Ph Crash

[Kaybear11]

All has been well in my fishless cycle for about a week (over 2 months in now) when I got the established filter media. Everything was processing fine and a day or two ago my ammonia stopped going to zero. It's actually not moved at all since I dosed it to 3 ppm.

I checked my ph and it had crashed. During the beginning of the cycle it was around 8.4 then went down to 7.4 which is what it is out of my tap, then it was 6.4 the other day. Did a huge water change (about 80-90%) to bring the nitrates down and ph back up.

Question is will the ph crash make my a bacs stop eating all together or even cause a die off? I just tested this morning and still no movement on the ammonia. I think I'm going to scream because my ammonia was gone in 12 hours and my nitrite was never more than 1 ppm in 12 hours. I was getting so close and now this, again I have been at this for over 2 months!

 

[StandbySetting]

A fluctuating PH isn't great, I suggest adding coral sand, just a small amount in a filter sock while the tank is cycling just to prevent it from getting too acidic.

 

[KittyKat]

Or a regular (before the pH actually crashes) dose of bicarbonate of soda.

 

[Kaybear11]

So my issue is because of the ph? Once it stabilizes then things should go back to normal right?