Dr. Tim's Live Nitrifying Bacteria

[LarryS]

Mark Callahan (Mr. Saltwater Tank) has tested this, made a video from an in-depth interview with Timothy A. Hovanec, PhD Cycling a Saltwater Aquariumand I've seen references in the forum to Dr. Tim's products, but cannot locate anyone who has first-hand experience with this product.





And, several have had no and/or negative results with other brands.

Anyone here ever used the Dr. Tim's Live Nitrifying Bacteria?

 

[mr_X]

I haven't used it, but i don't see the draw. the test is done with 2 clowns in a 130 gallon tank. how much ammonia are they going to produce? i don't think ammonia will show up on the test kit with or without the bottle of stuff.
secondly, dr tim says that you have to have the "aquarium bacteria". the other bacteria that comes from waste treatment plants is the wrong kind.
so, almost everyone i ever met is keeping successful tanks with the wrong bacteria?
he says that as soon as you add the bacteria, you need to add a fish to feed the bacteria. why doesn't the bacteria need food when it's in the bottle?

 

[herp_mommy]

I tried this brand, figuring it couldn't hurt. I was three weeks into a shrimp cycle when I added the entire bottle, a week later my readings were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20 nitrates. I'm still testing to see if the ammonia goes back up. but, so far so good.

 

[LarryS]

I tried this brand, figuring it couldn't hurt. I was three weeks into a shrimp cycle when I added the entire bottle, a week later my readings were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20 nitrates. I'm still testing to see if the ammonia goes back up. but, so far so good.

Very curious why you added it 3-weeks into the cycle? Was there an issue in your cycle that made you think something wasn't going according to plan?

Would love to hear from others: perhaps you've done the same and wanted to speed up the cycle? Or, used it from day one with or without the addition of livestock?

 

[LarryS]

I haven't used it, but i don't see the draw. the test is done with 2 clowns in a 130 gallon tank. how much ammonia are they going to produce? i don't think ammonia will show up on the test kit with or without the bottle of stuff.

The draw would be a significantly faster cycle and a cycle where keeper livestock could be added from day one and without harm. Not that there aren't other ways. Alternatively, in smaller tanks as Mark Callahan recommends toward the end of the video "tanks 90 or above" with livestock and tanks smaller to use dead shrimp or whatever.

So not sure a low ammonia spike is an issue.

In my case, cycling a 65g I'm currently working only with dry live Pukani and dry special grade reef sand. I've not added anything else: no dead shrimp, etc. Please see my album: Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - LarryS's Albums
The cycle seems to be doing fine... and yet the ammonia spike was very low (1 ppm) which had me wonder. Yet, the nitrites went off the scale.

That all said, I am a newb. My experience with low ammonia had me doing more research when I came across Dr. Tim and M. Callahan.

Enough questions were raised by my observations of my cycle that I thought this would be an interesting and an informative thread for me to learn more... to hear from fish only and reefers who've actually used the product.

Would love to hear from more of you guys.

 

[bootz]

its just another one of those cycle faster products that are made for people not willing to take the time to cycle their tank. It seems if they multiple by the day. Anyways dude i had dry rock and dry sand i dosed my tank daily for with pure ammonia and that was a months worth of work to cycle the tank. Most of these products offer a faster & easier way to cycle but the cycle they offer is most likely false. This can lead to many problems down the road. Just do it the old fashion way

 

[LarryS]

Anyone else have first-hand knowledge of Dr. Tim's product?

 

[LarryS]

bump for anyone with experience with the product Thanks!