IgsPoke3
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hey everyone,
I decided to set up a freshwater betta tank last week and because I had to, it was a fish in cycle. The tank is 5 gallons with filter, heater, live plants and sand substrate. I’ve been taking readings daily and the most recent one reads:
PH - 6.0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
NH - 0.25
GH - 30
KH - 20
I have used API QuickStart as well as Aqueon ball of beneficial bacteria. The water has been treated of chlorine and ammonia with prime sechum in order to detoxify the ammonia. The tank has not cycled as you can tell from the reading but there are some new problems rising.
Since I’ve moved houses this past couple of months the water quality is certainly different. It used to be 7.0 and now the tap water is 6.4 and somehow in the tank is 6.0-6.2. My understanding is that this ph is not harmful for the betta but rather for the cycle. I’ve never run into the problem before so I added PH up solution and will test tomorrow to see how it changes.
One other thing to note is that the KH is 20 and at the other house used to be 80. I have no idea how to fix this or if this even needs fixing. This KH means the water has the ability to change Ph easily and since this is new territory I’m frankly lost. I don’t know if these conditions are slowing down the beneficial bacteria. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you for your time!
I decided to set up a freshwater betta tank last week and because I had to, it was a fish in cycle. The tank is 5 gallons with filter, heater, live plants and sand substrate. I’ve been taking readings daily and the most recent one reads:
PH - 6.0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
NH - 0.25
GH - 30
KH - 20
I have used API QuickStart as well as Aqueon ball of beneficial bacteria. The water has been treated of chlorine and ammonia with prime sechum in order to detoxify the ammonia. The tank has not cycled as you can tell from the reading but there are some new problems rising.
Since I’ve moved houses this past couple of months the water quality is certainly different. It used to be 7.0 and now the tap water is 6.4 and somehow in the tank is 6.0-6.2. My understanding is that this ph is not harmful for the betta but rather for the cycle. I’ve never run into the problem before so I added PH up solution and will test tomorrow to see how it changes.
One other thing to note is that the KH is 20 and at the other house used to be 80. I have no idea how to fix this or if this even needs fixing. This KH means the water has the ability to change Ph easily and since this is new territory I’m frankly lost. I don’t know if these conditions are slowing down the beneficial bacteria. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you for your time!