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Buy Dr. Tims locally?


Willapa

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I've been to most stores in the Portland area and have never seen Tim's on the shelf. I used biospira which can be found. I get mine at CB's. I also use the seachem product and microbacter7. They all supposedly do the same but with different bacterias which I can't verify. When I get my 350 set up I am going to order Tim's to see if it's any better/different than biospira

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Colby, former owner of Pacific Island Aquatics, swears by Dr. Tim’s as above and beyond the rest. I’ve had mixed results with the Petco stuff and ordered Dr. Tim’s from Marine Depot. Haven’t seen it locally, but give Seahorse a call and check. They seem to stock a few things other places don’t. 

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Ok, thanks. I'm switching out my 55 frag with a 120 with the same footprint. The new 120 will sit on the same stand with same sump, fuge, etc. I'll be flopping over all livestock, rock, and corals within a few day period. Using Tim's was some cheap insurance in case I get a small cycle. I've heard lots of good things about Tim's so figured I'd try a bottle. I'll probably just do amazon prime 1 day pickup, but was worried about the cold weather. Seahorse doesn't stock it either.


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Tried stability and microbacter 7 before and nothing happened. With biospira, i get a nitrate spike and undetectable ammonia in just 3 hours. That stuff is amazing.  Never tried dr tim because it’s a lot more expensive than biospira
Just curious, Dr. Tavan, what's the difference in price, approximately?
Been meaning to order a bottle, as well.

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biospira on amazon is $9 for 8 oz. Always worked for me so I think their stock is fresh and arrives live. 

Dr Tim. people recommend ordering directly from their website because orders placed online including amazon might have old stock (some people reported it didn't work). Dr Tim is like $20 for 2 oz last time I checked. Not sure if it's more potent/concentrated or not. 

Edited by Manny Tavan
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I used Dr. Tim's ordered from Amazon back in April 2018.  It was $25 for 8oz.  I dosed ammonium chloride as prescribed and saw a nitrite spike as expected.  However, over the next several weeks nitirite remained high and I didn't see any increase in nitrate.  I later learned that my phosphates at zero was inhibiting the cycling process.  I was running my GFO reactor at full force because Pukani rock is known to leech a lot of phosphate and I wanted to avoid algae outbreaks. After turning down the GFO reactor to allow phosphates to increase a bit, I suddenly saw an increase in nitrates and a decrease in nitrites.  The cycling ended up taking 5 weeks for me, but I think it would have gone a lot faster if I wasn't sucking out all the phosphate while cycling.  Just keep this in mind.

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Used both Tims and the Bio and both work great.
I picked up the bio at Petco just make sure its not out of date.
You will need ammonia with either one.

Well, a few hours ago ordered bio spira on amazon prime next day pickup. Needed 2 bottles, but only 20 bucks. Had a lot of really good reviews on BRS. At least it won't have to sit on my front porch and will be in an amazon locker.

Do you think I'll have much of a cycle knowing that my existing sump (full of heated and circulated saltwater), some of my original tank water, and about 50 lbs of live rock is getting transferred directly over? Basically the only thing changing from a 3 year old system is the tank. Maybe I missed the boat on that. The bottle of bacteria was mainly just a safety net.

For adding ammonia, will my fish be enough?


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8 minutes ago, Willapa said:


Well, a few hours ago ordered bio spira on amazon prime next day pickup. Needed 2 bottles, but only 20 bucks. Had a lot of really good reviews on BRS. At least it won't have to sit on my front porch and will be in an amazon locker.

Do you think I'll have much of a cycle knowing that my existing sump (full of heated and circulated saltwater), some of my original tank water, and about 50 lbs of live rock is getting transferred directly over? Basically the only thing changing from a 3 year old system is the tank. Maybe I missed the boat on that. The bottle of bacteria was mainly just a safety net.

For adding ammonia, will my fish be enough?


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Since the bacteria lives primarily on the rock and in sand, your 50 lbs of rock being transferred will eliminate the need for any extra bacteria.  As long as the rock is moved quickly from tank to tank, you shouldn't see any signs of "cycling".  

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On 12/12/2018 at 10:04 AM, Willapa said:

Ok, thanks. I'm switching out my 55 frag with a 120 with the same footprint. The new 120 will sit on the same stand with same sump, fuge, etc. I'll be flopping over all livestock, rock, and corals within a few day period. Using Tim's was some cheap insurance in case I get a small cycle. I've heard lots of good things about Tim's so figured I'd try a bottle. I'll probably just do amazon prime 1 day pickup, but was worried about the cold weather. Seahorse doesn't stock it either.


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This is exciting news!  Good to hear all your coral will have some more room to grow 😀

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