Fishless cycle PH question

[BaloonMolly]

Hello all,

I am fishless cycling a 36 gallon tank with pure amonia and Seachem's Stability. My amonia is starting to drop and my nitrates are rising, but my PH is suddenly very high.

Current readings are: Amonia about 1.5ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates about 3ppm, and PH is maxed out on the scale obove 8.8.

Funny thing is I tested PH yesterday and it was 7.6. I didn't even add amonia last night. Amonia was ablout 2ppm yesterday.

Will a PH that high stall the cycle? Should I try to lower it?

Thank you for any advice!

 

[Delapool]

It shouldn’t stall it but is weird to do that. I’d test your tap water to get a base reading and also make sure reading of tank is correct.

If you added any carbonate rock or did a water change, that might explain it, else reading seems a bit odd I think.

 

[BaloonMolly]

Well I just retested and the PH is down today (7.6). But amonia is still where it was yesterday (about 1.5ppm). My tap PH is 7.4.

I've read PH can bounce around a lot during a cycle so I'm guessing that's it.

Nitrites are at 0 and nitrates ticked up to about 4ppm.

Hopefully the amonia keeps starts falling again and I can get fish in there soon!

Thank you for the help!

 

[King Fisher]

You are in the middle of the cycle. Probably several weeks left.

 

[BaloonMolly]

Dang... I'm already 5 weeks in and getting impatient.

It's taking a lot longer than my 10 gallon took. And I seeded this tank with filter media from the 10 gallon. But I guess I'll keep waiting and keep planning my stock list. ��

 

[BaloonMolly]

BTW, this morning PH is up to 8.0, amonia is about 1ppm, and nitrates are about 5ppm.

I'm going to dose amonia to 2ppm this evening and keep waiting.

 

[King Fisher]

Try to be patient with it. You can dose up to 4 ppm ammonia.

 

[BaloonMolly]

3 weeks ago I used Tetra safe start (and been using seachem stability daily for the last 5 days). And I read Tetra Safe Start shouldn't get more than 2ppm when dosing with pure amonia (as their bacteria may die at 4ppm). That's why I haven't gone up to 4 ppm.

 

[King Fisher]

Ya I don't think so. I personally dose 2 ppm but there's a lot of people who dose 4 ppm and cycle tanks all the time.

 

[King Fisher]

I also have never used pure ammonia to cycle a tank but ammonia is ammonia.

 

[BaloonMolly]

Sounds good! I think my Tetra Safe Start was a dud anyway.

Thank you!

 

[Delapool]

Some are unfortunately.

Try to test ph at same time of day. Planted tanks can read differing ph levels depending on night or day for example. Generally tap water will off-gas to true ph by 24 hours out of pipe. And could change by say 0.5ph between 0 and 24hrs based off my tap water here.

After which, cycling tanks will consume carbonates which tends to lower ph over time. So probably actually a good news story for your tank that ph is pretty good still.

 

[BaloonMolly]

Quick update. The PH has stablized, and the cycle is going strong now. Hopefully just a few more days until I can get my fish in there.

2ppm of amonia bis going to 0ppm in 24 hours.

Nitrites are at 1ppm
Nitrates are at 20ppm.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Delapool]

Good news