was interesting to see he was a real doctor

 

[MnFish1]

Well maybe if one bought it straight off of the boat in the 45lb boxes. I could go to the LFS and buy it, and add fish the same day with zero issues. In other words, everything I bought had already been prepped for immediate use. You gotta admit, it was better than what we do now.

Long before there was live rock in boxes - there was dead coral skeletons.