Stocking Tank

[redevilman]

 

[waterdrop]

The nitrates don't look unusual to me, for the end of fishless cycling. 5ppm ammonia x2.7 = 13.5ppm nitrite and then the 13.5 nitrites get multiplied by some factor again to create even more nitrate and that's only one day.

The big KH drop from tap to tank measure though seems too big for just the fishless and the bogwood to explain, so I guess we don't know. There is a remote chance the KH kit is bad but that seems unlikely since its giving a different reading for tap and a reading that seems plausible. I believe you said the KH kit was from API also? Oh well, who knows, maybe we'll eventually figure it out and since your pH is not going down it so far doesn't seem to be doing anything negative.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I see what Waterdrop and yourself mean now..... very strange. Is that as high as you nitrate test kit measures? Try doubling the sample, add the drops and measure the KH, then half the value

I'd 90-100% waterchange, and monitor it over a few days... It could be that the KH was lower out of the tap when you started the cycle, and has since risen, making it apear that KH in the tank has dropped considerable....

All the best
Rabbut

certainly a possibility, never trust your water to be the same from one week to another, a lot of things can change day to day based on when the water company do maintenance, when equipment needs to be serviced/replaced etc etc. There are all sorts of fluctuations from day to day, entirley possible that the first result was a fluke.

 

[redevilman]

Their was a hell of a lot of rain here yesterday what am i saying it rains here all the time lol that
maybe explains it who knows

 

[waterdrop]

O yes, you're right, rain can present various challanges to a water authority and also there can be a delayed effect of the rain or of what they did to react to it! One of any number of factors they deal with.

 

[redevilman]

After the water change on wednesday kh 9. tested yesterday kh 8. this morning kh 7. the tap water kh 10. the ph has dropped to 7.6 from 7.8. So kh is lowering each day is this normal and if not will it cause a problem with fish.

 

[waterdrop]

There are still not fish in there, right? The fishless cycle process produces acids. KH, known as temporary hardness, refers to the carbonates in the water which can combine and neutralize some of the acid, referred to as "buffering." As you fishless cycle the acids form and use up your carbonate buffer, so your KH drops are showing you that. Because you have a lot of buffering, your pH has stayed relatively stable, despite the addition of a lot of acid. Once KH gets down to below 3, you would have to react in order to have time to keep pH from crashing (at 6.2, cycle stalls, 6.0 it stops, 5.5 bacteria get killed (oversimplification..))

NONE of this has anything to do with when you have fish. After your last big water change you will no longer be squirting in tons of ammonia, thus you won't be driving the KH and pH down!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[redevilman]

 

[waterdrop]

is the little man happy or confused, lol