Has anyone ever used this product and method? I am trying it now and I can't get my ammonia over the 5 ppm and curious if it's because I had the tank running for a few weeks prior
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Dr. Tim's One and Only fishless cycle
- Thread starter afboundguy
- Start date
I have used dr tim’s supposedly you can cycle in 10 days. if you dose ammonia and it goes away in 24 hrs and you have nitrate I would feed do a few weeks and maybe add clean up crew when you see diatoms
ChrisPchef
Non-member
It seems it’s too late as he’s already added the Dr.Tims, but I agree with you and the shrimp method. Recently used a shrimp to start the cycle in my 15 gallon and everything is doing very well!
I asked my LFS if he had the Dr.Tims or sold anything similar and he asked how big my tank was. When I told him it was a 15 gallon he recommended I don’t waste the money. As I would use a cap full or whatever the recommended amount was and never use the rest again.
OP
OP
I don't have a nitrate test kit anymore, well one that isn't expired that is but the ammonia and nitrite levels have been super low even after I have been adding the recommended amount of ammonia and actually I have been adding a little more plus I actually have been adding in the brine shrimp hatchery "remains" once they hatch as well.
I plan to keep testing and dosing the next few days and if it stays this low according to the instructions I might have already cycled the tank. The instructions say to add X amount of ammonia that's over what 7'ish days dose (I have Dr Tim's ammonia as it was under $10) and if ammonia and nitrite levels are as low as they have been now it indicates tank is cycled.
Yeah I've done that before as well and I added cheato, live sand, some small snail shell rubble from current tank and a bag of carbon from the current tank plus I added frozen food cubes for 3 or 4 days and the tank has been running before I added the Dr Tim's for at least 2 weeks maybe longer.
I have not used Dr Tims, but I have use Fritz-Zyme Turbo start (3 tanks now) and added ammonia (some form that I got from Love the reef when I bought the tank). Kept measuring Ammonia and Nitrite till they were gone and then added small fish. Worked great. My neighbor did the same thing starting his tank. It takes a bit longer than a week depending how much ammonia you add but this is the only way I would start a tank again.
OP
OP
Well I finally had some more elevated ammonia levels but still not much so I added more ammonia!
For giggles I tested the water with a 4+ year old expired Red Sea kit I had kicking around and it didn't quite line up with the new Salifert kits
For giggles I tested the water with a 4+ year old expired Red Sea kit I had kicking around and it didn't quite line up with the new Salifert kits
