Fishless Cycle Help

[v-ray]

Hi everyone. I have been working on my first fishless cycle for about two weeks now. I've hit a couple bumps recently. I'm using a 10 gallon tank with gravel, driftwood, and fake plants. I'm using a Whisper In-Tank Filter 10i with Seachem Matrix in the cartridge for added biomedia. I've been keeping the temperature near 80F. I went the pure ammonia route with the Dr. Tim's Ammonia, and I also used Dr. Tim's One and Only bacteria out of curiosity. I did daily minimum doses of One and Only (two capfuls) until I ran out. Ammonia has been dropping from 1ppm back to 0 within 12 hours.

My current dilemma is, today I tested all of my parameters and PH had dropped to about 6.2 from a constant 7. From what I read this is around the range that the bacteria cycle stalls but they do not die? I researched it and found out it may have been due to my sky high nitrites? I did a 50% pwc with prime and added baking soda because tap water here is very soft, about 6. After that I added ammonia back up to about 1ppm.

My readings now are: Ammonia 1ppm, Nitrite: way above 5, Nitrate: 160 or more, Ph: 7.

What do I do from here?? I really feel lost. Should I do a full water change to get rid of all of the high nitrites and nitrates? The 50% pwc didn't seem to even take a bite out of them. Will all the water changes hurt my bacteria even if I keep the temperature and Ph the same? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[UntimelyLord]

PH drops during cycling in soft water happen. My understanding is that this is due to to nitrification process itself and not the presence of nitrItes. The driftwood will also lower pH. Water changes will not hurt your beneficial bacteria as the vast majority of the beneficial bacteria live in the filter and substrate. Since your tap water is so acidic you should consider adding crushed coral to the filter as this will naturally increase pH and hardness. You can use baking soda instead/as well but this requires adding more each water change, the crushed coral works long-term.

 

[Matthew C.]

Add the crushed coral, which will stabilize the pH. I am using 1.5 cups in a 30 gallon tank. I don't see a reason to do a wc at this point since it is a FISHLESS cycle, IMO.