AdamHorton
Aquarium Advice FINatic
eco - my guess as to what happened to you is that since the ammonia-processing bacteria weren't generating nitrIte for that bacteria colony, the lack of food (nitrItes) caused some of your population to die off. I'm not an expert, though.
You know after reading a little about the chemistry involved here (I hate chemistry) I think I've made some sense out of what is going on here.
I've fishless cycled successfully twice before, but both times were saltwater, and any salt mix has a bunch of stuff in it that buffers the water. That's why I've never run into this problem before. Also, all of the fishless cycle literature I've found never mentions PWCs because it seems to be saltwater-based.
It seems the pH crash problem we're having came as a result of the lack of PWCs we're doing during our fishless cycle and the generation of nitrates towards the end of the cycle. PWCs are usually enough "buffering" to keep the pH relatively stable, so it seems that additives aren't necessary. The problem seemed to be exacerbated in our cases because we have softer water.
What should really happen is that fishless cycle literature should specify that PWCs are necessary DURING the cycle on the same magnitude as you would have if your tank was stocked with fish, instead of just doing a 100% water change right before you add fish. I'm going to do weekly 20% PWCs and continue with my same fishless cycle routine until I see the bacteria process the 2-4ppm of ammonia into nitrAtes within 24 hours.
Last night I did a >80% PWC and then put 2 ppm of ammonia in the tank. 18 hours later (now) the readings are about 0.25ppm of both ammonia and nitrIte, which makes sense because before the pH crash, the bacteria population was able to bring it down to zero after 24 hours.
It seems that the low pH affects the ability of the ammonia processing bacteria to process the ammonia, but it doesn't kill off the colony of bacteria that's there. That's a good thing for us, because we will most likely not have to wait 6 more weeks and do the whole cycle over again.
As of right now, I'm going to wait until next weekend (4/9-4/10) to add fish, and until then, I'm going to try and build up my bacteria population to process as much ammonia as possible. All while keeping a close eye on my pH.
Hopefully this sounds reasonable to the people who actually know what they're talking about?
You know after reading a little about the chemistry involved here (I hate chemistry) I think I've made some sense out of what is going on here.
I've fishless cycled successfully twice before, but both times were saltwater, and any salt mix has a bunch of stuff in it that buffers the water. That's why I've never run into this problem before. Also, all of the fishless cycle literature I've found never mentions PWCs because it seems to be saltwater-based.
It seems the pH crash problem we're having came as a result of the lack of PWCs we're doing during our fishless cycle and the generation of nitrates towards the end of the cycle. PWCs are usually enough "buffering" to keep the pH relatively stable, so it seems that additives aren't necessary. The problem seemed to be exacerbated in our cases because we have softer water.
What should really happen is that fishless cycle literature should specify that PWCs are necessary DURING the cycle on the same magnitude as you would have if your tank was stocked with fish, instead of just doing a 100% water change right before you add fish. I'm going to do weekly 20% PWCs and continue with my same fishless cycle routine until I see the bacteria process the 2-4ppm of ammonia into nitrAtes within 24 hours.
Last night I did a >80% PWC and then put 2 ppm of ammonia in the tank. 18 hours later (now) the readings are about 0.25ppm of both ammonia and nitrIte, which makes sense because before the pH crash, the bacteria population was able to bring it down to zero after 24 hours.
It seems that the low pH affects the ability of the ammonia processing bacteria to process the ammonia, but it doesn't kill off the colony of bacteria that's there. That's a good thing for us, because we will most likely not have to wait 6 more weeks and do the whole cycle over again.
As of right now, I'm going to wait until next weekend (4/9-4/10) to add fish, and until then, I'm going to try and build up my bacteria population to process as much ammonia as possible. All while keeping a close eye on my pH.
Hopefully this sounds reasonable to the people who actually know what they're talking about?
