Slight problem

[BettaGal]

I was having issues with ammonia and asked on another thread for help. At their advice, I got an ammonia removing filter media by Aquaclear and a bottle of API Quick Start instant cycle bacteria. I did a water change last night and added the quick start with that. I fed my plants after the water change. My ammonia levels would spike to at least 2 ppm after 48 hours of sitting without a change before. My pH was a consistent 7.6 every test. Today, I measured everything, and tested ammonia - 1 ppm; nitrite - .3 ppm; nitrate - 5 ppm; pH - 6.0 about two or three hours ago. Why is my pH dropping so fast? What did I do wrong?

 

[BettaGal]

Can I please get some advise? I've never had this happen and all of my past tanks have crashed from me having no idea what to do right.

 

[Dreadz]

Can I please get some advise? I've never had this happen and all of my past tanks have crashed from me having no idea what to do right.

its quite common for ph to be erratic whilst a tank cycles but if it drops lower than 6 it can stall the cycle.
also i wouldnt use any ammonia remover product whilst cycling, you just have to test every day and carry out pwcs according to the test results always trying to keep ammo/nitrite levels as low as possible - i carried out pwc every time test results showed levels above 0.25ppm
i used tetra safestart with great success but am led to believe that only safestart or dr tims one and only are likely to be effective at speeding up your cycle

 

[BettaGal]

its quite common for ph to be erratic whilst a tank cycles but if it drops lower than 6 it can stall the cycle.
also i wouldnt use any ammonia remover product whilst cycling, you just have to test every day and carry out pwcs according to the test results always trying to keep ammo/nitrite levels as low as possible - i carried out pwc every time test results showed levels above 0.25ppm
i used tetra safestart with great success but am led to believe that only safestart or dr tims one and only are likely to be effective at speeding up your cycle

I can't get it below 1 ppm without the ammonia remover in the filter. My pH is not erratic. It has measured at 7.6 consistently without any change whatsoever. Then in under 24 hours it dropped to 6.0 for an unknown reason. I'll retest again now that I just did a water change, but I know something went wrong. My water doesn't do that.

 

[BettaGal]

Now it looks like ammonia - .5 ppm; nitrate - 5 ppm; pH - 7.2 after an about 60% water change. I didn't readd the quick start this time. Where did I screw up?

 

[Cynic]

There is no way you can't reduce your ammonia below 1.0.

Even if it's in your tapwater you'll still build up enough of a bioload to handle it unless you stop doing water changes.

Unfortunately by using bottled bacteria there is no way to tell where you are in your cycle.

All you can do is daily water changes until your tank finishes cycling.

 

[BettaGal]

I have tried to get it down that far. It won't go. I've been doing daily water changes. I've done three 50+% a day sometimes. I asked about the ammonia issue on another thread and did what those people recommended I do and what they said helped them. Now, I'm having an issue with my pH for no apparent reason. I described all that I did last night to my tank so I could find out what I did wrong that made it drop so fast. Please help me figure out why my pH bottomed out so that I can prevent it from happening again.

 

[Skibum98391]

I don't know why your ph dropped, but it seems its back up now? Perhaps an error in the tank? Quite honestly I would not worry about it unless it drops again....

 

[DavidAl]

Your pH dropped because the bottled bacteria produced carbon dioxide (bacteria uses oxygen and releases CO2), and that's why it went back up after doing a water change and not adding the bacteria again. That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

By the way, some bottled bacteria manufacturers recommend adding the bacteria to the water 24 hours after using any type of dechlorinator that is ammonia binding.

David

 

[BettaGal]

Your pH dropped because the bottled bacteria produced carbon dioxide (bacteria uses oxygen and releases CO2), and that's why it went back up after doing a water change and not adding the bacteria again. That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

By the way, some bottled bacteria manufacturers recommend adding the bacteria to the water 24 hours after using any type of dechlorinator that is ammonia binding.

David

Not trying to sound defensive. The bottle said to add at each water change. Should I only add half the dose each time?