KH too low?

[Miaa]

Right, been trying to cycle tank for over two months, started early june. Still have no joy with it.

Tried fishless cycling for a month of it, thought all was going well, ammonia dropping and stuff but then it just stalled and my pH plummeted.

So I did a huge water change to bring ammonia to 0 and added four corys. Now a month later, with god knows how many water changes, my pH keeps plummeting.

My tap water sitting is 7. My tank keeps fluctuating around 6.2-6.8 (god knows how cory's survived). Feel terrible for them. I'm keeping ammonia between 0-0.25 at most much to my exhaustion.

I tried bacteria bottles ... changed from tetra water conditioner to Prime ... monitored all my levels with the API test kit. Have 10 live plants and sand as substrate. I have bogwood and thought that was the problem? As it lowers pH? I took it out for a week, made no difference.

So now I've been scratching my head as to what's stalling me and I think it's the buffers in my water? Not entirely sure but through my many searches I came across the fact that hardness, if too low can stall cycling as it directly relates to ph too?

So I apologise for the long winded post but I'm explaining all this to ask if adding a sea shell to my tank will help?

Would it finish off my poor corys?

And my hardness is 2.53.

 

[tiger terror]

Are you able to get a hold of some seeded filter fabric? Also are you adding the prime directly to the tank or pre treating the water before you add to tank?

 

[jlk]

It sounds like you may have water thats very soft. A single sea shell will not be of much help but you should try adding a mesh bag/piece of pantyhose of crushed seashells, crushed coral, argonite or cr limestone to your filter. You didnt mention the tank size but generally start with 1 tablespoon if its small (10g or less) or 2 tbsp if its larger (20-40g), etc. Do thi after a big water change. Then monitor your ph daily. If it stays stable, you have a good amount. If it drops again, do another wc & add another spoonful. If it increases alot (beyond 7), wc and remove some. Its a bit of a guessing game to figure out an exact amount to reach stability but you should be able to in a few days. Heres some info on water chemistry as it relates to ph, kh & gh so this all makes some more sense.

Water Chemistry: pH, GH and KH What are they all? - Scott Thomson
Aquarium Chemistry; Calcium, KH, GH, pH, Electrolytes, Magnesium, Mineral Ions, Cations

 

[Miaa]

Unfortunately, can't get my hands on seeded filter fabric. Adding prime to water before it goes in the tank.

Very informative! It's 20g roughly.

Didn't want to crush my pretty seashells haha but oh well, will get out the pestle 'n' mortar.
Thanks a lot for that.

 

[jlk]

Just place the cr shells in a piece of clean (no soap) pantyhose or a mesh bag & place it in your filter. Keep us posted on how everything goes! I think once your kh/ph are stable, your tank should finish cycling pretty quickly.

 

[Miaa]

Just wanted to say, added the shells shortly after posting on here and my tank's cycling again (getting there!) and now doing much less water changes because ammonia's staying at .25 or less which is great (no idea what nitrites are though which is worrying as the bottles went missing when i moved house) and nitrates are reading 20ppm today which I've never seen all through cycling it.
Hopefully past the whole 1 or 2 water changes a day as I'm a weakling lol.

Just wanted to say thanks for tips.

I've never felt keeping pets was like a huge chemistry lesson.
I'm starting to wish I'd paid more attention in that class.