Going to try One And Only Nitrifying Bacteria by Dr Tim's Aquatics

[snakeklr]

I have set up a new 120g system. Added the dry LR and crushed coral, sand, subtrate. getting the temp up, salinity. I ordered the Dr Tim's one and only auto cycle stuff to do my system. I am curious if anyone on reef central has used it. My plan is 120g to add the one and only, 4 clowns, and a soft zoa to start the cycle. plan to test levels day before test. at test, day after test, and if needed continued till it leveled out. From the video i saw of it seemed nice easy way instead of waiting a month to two months for a cycle to finish.

 

[Anemone]

Why cycle with fish (and coral)? A piece of table shrimp will work just as well, and you don't risk killing the clowns. And depending upon the clowns, four clowns in a 120 is probably not a good idea either.

Kevin

 

[snakeklr]

The Dr Tim's needs amonia to start the bacteria. for a 30g it recomends 1 fish, for a 55 2 fish. so my math 120g 4 fish. I just thought i would try and add a soft coral to it to try that as well.

 

[Buzzword]

To me it just sounds like you are looking for short cuts and don't want to do it the right way or the way of patience, which is what this hobby is. You apparently don't do much research or you wouldn't have crushed coral in your tank, that is problems in the making, as well as trying to add 4 clowns. And if this snake oil actually worked wouldn't everyone use it? Please just use a piece of table shrimp and no fish as they do not need to be tortured while you cycle your tank.

 

[f3honda4me]

Dr Tim's does actually help cycle a little quicker if you aren't using existing LR or something to seed. I did a test with it and a few other things compared to nothing in my QTs and the dr time shaved about a week off the cycle.

But it's not going to do what the OP thinks. To the OP just use a shrimp and store bought ammonia to provide an ammonia source along with the dr tims. Don't add fish or coral during the cycle.

 

[gmate]

Snake oil, stuff barely does anything (if anything) at all. It's a product for the impatient and naive. Any veteran would know the best way to 'jump start' a cycle is use as much mature live rock as possible and be patient.

 

[dlp211]

Go to Ace Hardware. Get Ammonia, ($1.98), use the following link http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm to calculate how to get to 1.0ppm.

Voila, test daily until NH3 and NO2 go to 0, do water change.

 

[snakeklr]

Day 0 of "nuke" test
Ok did a test of the system

calcium over 520 ppm
Kh 214.8ppm
Phosphate 2.0ppm
Nitrate NO3 5.0ppm
Nitrite NO2 0ppm

I put the One and Only from Dr Tims in. 8 oz worth. Lol petsupplies.com sent them expired. Says best used by Jan 2012. way to go petsupplies.com! Figure the person that loaded the order would have seen that. So I called the customer service line, Not caried anymore. They can send a box to me for a return and get a store credit. BUT I had $$$ in fish floating in the tank ready for drip aclimation. So I hope the stuff works. LOL I pray.

I got 4 Ocellaris clowns, 2 Engineer Goby's, and Pet Warehouse donated a zoo frag for the test. He is curious how the "nuke" test works. Thank's You!

The fish seem to be happy. Drip aclimated and put in, all swiming around nice and happy. the seem to like the current. The Goby's went straight to the rocks, teh clowns out in the middle. I fed them some flakes to see if the would eat. all went straight for the food! nice.

So Day 0 seems to be good!

 

[suoirotoN]

Bro, take those poor fish out and do it the correct way. Patience is key in this hobby as everyone else will tell you.

 

[Reefahholic]

To me it just sounds like you are looking for short cuts and don't want to do it the right way or the way of patience, which is what this hobby is. You apparently don't do much research or you wouldn't have crushed coral in your tank, that is problems in the making, as well as trying to add 4 clowns. And if this snake oil actually worked wouldn't everyone use it? Please just use a piece of table shrimp and no fish as they do not need to be tortured while you cycle your tank.

A lot of people have used it and documented their progress until cycle was complete.

Dr. Tim has PHD and many people have had success. His bacteria is proven. It's not just some uneducated idiot running their mouth. There's documentation with black and white lettering. It's established. Check it out.

Just don't let it freeze or get over 110 degrees in shipping to your house.

 

[Reefahholic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPxExG-FbvI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mark has used it once and is about to use it again and will document for "the second time" with VIDEO along the entire 3-5 day process.

I think I'll use dr. Tims too. 3-5 days vs a month. Yeah...

 

[Reefahholic]

He also does huge public aquariums as well.

 

[snakeklr]

Well whatever is done is done. Let the test begin.

At least i didnt use a tang! )

 

[Reefahholic]

Good luck to you my friend! I hope it still works. Kinda sucks that they shipped it like that. I'm sure they knew. They just didn't want to lose their money and probably thought you wouldn't see the date on the bottle.

 

[mc-cro]

so, just to be clear, you set up the tank, water, fish, and Dr Tims all in the same day, or within a couple of days or so of each other.

fresh tank, dry rock, no sponge filters or anything from another tank, correct?

 

[davocean]

Just sad to see someone experimenting w/ animals like this.
I did some work for a company that wanted to "increase the market" thinking it would be neat to drop ship tanks, set them up, and have the new tank owners sitting on the couch staring at their new tank full of fish and corals that night.
I knew better, but I had to follow through for them.
I used 4 tanks exact same setup, 2w/ and 2 w/out Dr Tims, and I did this twice, and both times the tanks w/out Dr Tims actually cycled faster than the tanks we used it on(and ours was freshly shipped, not expired!LOL)
BTW, you do not need to make animals suffer to cycle a tank, and 4 clowns will become 2 or less if they had a chance to mature, but I don't think you are going to have to worry about that...:hmm2:

 

[Toddrtrex]

What are your plans for the clowns? Once a pair forms, they aren't going to take too kindly to the other 2. It can shocking how quickly things can turn South.

 

[snakeklr]

Well they survived the night. I came out and turned the lights on and the clows were hiding under a rock, zoo's were partialy open, i did my morning ritual stuff and came back out. All the fish were out swinging away, zoo's fully open.


they survived night #1! yaah!

 

[mc-cro]

I am thinking in a tank that size it will be closer to day 4 or 5 before normal ammonia levels would rise to toxic levels, so thats when the Dr. Tims will truly be put to the test.

 

[jerpa]

Just to play devils advocate how do you know if your success will be due to Dr. Tim's bacteria or not? Theoretically the nitrifying bacteria could already be present and catch up to your bioload with or without the supplement. People have cycled tanks with fish for years so I wouldn't consider your fish living to be a testament to the effectiveness of Dr. Tim's.

I guess time will tell whether this is the easy way, or the hard way.