Fishless cycling with Dr. Tims

vucious

vucious

Member
If anyone here has done fishless cycling with Dr. Tims and ammonia chloride , please let me know how you did it and how long it took. According to his video, if I follow the steps below, the tank should be cycled in 4-6 days.

1. Added 1 drop per gallon of ammonia chloride and the whole bottle of Dr. Tims.
2. Wait 24 hours and test for ammonia and nitrite. If ammonia is close to 0, add another 1 drop per gallon of ammonia chloride. Else do nothing.
3. Repeat above step until you have added the ammonia chloride 3 times. At this point you should see ammonia and nitrite at 0.
4. Do a partial water change and add fish.

Thanks,
Vu
 
I've used Dr Tims a couple times and while it does help the cycle, don't take that to mean that you can immediately pack your tank with fish and corals. Just go slowly and you'll be fine.
 
i used Dr.tims and pure Ammonia in a tank with full dry rock and it took about 6 weeks to fully cycle.

I dont think dr tims works any wonders. i have heard success stories of it though ..
 
DD said:
I've used Dr Tims a couple times and while it does help the cycle, don't take that to mean that you can immediately pack your tank with fish and corals. Just go slowly and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

But that's how they do it on Tanked!!!! You mean I can't put 30 fish in one hour after I fill up the tank????
 
when transferring from my 72 to my 120 and having some LR in my 120 from my 72 I cycled in 4 or 5 days with Dr Tim's. I'm sure the live Rock helped.
 
Well, I added Dr. Tim's and first dosing of ammonia today. I will just follow the instructions on the website and slowly add livestock after ammonia and nitrite goes to 0.
 
Jep21 said:
after adding dr tims i usually wait 24-36 hours and then add fish and corals
Click to expand...

Jeff, I think you are doing fish cycle which doesn't require ammonia dosing. I'm trying to do fishless cycle since I haven't decided if i want to move my fish from biocube into this new tank or not.
 
vucious said:
Jeff, I think you are doing fish cycle which doesn't require ammonia dosing. I'm trying to do fishless cycle since I haven't decided if i want to move my fish from biocube into this new tank or not.
Click to expand...

oh ic yeah i didnt do amonia dosing i just used my dr tims to transfer my fish over since i moved
 
I started with all dry rock as well as sand, and it took about 4-5 weeks for the cycle to complete. When you add your ammonia raise it to like 3 ppm and the next day it should be all gone.. Then you'll know that your pretty much ready..
 
I'm presently doing a fishless cycle but instead of adding ammonia, I took 3 raw cocktail shrimp and put them in a small media bag in the sump. I did my last cycle this way and it worked great. This time I have a bottle of Dr Tim's that I want to add. Should I have added it from day 1 or wait until I have an ammonia spike and then add it?

(sorry to hijack Vu)
 
EricTheRed said:
I'm presently doing a fishless cycle but instead of adding ammonia, I took 3 raw cocktail shrimp and put them in a small media bag in the sump. I did my last cycle this way and it worked great. This time I have a bottle of Dr Tim's that I want to add. Should I have added it from day 1 or wait until I have an ammonia spike and then add it?

(sorry to hijack Vu)
Click to expand...

Eric, just from my own research, I think you should see ammonia of about 2ppm before adding Dr. Tims. The bacteria feed on ammonia so they may die off if it takes the dead shrimp a long time to decompose into ammonia. Just curious why did you decide to use the shrimp instead of dosing ammonia?
 
Last edited:
I used the shrimp because it worked very well for me the last time I did it. Never tried using ammonia. Somehow I like the idea of a decomposing sea creature :lol:
 
vucious said:
Eric, just from my own research, I think you should see ammonia of about 2ppm before adding Dr. Tims. The bacteria feed on ammonia so they may die off if it takes the dead shrimp a long time to decompose into ammonia. Just curious why did you decide to use the shrimp instead of dosing ammonia?
Click to expand...

I threw the shrimp in 7 days ago and both my ammonia and nitrite just tested at 2ppm. No nitrate reading yet. I poured in the Tim's. Thanks for the info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top