PH crashed during cycle

andyscfc

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So I started a fishless cycle on Sunday (3 days ago) and seeded with gravel from old tank in mesh bag and also a bit of sponge from a sponge filter. I dosed 4ppm of Dr Tims Ammonia into a 130L tank 3 days ago.

My readings for the last 2 days are:
Ammonia: 4ppm
Nitrites: 0.25PPM
Nitrates: 5PPM
PH: 6 or less

My tap water has a PH or around 7-7.6.

Will this stall my cycle?

My other established tank has a PH of 7.6
 
For pH numbers the cycling article states -

"Besides the ammonia or nitrite, the bacteria need oxygen and inorganic carbon as well as a proper temperature. While they can survive from just above freezing to about 42C (108 F), they do best between about 75F and 85F. Lastly, the ammonia converting bacteria do not function as well the lower the pH gets. If your pH drops under 7.0, they start to slow their activity markedly and under 6.5, they slow dramatically and by about 6.0 they will appear to stop completely."


And also regarding the ammonia as noticed you have 4ppm ammonia -

"We strongly advise that fish keepers new to cycling do not exceed 3 ppm of ammonia. Too much ammonia and/or dosing it too often will usually work against the process rather than helping it."

So I would suggest you to do a 25% water change to reduce the ammonia to 3ppm and then retest the water parameters again, basically to double check those numbers.

 

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