Cycling a tank quickly - limited time

[DustinDec]

So I have a trip coming up and need to have my fish out of the QT and back into my main tank before I leave. I'm restarting my main tank, no live rock, sand or anything. So the plan was to do Dr Tims with ammonia drops for a month, but I'm two weeks behind schedule. The Dr Tims One and only 10z total arrives tomorrow or Tuesday. My fish will not be ready to go back into the main tank until June 18th and I'm leaving the following week. My thought process is given the tank total volume is ~150g, I should be able to do an in tank cycle with 10z of Dr Tims with fresh saltwater preheated prior to acclimating the fish and bringing them over. The total fish count is 8, two clowns, 3 tangs (Blue, Yellow, Bristletooth), Melanarus wrasse and a fox face. Terrible idea?

 

[Fish Fan]

If you're really in a hurry, I believe the Fritz Turbo Start product is the fastest acting, faster than even Dr. Tim's.

 

[DustinDec]

I could fill it tomorrow, add 10oz of dr tims with enough drops for 1 ppm of Ammonia with three weeks to let it cycle. Would that be better? My concern is adding ammonia and having to move the fish over.

 

[Fish Fan]

Three weeks is pushing it with Dr. Tim's, but that might work out.

Can you get some precycled bio media or live rock, or live rock rubble? That would really help here.

 

[DustinDec]

Three weeks is pushing it with Dr. Tim's, but that might work out.

Can you get some precycled bio media or live rock, or live rock rubble? That would really help here.

I'm trying to avoid doing anything live from another tank. Thats in part how I ran into trouble from the start and later things got worse. My plan is to take what I've personally QT and keep, but anything new (fish, inverts, coral) will come from Dr Reef whenever possible and Qt otherwise. I know it's not perfect, but I know at least all of my LFS all have ich, flukes, ect in their tanks with the exception of one, but they focus only one coral.

I could go pick up turbo fritz, I just called and a LFS does carry it. Think I'll that route with ammonia and just return my tims one and only.

 

[DustinDec]

With Turbo fritz, can I get away with just using ground up food or should I use drops?

 

[Fish Fan]

With Turbo fritz, can I get away with just using ground up food or should I use drops?

Typically, I like the drops, but given your situation adding food may be safer here.

 

[exnisstech]

Things can go south when rushed. Also its usually not a good thing to make changes right before a trip. No help but something to think about.
I've never used Dr Tims but have used Fritz 900 with good results but I also added live rock as I do all my new tanks.
What caused you to completely tear down the tank vs running it fallow?

 

[Freenow54]

So I have a trip coming up and need to have my fish out of the QT and back into my main tank before I leave. I'm restarting my main tank, no live rock, sand or anything. So the plan was to do Dr Tims with ammonia drops for a month, but I'm two weeks behind schedule. The Dr Tims One and only 10z total arrives tomorrow or Tuesday. My fish will not be ready to go back into the main tank until June 18th and I'm leaving the following week. My thought process is given the tank total volume is ~150g, I should be able to do an in tank cycle with 10z of Dr Tims with fresh saltwater preheated prior to acclimating the fish and bringing them over. The total fish count is 8, two clowns, 3 tangs (Blue, Yellow, Bristletooth), Melanarus wrasse and a fox face. Terrible idea?

If you have someone to feed your fish why not wait? I will not state the obvious

 

[DustinDec]

If you have someone to feed your fish why not wait? I will not state the obvious

I don't have anyone to maintain the QT tanks.

I broke down my original tank due to an infestation, twice. I went fallow for 76 days, but I had vermetid snails. I was going to try resolving with bumblebee snails and thought since they were kept in a fishless tank I would be okay. Turns out that was not the case. I added the fish back after ~80 days, they had been in copper power for over 30 days kept at or slightly above 2.5ppm copper. A week later they had ich again. Since I absolutely hated the vermetid snails, my wife and I agreed to break it down. We also really wanted to re-do the aquascaping and plumbing for the UV, just seemed like it would be easier. While I regret losing coral/inverts, we're still happy we did it. The issue with the vermetid snails was significantly worse than we had even imagined.

 

[winxp_man]

Wow! Talk about a good lesion in the idea to QT everything! Same thing happened to me, only it was once to get me to QT even someone’s mum at this point!! Hahaha! But now I’m at the point of QT everything for real. I don’t care what it is. If it’s been in a tank Boom QT! No questions asked!

 

[DustinDec]

Wow! Talk about a good lesion in the idea to QT everything! Same thing happened to me, only it was once to get me to QT even someone’s mum at this point!! Hahaha! But now I’m at the point of QT everything for real. I don’t care what it is. If it’s been in a tank Boom QT! No questions asked!

I’m ordering everything going forward from Dr reef.

Plan is to now do turbo Fritz 900 16 oz tomorrow followed with 1/4 cube of frozen food a week.

 

[winxp_man]

I’m ordering everything going forward from Dr reef.

Plan is to now do turbo Fritz 900 16 oz tomorrow followed with 1/4 cube of frozen food a week.

Understood! Haha

I have the QT system most wish they had. Talk to many at lfs’s and they think I’m nuts! Haha. But not planning on going through 76 of fallow ever again! Especially with a 150 gal tank and 15 fish that I had to catch just in that tank. Then two others a 40 and a 25. Total was 27 fish. Have 5 QT tanks going and having to up keep 3 DT’s!! Yea no thanks.

I have a Powder Brown coming from Dr Reef. I will still observe the fish for 30 days. Before going into a DT.

 

[DustinDec]

Understood! Haha

I have the QT system most wish they had. Talk to many at lfs’s and they think I’m nuts! Haha. But not planning on going through 76 of fallow ever again! Especially with a 150 gal tank and 15 fish that I had to catch just in that tank. Then two others a 40 and a 25. Total was 27 fish. Have 5 QT tanks going and having to up keep 3 DT’s!! Yea no thanks.

I have a Powder Brown coming from Dr Reef. I will still observe the fish for 30 days. Before going into a DT.

Did you end up getting your order? I'm about to put one in and ask for it to be delayed a bit given the 20% off sale. How was your experience?