Problem with my fishless cycle

[Coyote251]

I have been fishless cycling my 25g tank for the past few weeks. I reached the point where my ammonia levels were dropping from 4-5ppm to 0.1(or whatever the lowest level is on the scale) in about 24hrs. I had tons of nitrites and nitrates. They were off my scale. So I did a 60% water change and continued to monitor the level. Ph had been stable all the time. Then the ph dropped drastically overnight. I did a major water change and continued to dose my tank. The first time the ph dropped was last Friday and I have had to do a water change every day since because every morning when I check the levels the ph has dropped from 7 -7.5 to 5 or below. Is this normal? What can I do to help stabilize the ph? I am planning on keeping cichlids in this tank, would cichlid water conditioner help raise the ph and stabilize it? I have checked the ph of the water I am using after adding Prime and it is always 7-7.5. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thankfully I have a well, I would hate to see my water bill if I had to pay for all these water changes!

 

[jlk]

Hi! I would drop your amm dose back down to 2ppm for now & add either some crushed coral or argonite to your filter to help stabilize the ph & add some buffers to your water. Do a big water change before adding it to get your ph to its normal level. It will be a bit of trial & error to figure out the correct ammount but I would start with 1 tablespoon & work up from there. Place it in either a mesh bag or piece of panythose, too.

Once you are able to stabilize your ph, you can gradually increase the ammonia dose back up to 4ppm (no higher) over a couple of days while keeping an eye on everything. Please dont hesitate to ask questions!

 

[MRT555]

Might want to check KH and GH too. I know alot of Cichlid keepers run those tests. A low KH could prevent your ph from being stable. Did you check your tap water ph, before adding prime?