Cycling with Dr Tim’s

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Maybe the dr Tim’s batch I got was bad?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Took around 10 days for mine to cycle. Did you dose the entire bottle?

Live sand and live rock? Or dry?

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Yup I dosed the entire bottle with dry rock and dry sand

 

[brandon429]

He's right above, you need the time interval, ten days or better before you are cycled, your test readings do not matter currently at all in the process. No matter what you adjust up or down or not adjust, when enough time under water has passed, all you do is change the water out and begin lightly. Couple starter corals and clean up crew, your fish need to complete quarantine before use anyway and this is still more maturation time.

A specific way to cycle your tank based on current details is to just let it circulate as is, dose another few drops of ammonia in a week, and wait another ten days from today to be safe, +10 more days underwater then change it all out and it's done.

Testing or not testing doesn't alter required submersion time, it merely tracks expected peaks and troughs.

The reason some people choose to test and be exacting is to speed up the process. If you've got twenty days, any reef will cycle using the boosts you have. Your bottle bac isn't failed or a bad batch, just do the twenty day trick above

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Ohhhhh okay thank you so much for your help this is the answer I have been searching for [emoji120]

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Every tank is going to be different. I also think every bottle of bacteria is going to vary batch to batch and under certain conditions. Took my Nuvo 10g 22 days to cycle and I used 2 different kinds of bacteria thinking it would be faster than the last tank.

Just too many different variables to say when a tank will be cycled, it’s done when it’s done lol

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

That’s true

 

[brandon429]

Check this one out when free
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

the reason that's handy is because we make live rock behave

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Haha thanks!

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

this is my current results ( looks like my ammonia is at 1ppm and nitrites at 0.5ppm

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

So based on the article, should I just Not do testing and dose ammonia in about a week and then wait for another week before I add fish?

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Also should the ammonia be dosed to like 2ppm or 1ppm

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Sorry I am just very confused by Cycling as when I kept freshwater, I just stole gravel and used filter floss from my grandpa tank, add fish food and waited for a month before adding fish. This is my first time using bottled ammonia and bacteria

 

[brandon429]

You don't have to add or test for anything, just wait to add close to 20-30 total days underwater, change water, and begin with light load. Those results above show your levels are correct, now we wait. It's true some bottle bac strains work faster than others to produce nitrate in the first few days, but that's from bacteria dosed into the water floating around.

We want to wait till they move to surfaces, this takes about twenty days (To be safe, lil extra wait vs the ten days above) one small dose of ammonia in a few more days, wait 20-30 total, it'll work.

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Wow Thanks Brandon you just answered my question

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Thanks you for educating me on Cycling

 

[Ghost_Rebel5]

Yeah! It’s Cycling