Soft Water?

[LionessN3cubs]

Im kicking myself in the butt today ...stupidity sucks. Yesterday when I replaced the old filter cartridge with a new one it never crossed my mind that I could have USED the old filter for seeding. I left it lay out for hours before it dawned on me that I could cut the fabric part off the plastic and stuff it in the filter so the bacteria could migrate. I did it as soon as I thought about it but by then it had laid out for 6-7 hours. It was still wet and stuff so maybe they didnt ALL die..but I doubt Im that lucky.

I'd added 3ml of ammonia after setting everything back up yesterday. This morning its barely moved so it looks like I am going to have to do a full cycle instead of a mini one I was hoping for.

So this morning I did the full out testing...including PH and hardness. The water coming out of my tap has 0 hardness and a ph of 7. The water in the tank has a ph of 7.6.

I'd forgotten from before...but what can I do to raise the hardness? I have some seashells here ...am I right in remembering that someone said those would raise the hardness?

 

[Colin_T]

shells will raise the pH and GH slowly. Dead coral skeleton and limestone rock will also do the same thing.
The quickest way to increase the GH is to buy some rift lake conditioner from your LFS. Then use that at about 1/3 to 1/2 strength. it will increase the GH and pH a bit, but will do it virtually straight away.

 

[OldMan47]

Your filter media will be fine Lioness. As long as it was still wet, most of the bacteria will have survived.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Your filter media will be fine Lioness. As long as it was still wet, most of the bacteria will have survived.

sadly I dont think it survived. I did all the changes on friday (or maybe it was thursday?), added ammonia ...and here it is almost tuesday and the ammonia level is still at 3.0 where I put it Although, since I've only had 1 fish in the tank for the last month maybe it just needs time to grow enough to handle that much ammonia...we'll see. I think I'll know by how long the cycling takes right?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your filter media will be fine Lioness. As long as it was still wet, most of the bacteria will have survived.

sadly I dont think it survived. I did all the changes on friday (or maybe it was thursday?), added ammonia ...and here it is almost tuesday and the ammonia level is still at 3.0 where I put it Although, since I've only had 1 fish in the tank for the last month maybe it just needs time to grow enough to handle that much ammonia...we'll see. I think I'll know by how long the cycling takes right?

Your one fish you have in there will produce no where near 3 ppm of ammonia, so I think that it will just take some time before your beneficial bacteria will colonize enough to process the higher level of ammonia.

-FHM