OOPS, Stalled my cycle. Easy Fix.

[jarrod0987]

Been cycling my new tank for the up coming experiments and I noticed the cycle kind of stalled out on me.
Knowing that nitrification consumes alkalinity it occurred to me I might have run the KH into the ground. Only been a few days.
Checked my pH and sure enough. 6.4 Yikes. Good thing there is no fish in here yet
Added a pinch of baking soda and going to look for my stash of crushed coral to add to the filter.
I wonder how many cycles have stalled out due to folks not knowing about the relationship of alkalinity to nitrifying bacteria.

(Fish-less cycling BTW)

 

[bullyboy]

Good advice

 

[jarrod0987]

Good advice

Your Welcome.


BTW I should mention that water changes would have fixed this but would have probably taken 3x 50 % over a day or 2 if there were fish.
1x 100% seen as how there is not. But it would have only lasted a few days then back in the same boat again.Does not sound like much fun to me.

 

[rockeyemma19]

Do you know the chemical process that happens when kh is consumed by nitrite/nitrate? I'd be interested to learn more about that

 

[jarrod0987]

Do you know the chemical process that happens when kh is consumed by nitrite/nitrate? I'd be interested to learn more about that

I know quite a bit about it but not easy to type here.

It's not consumed by the nitrate and such. What really happens is that the bacteria that turn ammonia into nitrite then nitrate make a lot of acid. That acid needs to be nutralized and that is what KH is/does.

Try this http://waterfacts.net/Treatment/Activated_Sludge/Nitrification/nitrification.html

Diana Walstad has an awesome section in her book called The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. I think the digital version is 4$ and covers both nitrification and denitrification. These processes are well known to water treatment and environmental folks. However, the average aquarist only understands ammonia turns into nitrate. There is way more going on and way more possible if you set it up right. So much to talk about. Feel free to pm me if you wish to discuss things more in depth. Trying not to let the thread get to scary ;D