Recent content by Last Triumph

Thanks once again for your help. Out of interest, is there an established max level of ammonia that plants and the bacteria will tolerate - I read anything from 5-10, but there's a lot of conflicting info out there.

If I stop adding ammonia, how will the fishless nitrogen cycle complete from this very early stage before I'm any where near a nitrite spike?

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but whilst I'm discussing my water, I'm finding that my ammonia levels are returning to zero rather quickly during the early stage of my cycle. I've had the tank set up one week now (150 litres) and have been adding 5ml per day of BioSafe ammonia as...

Sorry, my bad - I meant bicarb soda, not baking soda. I was just curious why it keeps dropping, as it was a sudden and extreme pH drop that caught me out 25 years ago when I last kept fish and knew even less than today. I lost a load of fish due to me using rain water, thinking this was a good...

Out of interest, after adding some baking soda last night, I brought my KH back up to about 4.5dH. I have just checked it 24 hours later and it was back down to 2 again. Is it the ammonia levels causing the KH to reduce so quickly? I've added more back up to 5dH and wonder what is causing the...

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. My only concern was that if the tap water is PH 7.5 and settles in the tank to 6.5, that every water change might stress the fish as I'm reading that stability is the key? I'm in the UK so don't have access to water authority numbers.

Sorry, yes the readings just taken now are from the tank. Just tried them again and having now fully understood the instructions and conversion (I missed the conversion bit originally) my numbers are PH 6.5, KH 1, GH 6. From my original test (of settled tank water) 4 days ago, the numbers were...

Thanks - I've just tested the tank water again (4 days after the measurement taken above) at only got 1 drop, meaning I've got issues as my PH has dropped from 7.5 to 6.5 - I think I need to add baking soda to add a buffer? Would 5d KH be stable? I'm looking to keep Ruby Bards, Harlequins, Dwarf...

Hi all, New member here - I'm in the middle of setting up and fishless cycling me freshwater aquarium and am getting to grips with the various elements of water chemistry, but am struggling to interpret the results from my hardness test, as the info in the supplied kit is confusing - either...