Trying to cycle small 2.5g freshwater tank

[Tfat91]

I have some tap water sitting out so I can test it at 12 and 24 hours for pH and KH/GH however I haven’t really seen this issue of dropping pH until this week.

You are correct about the filter. It’s relatively small so it would have to be a very small bag of crushed coral to sit on it and allow water to flow through.

Cuttlebone fish is probably a more feasible choice. Since this tank would only hold a betta (and maybe a nerite snail in the future), just break up the cuttlebone and put very small piece in the substrate, and replace when dissolved?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Its not like a big piece will add more KH than a small piece. A big piece will just take longer to disolve than a smaller. I would just put as large a piece in as you can comfortably hide out of the way.

 

[Tfat91]

Makes sense, thanks.

My pH registered at 6.0 today and ammonia seems stuck at 2.0ppm after 22ish hours. Seems like the low pH stalled the cycle since i was processing 2ppm in 20-24 hours a day or two ago. I just did a 40% water change and will check the water parameters in an hour or two.

I was going to add a betta next week but maybe I should hold off due to these pH drops. I have cuttlefish bone and some alkaline buffer coming next week

 

[Tfat91]

I got my API GH and KH test kit today:

current tank readings
KH turns yellow immediately after 1 drop. Doesn't even turn blue so I'm assuming the KH is around 0ppm.
GH 5 drops, so 50-100ppm
pH: 6 or less. It dropped again from 7-7.2 (reading 8am yesterday)

Tap water:
KH 50ppm (3-4drops)
GH 50ppm (3-4drops)
pH 7.4

The cycle still seems strong, cycles 2-3ppm ammonia within 20-24 hours. I placed a small piece of cuttlefish bone in the substrate, slightly covered. Hopefully that will help bring the KH up and stabilize the pH.