Spoke To Soon

[Bugsvile]

I previousley spoke of my first double 0's on my new tank, i checked the Ph and Nitrate levels this morning and my Ph which is notmally an 8.2 was down to 7.4 and Nitrate was a very dark red.

Should i do a water change this evening as my Nitrite has gone to a 1ppm for the last couple of days or should i just leave it?

Ammonia has been at a 0ppm for the last 2 weeks, this is my 4th week of the cycle and i have not done a water change since i had my tank.

 

[OldMan47]

You have now started the cycle and need to do a huge water change. Now that you are into the beginning of the nitrite spike, you will find daily 50% water changes may be just barely enough. Your nitrite level is 4 times what you ever should allow in a tank holding fish.

 

[Bugsvile]

Sorry OM47 crossed wires here i think, this is the second tank i have, going through the fishless cycle so no fish involved, i do hope 50% water changes are not neccesary as its a blooming huge tank.

 

[fatheadminnow]

If you are doing a fishless cycle in your second tank, then no water change is necessary unless you have a pH crash or something. If your pH drops down to 6.5 or below, you need to take action to raise it, as a pH that low will stall your cycle.

pH is prone to fluctuations during a cycle, so no need to worry too much right now.

-FHM

 

[Bugsvile]

Thanks for the reply, i will keep an eye out, i was a bit discouraged to see it coming along so well then to see the Nitrite levels coming back again.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with FHM's advice. What day of fishless cycling were you on?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bugsvile]

Well I cant say as i have not been counting exactly, but i must be at least on day 27, i was using some donated media from the wife's tank which sped the process of the ammonia being on 0's for a couple of weeks now, the Nitrite was stuck as normal and then seemed to be catching up. The other day i posted that i had got my first double 0's of Nitrite and ammonia, this then turned to dismay when my Nitrite was not proccesing as before and has stayed at around 1ppm for the last 4 days.

As i had said earlier, my Ph level has gone from an 8.2 down to a 7.4 (more like 7.2 since yesterday) in a matter of a day.

This concerned me so that is why i posted. So because of the large drop i was wondering if i should do a water change to try to bring the Ph back in line with the ideal and what it was before.

 

[waterdrop]

From your description it sounds like you are past the nitrite spike phase and into the 3rd phase waiting for 12-hour dropping speed. In the third phase I feel like there's nothing wrong with doing a large water change, especially when things change and seem to stick. The way to do it is the make it as big as possible, gravel cleaning deeply to stir out any nitrogen compounds and taking out all the water down to the substrate level where you lose siphon. Then refill with 1.5 to 2x conditioner and rough temp matching and finally, recharge your ammonia and be sure your heater is back on, like your filter. Given your tap pH, this should put you back up closer to the ideal 8 to 8.4, but just the fact that its higher will help some.

One of the variations we see in the third phase can probably be explained by the differences in KH of each person's tank. By the third phase, lots of ammonia is being processed into lots of nitrate(NO3) with more nitric acid as a result and therefor even the higher KH tanks will see their buffer being eaten away. Depending on how much effective KH they had, the pH may drop fairly rapidly and slow the nitrification process.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bugsvile]

Thanks WD, i will leave it a couple of days and see if there is any further drop in the Nitrite, if still no joy i think i will try the large water change, guess it cant do any harm as the bacteria seem to be coping ok with what i am giving them.

Wish i could do it tonight but i promised the wife i would take her out, that is one large fish i dare not make angry