I did. You stated that "pH in and of itself isn't important".
And then you admitted it was. I don't discount the relationship between KH and pH but pH is indeed in and of itself important for nitrifying bacteria.
10g Aquarium won't cycle been 3+ months!
- Thread starter krpott
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And then you admitted it was. I don't discount the relationship between KH and pH but pH is indeed in and of itself important for nitrifying bacteria.
I agree, in my old house I had tap water that was lower than 6.0 and very soft, pretty sure KH was virtually non-existent. It was taking me forever to cycle my tank, in the end I added some baking soda to increase the pH and it cycled within days. The difference between me and OP though is that I had no fish in there, so the sudden jump in pH had no effect on the inhabitants.
That wasn't the take I took on what he said. I took his comment as the low pH is the reason the BB won't grow, but the low pH is being caused by the KH. So that's why he keeps suggesting the KH test kit, to figure out why the tank pH is lower than the tap water.
thank you for all of your advice, again, I'm soon going to get a gh/kh test kit.
I did a massive water change again today, took out fake decor, to see if that would get me some results and it did, finally...kind of...
3 hours after water change:
ammonia at around 5 ppm
ph at 6.4
I did a massive water change again today, took out fake decor, to see if that would get me some results and it did, finally...kind of...
3 hours after water change:
ammonia at around 5 ppm
ph at 6.4
toss in a few handfuls of crushed coral. that will buffer your kh and help raise the ph at the same time
That is exactly what I meant, and I thought it was pretty clear if you read all my posts in context.
The pH jump itself wouldn't be a problem; the problem is that the pH jump will cause the ammonium to become ammonia and poison the fish. If the OPer can get the ammonia level low first he can raise the pH quite quickly with no ill effects. "pH shock" is pretty much a myth.
