My Fishless Cycle.

[Joinerlavin]

bump, Is there a thread to read about using bicarbs to raise the ph

 

[Miss Wiggle]

link in my sig called 'pH and KH' also a post from Rabbut in here about it although you'll need to wade through some other stuff to find it http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271706&hl=

 

[Joinerlavin]

cheers but wont my cycle complete if I do daily water changes?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it depends, would really like to know your KH before we can say with any certainty whats the best course of action.

seems like your pH is dropping fast enough to seriously slow up your cycle if not totally stall it, do keep on with the water changes for now but we may be able to get the cycle back up to speed and reduce the work for you fairly easily however you don't wanna go trying to muck around with the chemical levels in the tank without knowing what they are before and after your changes, it's just a recipie for diasaster as I'm sure you can imagine!!

 

[Joinerlavin]

yea im pretty stuck without the kh test kit, and I dont want to be guessing and putting stuff in the tank. The bacteria what I have built up to this point now thoe, will they start dying in low ph or will they just stay the same?? Dont want to loose what I have built up.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

they kind of go inert at first, like they;re in a coma or something, then they will die off eventually, however daily water changes will keep them alive for now, may be set back a day or two when it's stabilised but shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Joinerlavin]

bump

 

[Miss Wiggle]

getting there then, just got to wait for the nitrite to get down to 0 in 12 hrs, is the pH stabilising itself a little?

 

[Joinerlavin]

it seems like it, because it used to be dropping from 7.6 to about 6.6 when I first spotted the drop, now after a couple of water changes and keeping an eye on it, its only seems to be dropping to around 7 and staying around that area, will keep an eye on it thoe.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good, yeah just keep an eye on it, this is why we don't launch into KH and baking soda stuff straight away, sometimes a few days of waterchanges will control it.

 

[Joinerlavin]

bump, looks like the ph might be staying around 7 now, will check results 12 hours at 9.30 tonite.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

excellent, don't get complacent though, keep checking it!

so how many hours does it take for ammonia and nitrite to both get down to 0 now then?

 

[Joinerlavin]

I have only been checking it every so often at 12 hour intervals sometimes I cant check it because I sleep at the girlfriends, and its allways 0ppm ammonia and 1ppm nitrite, so I dont how long after that it takes to remove the 1ppm of nitrite.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah fair enough, it's not important to know exactly when it's doing. just a nice to know!

 

[Joinerlavin]

finally a good drop of nitrite, down to bit less than 0.25 now in 12 hours and ph is staying above 7