Fishless Cycle - Need Advice or Reassurance

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Mikedbom

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 1, 2014
Messages
34
Hello,

I have a 55g tank that i've been cycling w/o fish. I started on July 20th, adding ammonia (from Ace) to 4ppm. Took a few weeks but I finally started to get a drop, got nitrites, and then finally got nitrates. pH was good throughout this period as well.

About 5 days ago, pH took a dive to 6 from about 7.8. I did a 60% water change to bring it back up. 2 days later is was done again. Another 60% change and things are good for now. Test results have been pretty stable throughout. I am able to dose ammonia to 4ppm and it is gone the next day. However, nitrites are still around 5ppm and nitrates remain around 10-20ppm. I have added a bit of fish flakes to help out but seem to be stuck at these numbers.

i've been following that awesome guide you guys have stickied here and almost became impatient once but then things finally started changing. It has been almost 2 weeks at these same numbers above with the exception of pH usually at 7.8. Temp is 82 ish. Been cycling 4ppm of ammonia daily but nitrites and nitrates not really moving.

other notes, i have black sand bottom, driftwood, and rocks. currently running two large air stones as well. tank is crystal clear but does seem to darken a bit ( i assume that is due to the driftwood). was going to put some live java fern in but wanted to wait for the cycle to finish.

any help would be appreciated. or just reassurance that i'm still on the right track. thank you.
 
Hi. My first step would be to check the Kh (carbonate hardness) of your water. If it's very low then you have no Ph buffering capacity and Ph can crash. Mine was at Zero and I raised it to 6 Deg using bicarbonate of Soda, a cheap and effective method. I add 2.5 ml bicarb to 10 litres of water to raise Kh by 6. This needs to be done with all new water at water changes. It does raise the Ph a little but is much more stable. Hope that's of some help.


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I'll go get a test kit and see what the results are. I read a bag of crushed coral can do the same thing and I almost tossed one in to see if it would help. Thanks for the reply.
 
KH came back at about 40ppm. i tossed a bag of crushed coral in my canister filter. Hope that helps.

any other suggestions or comments on the issue i'm having?

thanks.
 
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