Dr Tim’s Cycle

[lpsouth1978]

Looks like it. As we said, when it happens, it happens overnight. Glad to see it is complete!

 

[xaflatoonx]

I am just going through what you were.

Ammonia is 0.
Nitrite is not going down...

congrats on your completed cycle

 

[Rollman]

Adding food changed it overnight. Thanks again guys. Moved my stuff from the column

 

[brandon429]

hey this whole time I didn't realize we had literally that much life in the tank showing the ammonia status by not being dead, very nice update

I even see two fish my goodness, this tank was 1000% cycled on first post. we're a passionate bunch, that's for sure.

asked for five snails as proof: upped ante by including the snails, some sps, some lps, some fish, pods and pretty much everything besides coralline.

understood ha nice. nice tank, it's clear and healthy


this issue was surely a badge misread it seems.

 

[Rollman]

Once I realized it was cycled, I spent the afternoon breaking the column tank down. I was gonna take it slow. I walked slow to the new tank with all my stuff , added and paired my 3rd light. There are 4 fish from the column, 3 shrimp, 2 crabs. Gonna get a couple yellow tangs today

 

[brandon429]

That’s neat tank surgery. These actions of taking down living tanks and transferring the goods and life elsewhere for a skip cycle setup is $ on the line but it works if the order of operations for clean, no cloud re setup occurs. The only time losses occur is when clouding detritus from sand or rock is moved over and then mixed with the new transfer items. Basic detritus which we all have, we all generate, then becomes the sole locus of loss or problems. It’s only when it’s disturbed.

If the new tank has no clouding then it will run fine.

I recommend waiting 24-48 hours after tank transfer before increasing bioload with new fish. *NOT because the rocks need time to build up more bacteria (from the sand rinse thread it doesn’t work that way) but because we just want to make sure any castings that might have moved over have settled.

A tank that is cycled can handle all the bioload it can possibly run on the first day it’s cycled, bacteria don’t continue to build up to a matched level of bioload. All of reefing has that claim wrong, bacteria don’t work that way, they fill in all space during cycling they don’t leave unused space to fill in awaiting more fish. Cycled means cycled. What sets the limits of fish addition is disease protocol. If those tangs are quarantined then adding two won’t matter.

E mentioned earlier the difference between cycling and maturity. Now that cycle is done, we’re just waiting on time and coralline maturation to coat your rocks and walls and add bugs and pods naturally to the system. These become over time a living food pump so your corals have fare to sustain in between your fish feedings, but the filtration ability to handle ammonia is set as good as it will ever be right now, even in the tank you barely set up hours ago. Great thread great persistence nice job

 

[Sparticle]

I forgot to tell you. When I cycled my tank the Nitrite was reading (API test kit) high for about three days and I bought a Salifert test kit for the Nitrite and Nitrates and the reading was fine. Sometimes that API don't give a good reading on Nitrite and Nitrates.

Sorry for being a bit late to respond and take it as you will as my experience was freshwater with Dr. Tims One and Only purchased direct from them for use on a newly rescaped + planted aquarium layout while fish were in a holding tank with old tank 'stuff' due to having to move them while redoing floors. I had found when I reached nitrite and tested with Salifert it reached a point where it rapidly went to zero and since no one tests more than once I guess I am an anomoly; I was also testing with API and found nitrite present throughout the relevant time including this drop off. Rather than say one is right and the other is wrong, I reran tests but diluted. After dropping down far enough through dilution, Salifert went back to registering nitrite and further dilutions would show lower nitrite levels on both tests so I presumed it was a valid way to read outside the test's limited range. You may want to note that I took some high school and college chemistry but consider myself not a chemist.
Without knowing the chemistry in the test kits, and understanding chemistry, its hard to know what happens with test kits when conditions vary though it would be very valuable for them to label it. Does temperature impact results or time to react? Are other molecules likely present (or not, such as medications) in many of the tanks likely to impact readings? Will a test report a value in a predictable way when diluted? what would not enough or too much of any one reagent do to a reading? Had a titration test in college that didn't read if you followed the course's instructions so teacher said to add more of one reagent at the start. As I didn't add enough additional mine still didn't work as instructor demonstrated by just dumping a bunch in after I was where he knew was too far through it and that 'overkill' quantity worked to show the change just with the side effect of being wasteful of a reagent.
Anyways it was too long ago and I don't have notes to know when I reached which stages and the values I went through for them and I didn't try to narrow down a max range for Salifert before it went back to zero though that is probably best found with a known test solution.
Congratulations on the happy fish home!

