Another Cycle Question

T

Tedzbug

AC Members
Aug 16, 2008
79
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0
Warren, Michigan
My cycle seemed like it was progressing ok, except my nitrites have not spiked.

It has been using around 10 ml of ammonia every 12 hours and back down to around .5 ppm for about 4-5 days now.

tonight when i tested it's only down to ammonia 2.5 ppm and nitrites are only around .25 ppm.........

did my cycle stall?
 
could be because my pH is down to 6.4 from 8.2 ???

i added a few rocks from the yard i cleaned real well this weekend, i knew better....... anxious. hope i didn't mess it up.

took them all out but the large quartz rock, it should be safe.
 
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If your pH dropped then that is probably what reduced your ammonia. Some of the extra hydrogen ions that make the water acidic will bond with the ammonia to make ammonium, reducing the amount you detect with your test kit. Increasing the pH rapidly again will cause an ammonia spike. What caused your pH to drop so much?
 
Low pH inhibits the bacterial action, which may have stalled your cycle. However, there are very few rocks (none that I can actually think of, but someone will) which lower pH; lots raise it but not lower it.

What's the KH in tap and tank? That's the most important attribute for understanding pH changes.
 
Tedzbug said:
Hardness.....correct? Why doesn't a master test kit come with them? Gotta go get those, i do not have them right now.
Click to expand...

The industry (and much of the hobby) labours under the misapprehension that pH is vitally important and GH and KH of marginal importance. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth; pH is of minor significance in and of itself; hardness of far greater significance.

What has happened is that high hardness is generally associated with high pH, and pH is what people measure. So they see a molly, say, doing fine in pH 8 water and looking decidedly ropey in pH 6. The evidence seems to suggest that mollies do well in alkaline water. Not so. If they'd done all the tests, they'd have found that the GH in the alkaline water was 450ppm. whilst in the acid water was 50ppm. In reality, it's the GH and associated high TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) which suited the fish. TDS affects the osmotic potential across the fish's skin and if this is compromised, the fish can either take on too much water through its skin or dehydrate. By comparison, pH just changes how much H+ the fish needs to take up through its gills to maintain alkaline blood and the evidence shows they adjust this very quickly - in minutes.

But I digress.
 
You could add sodium bicarbonate http://http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200405/msg00158.html

I would probably leave it alone though. Test it and go from there. Would be interesting to see your KH and GH levels. Many of us wish we had low PH water.
I would not worry about the rocks lowering the PH. Some rocks will raise PH and can be bad for water quality but none will lower it that I am aware of.
 
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