Cycling with Dr. Tims

[cjdad]

Newbie here. Ive had freshwater tanks for 20 yrs but this is my 1st time ever cycling saltwater and using Dr Tim's ammonia and bacteria. Im on day 5 and my ammonia is still 2ppm and nitrites are at 0 and ph 8.0! Question is Ive read by day 3 using Dr. Tims products I should have nitrites already and ammonia dropping but neither has happened. Is this normal and is Dr Tim's website full of crap and just trying to sell me a product or have I done something wrong? Any information or suggestions I would love to hear. Oh and its a 32 gallon biocube temp is 78 degrees!

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Dr. Tim lies

A cycle using his bacteria and ammonia typically takes about 3 weeks, give or take. I'd give this another couple of weeks, or if you're in a hurry I'd suggest adding Fritz Turbostart 900, which works much, much faster than other products, including Dr. Tim's One and Only.

Good luck!

 

[Dan_P]

Newbie here. Ive had freshwater tanks for 20 yrs but this is my 1st time ever cycling saltwater and using Dr Tim's ammonia and bacteria. Im on day 5 and my ammonia is still 2ppm and nitrites are at 0 and ph 8.0! Question is Ive read by day 3 using Dr. Tims products I should have nitrites already and ammonia dropping but neither has happened. Is this normal and is Dr Tim's website full of crap and just trying to sell me a product or have I done something wrong? Any information or suggestions I would love to hear. Oh and its a 32 gallon biocube temp is 78 degrees!

Dr. Tim’s is not the fastest product. Could take a week or so. Fritz Turbocharge 900 can get rid of ammonia in 1-2 days. It is also possible you bought a dud batch of bacteria, maybe they were frozen or overheated.

 

[Baldyreef]

Newbie here. Ive had freshwater tanks for 20 yrs but this is my 1st time ever cycling saltwater and using Dr Tim's ammonia and bacteria. Im on day 5 and my ammonia is still 2ppm and nitrites are at 0 and ph 8.0! Question is Ive read by day 3 using Dr. Tims products I should have nitrites already and ammonia dropping but neither has happened. Is this normal and is Dr Tim's website full of crap and just trying to sell me a product or have I done something wrong? Any information or suggestions I would love to hear. Oh and its a 32 gallon biocube temp is 78 degrees!

welcome to reef2reef!
like the others said fritz turbostart 900 will work much much better, additionally do you have any live rock in the tank yet? this would greatly help with your cycle and helps for when you add live stock to have rock already establishing and or established, any pics of the tank?

 

[tbrown]

+1 Fritz Turbostart. That's how I started my old 125 and it worked pretty much overnight in my experience.

I used MB 7 and LiveAquaria live nitrifying bacteria on my 70 and it was pretty quick but after a month it got into the ugly stage so don't expect to avoid that.

 

[cjdad]

welcome to reef2reef!
like the others said fritz turbostart 900 will work much much better, additionally do you have any live rock in the tank yet? this would greatly help with your cycle and helps for when you add live stock to have rock already establishing and or established, any pics of the tank?

30 lbs of dry rock no live rock

 

[cjdad]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Dr. Tim lies

A cycle using his bacteria and ammonia typically takes about 3 weeks, give or take. I'd give this another couple of weeks, or if you're in a hurry I'd suggest adding Fritz Turbostart 900, which works much, much faster than other products, including Dr. Tim's One and Only.

Good luck!

Thank you. I'll wait it out. I assume the bacteria isn't working maybe got too hot during shipping it was a heatwave last week! So Dr Tim's ammonia is works though right?

 

[Fish Fan]

Thank you. I'll wait it out. I assume the bacteria isn't working maybe got too hot during shipping it was a heatwave last week! So Dr Tim's ammonia is works though right?

His ammonium chloride "works" but measure the ammonia concentration with a good test kit, don't just go by the instructions on the bottle of ammonium chloride. Sometimes, the products seems weaker than other times, and at one point they had conflicting directions for how many drops/gallon on the bottle vs. what they had on their website.

I've used One and Only, and I've seen a lot of threads here where people have used One and Only and about 3 weeks is typical, in my experience. Sometimes quicker, that's not unheard of, but usually I see it taking about 3 weeks.

Why is takes that long, I don't know. Perhaps the strain of bacteria he's using isn't that efficient, or perhaps these bottles are all 'duds' due to mishandling in transport? It seems to me that you can cycle a tank in about 3 weeks without adding One and Only, so it begs the question; what is it really doing for us?

But that's another debate, I think in your situation I would just give it some more time and I think in a few days to a week you'll start to see the ammonia coming down.

 

[mfinn]

I'm not going to try and dispute what others claim Dr. Tims does or does not do.
I can only say what my experiences with his product and they have been mostly good.
I've used it 3 times and all 3 times it's worked for me in what I consider a reasonable amount of time.
Usually with in 2 weeks or less.
If I had known that other products were faster I probably would have used them instead.

 

[cjdad]

Good news guys my ammonia dropped to 1ppm and nitrites are at 25. My next question is should I dose ammonia back to 2ppm or let it stay at 1ppm? Sorry for all the questions just want to do this right and not screw it up lol

 

[Fish Fan]

Good news guys my ammonia dropped to 1ppm and nitrites are at 25. My next question is should I dose ammonia back to 2ppm or let it stay at 1ppm? Sorry for all the questions just want to do this right and not screw it up lol

I would suggest that you wait until the ammonia zeros out, then dose it one more time back up to 2.0 ppm. Check again after 24 hours, and if the ammonia is about 0.50 ppm or less, you're cycled.

There's no need in my opinion to keep adding the ammonia over and over again. I believe this just results in extending the cycle time, and very high nitrate in the end.

Good luck!

 

[mfinn]

I would suggest that you wait until the ammonia zeros out, then dose it one more time back up to 2.0 ppm. Check again after 24 hours, and if the ammonia is about 0.50 ppm or less, you're cycled.

There's no need in my opinion to keep adding the ammonia over and over again. I believe this just results in extending the cycle time, and very high nitrate in the end.

Good luck!

This.^^^^
I would also add there is one more step in the process.
You need to get to the point where nitrates show up.
Depends on test kits, some will always show up to .25 ammonia. At least the API test kit I've used.

 

[exnisstech]

This.^^^^
I would also add there is one more step in the process.
You need to get to the point where nitrates show up.
Depends on test kits, some will always show up to .25 ammonia. At least the API test kit I've used.

∆ this ∆
I don't even own an ammonia or nitrite test kit. Once I see nitrate I slowly move forward. I've cycled with household ammonia with no additives just like I used to do freshwater.
I much prefer cycling with live rock now. Dry rock sucked for me when I used it. Give me live rock hitchhikers and all.