Dr tims timeline

[banjowalker]

I haven't found a forum that has a time line after using dr tims so I thought I would start one. I am almost 72 hours in, and my nitrites are still showing 0, but my ammonia has dropped significantly from 3ppm to .5 ppm within 48 hours. I have spoke with a fellow reefer that advised his did the exact same thing with Dr tims. Will keep this updated.

 

[banjowalker]

72 hours after adding dr tims.

 

[Potsy]

With dry rock, Dr. Tim's, and ammonia additive, my cycle took roughly a week with peak ammonia level of about 2 ppm. 50 gallon reef tank.

 

[banjowalker]

With dry rock, Dr. Tim's, and ammonia additive, my cycle took roughly a week with peak ammonia level of about 2 ppm. 50 gallon reef tank.

That Is why I am documenting it every step of the way. I am doing it exactly the same way you are. Did you dose ammonia daily?

 

[banjowalker]

added seachem reef buffer. Ph is looking much better

 

[00101]

I did something similar when starting. I put all my rock and sand in a bucket, filled it with salt water and a pump then dosed ammonia every day. Took maybe a week to grow enough bacteria to be able to process per day an equivalent amount of ammonia to 3ppm in my tank.

After that I just dumped the 3 or so gallons of water and put the rock and sand in the tank.

 

[banjowalker]

I did something similar when starting. I put all my rock and sand in a bucket, filled it with salt water and a pump then dosed ammonia every day. Took maybe a week to grow enough bacteria to be able to process per day an equivalent amount of ammonia to 3ppm in my tank.

After that I just dumped the 3 or so gallons of water and put the rock and sand in the tank.

That's an interesting way to do it haven't heard of doing that

 

[banjowalker]

Day 5. Excuse the ammonia. I was dosing with the Dr tims ammonia bottle and the cap came off and dumped 3/4 of the bottle in. Any suggestions on this? I have already done 30 gallons of water changes. Should I just let it go down naturally or keep doing water changes? Good news is the nitrites are still rising so the cycle is still working, just don't know how it will affect everything with the high ammonia

 

[maddmaxx]

normally you dont do water changes during a cycle...

 

[m0nkie]

Monitor it.. extreme high ammonia can stall a cycle. Dr. Tim said in that case, get ammonia down to remmended level with water change.. but if it is slowly going down, i would just leave it. You want your tank to be able to handle huge ammonia spike. The more it can handle, the safer you will be at stocking fish. Just takes a little longer to cycle

 

[m0nkie]

And stop adding buffers. It wont do you any good right now. Ph is irrelevant during cycle.

 

[banjowalker]

Trites are rising, hopefully the ammonia is continuing to fall. Day 7

 

[Potsy]

That Is why I am documenting it every step of the way. I am doing it exactly the same way you are. Did you dose ammonia daily?

No, I just got it up to that level and let the bacteria do the work. After all levels came down, I dosed a little more (about 1ppm) to see how quickly it would come down and it never registered with a test kit.

 

[banjowalker]

I'm at a loss for words. This is 2 days with no water changes or anything. The ammonia has dropped that much! Trites and trates are also rising. Maybe that much ammonia was a good thing

 

[Potsy]

-6 ppm of ammonia in two days. Yup, Dr. Tim's certainly works.

 

[banjowalker]

-6 ppm of ammonia in two days. Yup, Dr. Tim's certainly works.

That's what I'm thinkin exactly

 

[banjowalker]

Ammonia continues to drop. Trites and trates going up alot so the cycle is in full swing! Won't be long till my ammonia is a 0

 

[banjowalker]

And here's the trates test

 

[Devi]

I was excited to see this because I picked up a bottle of Tim's for my new tank, but I feel your experiment is now skewed because you added buffers and then did water changes. I feel if you would have left the cycle to continue without interference you would have gotten completely different results. Has anyone here used Tim's per instructions? If so can you PM me to let me know how it went? I am using all dry rock and live sand.

 

[banjowalker]

I was excited to see this because I picked up a bottle of Tim's for my new tank, but I feel your experiment is now skewed because you added buffers and then did water changes. I feel if you would have left the cycle to continue without interference you would have gotten completely different results. Has anyone here used Tim's per instructions? If so can you PM me to let me know how it went? I am using all dry rock and live sand.

I was referred this product by someone who has used it successfully on 2 tanks with dead rock and dead sand. He now has a thriving reef and he has never once had an ammonia, or nitrite spike to my knowledge. His tank is over a year old and he put fish in the day of I think. Even after adding buffer and doing water changes, this product works imho. It dropped my ammonia over 6ppm in two days and again in 2 more days. I believe this product works, though some may disagree