 

[Anthony Cusumano]

On day 25 since adding dr tims ammonia. Today I finally have proof I have living bacterial! Ammonia is down to 1ppm and nitrite on the way up!

 

[Rollman]

Congrats man. Add a pinch of food, it’s a turbo shot

 

[Anthony Cusumano]

Congrats man. Add a pinch of food, it’s a turbo shot

Did just that and ammonia dropped even lower. Looks like .25-.50 (api)

I don’t plan on adding anything living for another 3 weeks to a month. Do I need to do anything after the tank cycles? Just add some food every few days is enough?
What about water changes?

 

[Rollman]

The day it appeared cycled, I added rock from my other tank along with corals, inverts, and fish. I moved from a 55 gal to a 180 so it’s not exactly high bioload. Water has been stable just getting uglies, so I’m shooting for biweekly 15% changes. All tanks are different so monitor daily and enjoy.

 

[Anthony Cusumano]

I don’t plan on turning on any lights or adding anything to my fuge till next month

 

[Empire]

Hi everyone! Day 6 of the fish less cycle. I added more ammonia on day 3 to get ammonia to 2ppm. Day 5, Ammonia and Nitrate tests results were the same as day 3. Meaning, there was no change in the last two days. Pic 1 And 2 are day 3. Pic 3 and 4 are day 5. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Add a pinch of fish food to the tank and test 24 and 48 hrs later

 

[Empire]

Okay - stupid question - any particular type of food? Frozen or pellets?

 

[Dr. Reef]

I have used pellets in past. Not a whole lot but just a pinch.
Sometimes bacteria if they are heterotrophic require carbon source which is not present in sterile tank (newly setup). Carbon comes in form of live fish or food. This may kick start the process.
Good luck and do report back what you find.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Just don’t add any ammonia until the bacteria populate and start getting stable. I did cycled my tank with Dr Tim bacteria and ammonia and only dose twice the ammonia and in three weeks tank was cycled. Two tips from my experience, One, get an ATO if you don’t have one and two , be patience, Dr Tim works perfectly.

 

[Empire]

thanks! it looks like ammonia is dropping, and nitrite is rising. bt 1-2ppm for ammonia, closer to 1ppm. nitrite is up to .5ppm.

the instructions state to add up to 2ppm again, should i do this or let it be? it's been 9 days now. i have been feeding pellets every other day over the last 4 days. also, should i turn on my skimmer?

(40% of my rock is live from another system)

 

[Ruben's Reef]

thanks! it looks like ammonia is dropping, and nitrite is rising. bt 1-2ppm for ammonia, closer to 1ppm. nitrite is up to .5ppm.

the instructions state to add up to 2ppm again, should i do this or let it be? it's been 9 days now. i have been feeding pellets every other day over the last 4 days. also, should i turn on my skimmer?

(40% of my rock is live from another system)

Don't add anything. Wait for the ammonia hit 0, then your Nitrites will go down to 0 and you will have a high Nitrates that you can fix with a 10% water change. Also, don't use the skimmer or lights, system doesn't need it now.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Dont add anything. No more adding ammonia or food. Just simply wait for ammonia to hit 0.
Nitrites dont really have to be 0 for you to add fish but sure if you wanna wait till they hit 0 go ahead.

Note: I highly recommend everyone cycling their tanks with bacteria in bottle to throw a pinch of fish food in your tank. Heterotrophic bacteria requires carbon and our sterile tanks have none which stalls the cycle.

I have done a massive study and its posted here at R2R under "bacteria in bottle myth or fact"