Ph! And A Few Other Things

[methodmza_uk]

Hi guys
I am coming to the end of my fishless cycle
Ammonia is takin about 18 hrs to get from 4ppm to 0ppm so not long now.
Nitrite and Nitrate are through the roof.
BUT the ph is really low. like below 6.4 on my chart.
Is this just because of the cycling process. Will it jump back up when its complete?

As the nitrates r quite high can i add plants now? I put sum in at the start of it all and they just died, but i think the idiot at the LFS gave me plants that were not suitable

Many thanks

 

[@ombomb]

I put sum in at the start of it all and they just died, but i think the idiot at the LFS gave me plants that were not suitable

...well some idiot bought them.

You should be OK to add plants now, but personally I would wait until the tank is fully cycled (i.e. Nitrites are 0).

The amonia levels in the tank will mean a lower than normal pH, but 6.4 should be fine anyway, but what is the pH from your tap?

What lighting do you have?

What plants did you add?

 

[methodmza_uk]

EH im not an idiot!!
You expect a guy who works in a fish shop to know what hes on a bout. These plants were near all the coldwater fish, goldfish etc. And there was a sign sayin tropical plants blah blah. I said to him are these suitable for my tropical tank. He said yeh they shud be mate.
So i bought them off him. Only cost £6 for 4 so its not bad.

The ph in my tap is about 7ish maybe a touch higher, cant remember was weeks ago when i tested that.
I got a tropical kit and it came with a single flourencent light
I probably reckon i need low lighting plants as its not mega bright.

No idea what the plants were, i can describe them tho.
I bought 3 which looked really furry and soft. 2 green and one dark red/brown. The other looked like a sumthin from my back garden. Had proper leaves on it, was only small and dark red/brown too. No idea what they were

 

[@ombomb]

Well without a picutre, who knows, but anything with red / brown leaves will generally need very high light levels. Have a look for low light plants like anubias or java fern. Worth having a look here www.plantgeek.net and remember that people who work in shops are there to seel you things. You need to do your own research before you buy, especially when it comes to adding fish.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I would be inclined to be less harsh here, remembering what an idiot I always feel when I go to buy plants. Can't see a thing in the tank, nothing is clearly labelled, the shop people have no idea what they've got in there, and it can actually be quite difficult to recognise the thing lurking at a bottom of a tank as the same as in the often-not-very-clear-picture you've studied beforehand. At least if you're not a botanist. Not all shops are very good on plants, not all shops have such a selection that you can decide beforehand what you're going to get.

 

[@ombomb]

Fair point.

 

[methodmza_uk]

Cool thanks guys, will check all that stuff out about low light plants

Any ideas about my PH tho? will it rise after the cycle is over

 

[fishing4exotics]

Cool thanks guys, will check all that stuff out about low light plants

Any ideas about my PH tho? will it rise after the cycle is over

It all depends on the pH from the tap, what your decor is, and how much organic matter is decaying in your tank. Keep checking your pH and see what it levels off to. Check the pH of your tap water. If you have corals, coral sand, limestone, or oyster shells they will all buffer your pH close to 8.0. If you have peat in your filter, some types of driftwood, or excess dead organic matter in your tank you will have pH below 7.0.

 

[methodmza_uk]

aaaah ok. i didnt know that.
My tap ph is around 7
My tank ph at the moment is about 6 i would say.
I have got 2 small pieces of bog wood in my tank which were soaked before puttin in, i also had plants in their which died, so there is probably bits of dead plants floatin about.
Hopefully when the cycle is finished it should rise a bit.
Have to buy sum stuff to put in it otherwise, any ideas on types of ph products???

 

[@ombomb]

A pH of 6 is fine for the the vast majority of aquarium fish, just make sure you give them plenty of time to aclimatise. Using chemicals to try and adjust your water chemistry is potentially very harmful to the fish and should really be avoided. If you desperately want to up the pH (for keeping African Cichlids for example) using crushed coral as a substrate is a much safer way of doing it.

 

[methodmza_uk]

Ah rite, thats great then. Not gonna be keeping Cichlids at all anyway. Ill see how it goes and make sure its sorted for my fish!!

Thanks a lot for your help