Is My Fishless Cycle Over?

[The Taffy Apple]

Bingo...!

Out of curiosity jamesmacc, do have a GH/KH test with your API kit? What i mean is, if you can find out the general hardness/softness of your water and it's buffering capacity, then that may be able to help you in working out how much coral sand you will need...as you have mentioned Cichlids i only presume you have a pretty big tank, therefore you may need more (or less)of this buffering coral than you may think (plus the fact that i know zilch about Cichlids, but one day..! )

Apologies if that seems a little too 'full-on' for this stage of your cycle, but changing from a bicarb 'bufferer' to a coral one was difficult for me (softest water in Wales, apparantly), especially when it came to choosing my fish.

Anyway, keep up the great work, lovely colour that 'Disney Blue', eh?

Terry.

 

[jamesmacc]

hi terry, i havent got a hardness kit but we do have very hard water in our area, we have to add extra salt to the dishwasher and add double washing powder because its so hard. i have bought 4 kg of it so hopefully its enough. if the worst comes to the worst i might have to use coral for the substrate too.
pics to come when fish are in.
cheers again, your all a credit to this forum
james

 

[The Taffy Apple]

hi terry, i havent got a hardness kit but we do have very hard water in our area, we have to add extra salt to the dishwasher and add double washing powder because its so hard. i have bought 4 kg of it so hopefully its enough. if the worst comes to the worst i might have to use coral for the substrate too.
pics to come when fish are in.
cheers again, your all a credit to this forum
james

Hmmm... , i always thought that PH crashes (those due to a low water buffering capacity and not high NitrAtes) were a sign of soft water... i didn't realise that hobbyists with hard water can suffer the same fate.

Best of luck with it though, keep us informed

Terry.