Going on about 4 weeks since I set my 29-gallon tank up. Having had many tanks in the past, I knew that I was going with the fish-less cycling method again. I don't have any other tanks at the moment, so I started from scratch.
After about a week the ammonia levels started to come down some, and after a couple weeks, they were down to about .25 ppm in a 24-hour period. Last week they started dropping down to 0 ppm in a 24-hour period, and within the last 3-5 days they started dropping to 0 ppm overnight (i.e., dosing back to 4 ppm in the AM and the PM).
Yesterday I tested in the AM and, along with the expected ammonia reading of 0 ppm, nitrites were almost non-existent (finally...). I also noticed that my pH had fallen significantly (from about 7.4 to about 6.4). I've read on the ridiculously long fish-less cycling thread that since there aren't fish in the tank, using chemicals to help regulate pH at this point is OK. So, I headed to my LFS and picked up some pH regulator (for 7.0 pH) and followed the directions to dose my tank. I did clarify that it didn't have any other properties (e.g., water conditioner, etc.) because a couple of the brands I looked at either removed chlorine/chloramine/etc. or also detoxified ammonia. I tested the water about 1.5 hours later and pH hadn't moved at all. So, wanting to avoid a pH crash I decided on a 50% water change.
I did the 50% water change, let the tank run for about 45 minutes, tested the water and dosed ammonia back up to 4 ppm. By the way, pH had returned to about 7.2. Tested the tank this morning and - no surprise - ammonia was back to 0 ppm. Curiously, nitrites were reading high...about 5. I figured this was just a result of the large water change...not sure what else could've caused the setback.
With these test results, I dosed the tank back to 4 ppm for ammonia and immediately the water clouded up. It's about an hour later and the water is still cloudy. Not milky by any means, but cloudy. I have never experienced this in the past when fish-less cycling a tank; i.e., the water gets cloudy immediately after adding ammonia. I'm using the Ace Hardware 100% pure ammonia, by the way. Any advice/help??
After about a week the ammonia levels started to come down some, and after a couple weeks, they were down to about .25 ppm in a 24-hour period. Last week they started dropping down to 0 ppm in a 24-hour period, and within the last 3-5 days they started dropping to 0 ppm overnight (i.e., dosing back to 4 ppm in the AM and the PM).
Yesterday I tested in the AM and, along with the expected ammonia reading of 0 ppm, nitrites were almost non-existent (finally...). I also noticed that my pH had fallen significantly (from about 7.4 to about 6.4). I've read on the ridiculously long fish-less cycling thread that since there aren't fish in the tank, using chemicals to help regulate pH at this point is OK. So, I headed to my LFS and picked up some pH regulator (for 7.0 pH) and followed the directions to dose my tank. I did clarify that it didn't have any other properties (e.g., water conditioner, etc.) because a couple of the brands I looked at either removed chlorine/chloramine/etc. or also detoxified ammonia. I tested the water about 1.5 hours later and pH hadn't moved at all. So, wanting to avoid a pH crash I decided on a 50% water change.
I did the 50% water change, let the tank run for about 45 minutes, tested the water and dosed ammonia back up to 4 ppm. By the way, pH had returned to about 7.2. Tested the tank this morning and - no surprise - ammonia was back to 0 ppm. Curiously, nitrites were reading high...about 5. I figured this was just a result of the large water change...not sure what else could've caused the setback.
With these test results, I dosed the tank back to 4 ppm for ammonia and immediately the water clouded up. It's about an hour later and the water is still cloudy. Not milky by any means, but cloudy. I have never experienced this in the past when fish-less cycling a tank; i.e., the water gets cloudy immediately after adding ammonia. I'm using the Ace Hardware 100% pure ammonia, by the way. Any advice/help??
