10g Aquarium won't cycle been 3+ months!

Life is acidic. Pretty much all biological processes generate acidic by-products.
 
so, ph isn't important it's the kh? I think that one of the decorations or something in my tank is causing the ph to drop because my 2.5 gallon tank (same water put in for water changes) shows signs it is cycling: nitrates nitrites ph at 7.
 
As I said earlier, I had an ornament in my tank and I was also having ammonia problems... bought it at the local low cost chain store that also has a pet department. You get to guess which chain it was. It was the only thing in the tank other than water and two fish. I am tossing it, as I think it was adding to my ammonia level somehow. As I said, I can not prove this, and I was not going to use it again to see if it would repeat the high ammonia. It isn't worth that to me, however, now I am really getting curious about that. I may have to run a test to see what happens.

I'd try removing your decorations. It isn't going to hurt anything, and it just might help. Please turn them upside down and give them the sniff test. I'd love to know if they smell strongly of fresh plastic resins.

Now you have me really curious about the above. When I get my big tank set up and the fish moved, I will give that darn decoration the big test in my smaller tank by setting it up for a new cycle, and report my findings. It will be after the first of the year before there is anything to report.

Gold Fin
 
thank you, gold fin, this might be a challenges because I have quite a few decorations therefor many possible suspects. :/

one house/cave-like thing, a plastic plant, some ornamental plastic seashells, glass seashells, and some ornamental large-ish rocks.

I heard that decorations were good because they provide surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to live on, but if they're lowering the ph then... that doesn't matter. The water that goes into the tank is 7.6 ph, so I must be one of the decorations I guess. But my other tank has almost the same exact decor and it's ph is perfect, so hmmm.
 
Lord whatever happened to rocks wood and live plants? LOL the only plastic in my tanks is the filter tubes.
 
yeah, thinking about taking everything out that's not found in nature.

after the 5th water change...... ph still 6. ammonia still 8ppm but a lighter shade of green but still in the 8 color zone. geesh
 
pH is important for the cycling process, but it being low is caused by (usually) low KH. That's why I would advise obtaining a KH test kit from somewhere.
 
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