Adding Dr. Tim’s One and Only mid-cycle?

[Yomiiike]

Cycle has been going for awhile as “fish-in” and I switch to “fish-less” a few days ago after a PWC to control nitrites.

After dosing 2ppm ammonia yesterday my parameters are the following 24 hours later:

Ammonia: .25-.5ppm
Nitrite: 1-2ppm
Nitrate: 40-80ppm

I will be adding a bottle of Dr. Tim’s One and Only tomorrow along with the addition of a dual head sponge filter for another place for bacterial growth.

My question is, should I preform a partial water change before adding the One and Only as I suspect it will cause the Nitrates to shoot up even higher and I heard high Nitrates can impede the cycle?

Or should I just add it to the existing water and not worry about high Nitrates until the cycle is done?

Thank you!

 

[Azedenkae]

Honestly at this point I doubt Dr. Tim’s would really help - not that it would have helped regardless. I have significant doubts about the efficacy of Dr. Tim’s. Not that bottled bac products in general can’t work, just that out of 200 or so threads about it across forums I have visited, like one reported it working.

Regardless, you can add it if you like. You don’t need to do a water change. That level of nitrate won’t impact the cycle, even assuming it is true readings in the first place, as presence of nitrite can cause nitrate to read falsely higher than it really is (yes you read that right).

 

[Nickguy5467]

pretty sure its 2ppm of ammonia