Blackwater cycling

[galeslasher]

Hello, shorter post today
I'm curious if there's a good way to measure if a very acidic blackwater tank is appropriately cycled considering ammonia tests do not work well under these conditions? It is my understanding that drop tests raise the pH considerably and will give a falsely high ammonia reading (also they test for the wrong type of ammonia iirc?)

Is it reliable to just stick to checking nitrite and nitrate measurements to get a good idea when a blackwater tank is cycled? Or do those drops have similar issues? TIA! Learning every day

 

[Rusty_Shackleford40 155]

I think you're the victim of misinformation.
I've never heard anyone ever mention drop tests raising the pH of the water to be tested. A majority of fish keepers worldwide use the API test kit, certainly rising the pH would be a known fact.
The ammonia test will measure all ammonia and ammonium. At a low pH ammonia is far less toxic and shouldn't be a concern. Your concern at a low pH would be Nitrite which is more dangerous at a low pH. Especially since 1ppm of ammonia converts to 2.7ppm of Nitrite.

 

[anewbie]

The only problem with measuring ammonia is if you have a lot of tannis - while blackwter aquariums can have tannis it is not a requirement and certainly you could hold off on it while you cycle the tank.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford40 155]

The only problem with measuring ammonia is if you have a lot of tannis - while blackwter aquariums can have tannis it is not a requirement and certainly you could hold off on it while you cycle the tank.

Yeah I can see how a lot of tannins would skew the color of the test.