One and Only vs dead rock

After getting frustrated with my first attempt with Dr. Tims and a lucky break (I shattered my tank - it really was lucky where it happened) I tore down my old tank and had a new one built for me. Knowing this product works and having a better grasp of the way to use it now I decided to try it again on my new build. All dead rock (brs ecorock) and dry sand. I'm doing fishless with ammonia purchased from Dr. Tims and his one and only bacteria. This was copied and pasted from my local club message board. There are a few of us using his product right now in different ways )some with LR some without) so it's kind of interesting to see it all happen with different methods.

Day 1: Dosed ammonia to between 1 and 2 PPM. Hard to tell exactly the color on API but I opted for the cautious approach and only added 8.5 milliliters (1 ml brings 20 gallons to 2ppm). I figured with rock/sand my tank probably holds 140 gallons and my sump operates at around 40 gallons for a total of 180 gallons. You DO NOT want to OD ammonia (I learned this the hard way) even when using bacteria. I dosed the ammonia, turned off my skimmer and left my returns and vortechs on. I then dosed the entire 16 ounces into the tank.


Day 2:

Ammonia .5
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 10

So my levels went down on ammonia and went up on nitrite and nitrate. That means all bacteria are present and accounted for! The directions say to add a half dose of ammonia on day two so I am going to add 4 ml and I'll retest tomorrow.

So far so good....


Day 3:

Ammonia .5
Nitrite 1
didn't test nitrate - doesn't matter yet. I know it's there so that's all that matters at this point.

After adding another roughly 1PPM of ammonia yesterday (half dose) I was brought back down to .5 today. I imagine I will be at zero tomorrow then it will be a waiting game for the nitrite consuming bacteria to catch up and convert the nitrite to nitrate. I also started my skimmer this morning per Dr. Tims recommendations.


Day 4:

Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 1


Day 5:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1

From what I understand the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate are slower growing than the ammonia to nitrite bacteria and I think that's what I'm seeing here. Hopefully I'll start seeing that nitrite fall soon...



Day 6:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite .5

If I'm at 0 nitrites tomorrow morning I'll dose ammonia to 2 ppm and all levels should be zero'd out again the next day (per directions).

I'm so close to being done!



Day 7:

I didn't test ammonia - I know it's 0
Nitrite - .25

One more day I guess....


So that's where I'm at today. Needless to say tomorrow should bring zero nitrites and then I'll add the full dose and hope it all zero's out by the next morning.

 

with how big your tank is you could've added a couple fish with the the dr tims instead of using the ammonia. I went against the recommendations and added a clown to my system (29g/10 sump) and it cycled in 4 days. I also used dry rock and sand. Its good stuff and I'll use it to cycle all my tanks in the future.

 

Good info. I've used Dr. Tim's products on numerous occasions. His "One & Only" and "ReFresh." Actually, just used One & Only on my most recent setup. A 125 that was setup on Saturday.

 

Thanks for the great write-up, I will be following. I am setting up a 36 gal bow with 15 gal sump (prob. 40 gal of water total) using ecorock and Marco's dead sand. My problem is that i read some disturbing news on Marco's fine sand and I may have to mix in some larger grain sand, prob. CaribSea, which is live sand so I'm not sure if that will affect the One and Only. I plan on starting with a fish instead of dosing ammonia. We'll see...

 

Day 7 roughly 12 hours after the morning test. I got excited so I tested the water...

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 2

Done!!! I'm going to dose 8 ml of ammonia and see if it gets consumed in 24 hours as advertised. I'm beyond excited!

 

I know I could have done it with fish but the problem is that the fish I have are $$$ and I'm not a fan of clowns. With this tank I am only going to keep fish I really like (wrasse/deep water anthias and a few tangs) so I decided to use ammonia.

 

24 hours post adding ammonia:

Ammonia .25
Nitrite .50

I cycled in 7 days as adverised but this dose is supposed to be converted in 24 hours so I'm lagging a little behind. I'll post up with my next test

 

Hey Beachbreak - thanks for posting your experiences. Your are progressing normally - about 6-7 days for the first dose to get to 0 and now that you have added the second dose that will take about 48-72 hours. The third dose will be done in 24 hours.

You could have probably dosed again on day 4 through 6 but what you are doing is fine.

All this depends on keeping the pH and alkalinity up at the right levels.


Cheers

DrTim

 

36 hours after 3rd and final ammonia dose:

ammonia - 0
Nitrite - .25

Almost done!