Leaderboard

Hi I thought I would share my experience in a product that's becoming more available in the Australian market. Dr Tims aquatics. When it comes to natural/non or low chemical content additives we always seem to shy away from the higher priced natural remedies and head towards a chemical solution in the belief "it works better"(well at least I always believed it does) A few aquarium suppliers also like to push there stocked products and big name brands like seachem, Azoo, API etc. (not saying they don't work some are brilliant products) but some products deserve more recognition specially products that continue to advance in every category. I recently purchased a new tank setup that included a 30cm cube aquarium, ADA Amazonia, Azoo mignon 360 HOB filters, UP aqua 30cm Z-lite and Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride and One & Only Nitrifying Bactria. Day 1 After setting it all up and flooding the tank with RO water I proceeded to add the recommended dose of Ammonium Chloride to achieve ammonia spike of 2ppm. I then added the entire 2oz bottle of the Nitrifying Bacteria. Day 2 Tested for ammonia it had dropped to 0.5ppm so added more Ammonium Chloride to achieve 2ppm My other parameters are as follows. NO2 0.5ppm NO3 0ppm TDS 100 Day 3 Tested again. Ammonia 0.5ppm NO2 2.0ppm NO3 10ppm TDS 100 Adjusted ammonia to 2ppm with Ammonium Chloride. Day 4 Ammonia 0.25ppm NO2 4.0ppm NO3 40ppm Did a 25% water change with remineralized RO water. Day 5 Ammonia 0ppm NO2 1ppm NO3 10ppm TDS 105 Did nothing Day 6 Ammonia still 0ppm NO2 0.5ppm NO3 5ppm TDS 105 Left it alone again Day 7 Ammonia still 0ppm NO2 0ppm NO3 5ppm TDS 105 Day 8 Ammonia 0ppm NO2 0ppm NO3 0ppm TDS 104 Tested for water quality as well. GH 3gdh KH 1gdh PH 6.5 No trace of Iron, phosphorus, copper etc. practically a perfect fully cycled aquarium. I decided to leave it for another week to make sure I wasn't getting any leaching of ammonia from the Amazonia substrate. Day 15 tests Ammonia still 0ppm NO2 0ppm NO3 0ppm TDS 105-106 (Pen couldn't make its mind up) PH 6.5 GH 3gdh KH 1gdh My tank was fully cycled in 8 day using a substrate renowned for leaching ammonia for sometime. By inducing the nitrogen cycle and adding real live bacteria to complete against the spikes has made patients in cycling aquariums a thing of the past. I will continue to monitor my water parameters over another week to make dead sure it doesn't show signs of ammonia but I am convinced from my years of planted aquariums and using ADA Amazonia substrate that ammonia at this stage should be cooking in the tank. Happy shrimping days have just gotten better. http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/freshwater-aquarium-products Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk