Stalled Cycles - pH crashes

[jlk]

Have you compared the amm readings of your tanks to test with distilled water? Your readings may be closer to zero than you realize. Light sources can make difference on how the colors look. I would expect traces of nitrites rather than amm but your tanks are not quite following the expected anyway!

I honestly do not know anything about the shrimp substrate. That's a new one for me! Do you have the dw back in the 8g? Keep us posted!

 

[jlk]

Interesting- read bit about the shrimp stratum. I am not sure of its ingredients but is promoted to lower ph. There's a thread about it on 'the planted tank' forum where people commented about it reducing ph, kh & gh particularly with water that's already soft to begin with. This sounds like it very well may be a factor in your tank!

 

[silentfilms]

I'm fairly sure they are 0 and I'm just getting a false positive. My degassed and tap readings are both 0.25ppm, I also over-treat my water with Prime just in case. No nitrites though, not even a hint of lavender/purple in the tube.

Light sources, shadows and how close to the card should I hold the tube are things that are slowing driving me insane! I'm neurotic about trying to match up the color in the tube to whatever is on the chart. My non-fish-loving-friends would likely think I had OCD if they ever watched me test water. Though I'm sure at this point it is...

The driftwood is hanging out in a bag at the moment - didn't even try adding it back in. The bag of cc however is back in the 8gal - which has raised it to an amazing 6.4 after dropping to 6 after dosing it with 2.0ppm ammonia. The pH in the 2.5 has now stabilized without the cc to around 7.0/7.2.

I think we read the same thread over on planted tank. I ended up returning to my LFS today and had them test the pH in their Fluval Ebi setup and their pH is right on par with mine without the cc added.

My GH & KH test kit arrived today and here are the numbers:

Tap & Degassed
GH: 17.9ppm
KH: 107.4ppm

2gal (40% pwc) & 8gal
GH: 35.8ppm
KH: 107.4ppm

The conclusion that I've drawn is the substrate has to go so I bought Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate, which isn't supposed to effect my pH. I'm assuming removing all of my substrate will kill my cycle or cause a mini cycle. Not that it matters, I've got more Dr. Tims and am aware of the pH issue this time around. It is disappointing though. :/

I have a fwc to do in the 2.5 to get the nitrates down, see if the GH drops down to tap level and what happens to the pH. If it stabilizes I'm going to place one of my bettas in there on a closely watched trial run as I have a few consecutive days off coming up. I came to that decision as I've I also noticed that the pH has dropped in the betta qts from 7.0 down to 6.6ppm. Either way they're being exposed to pH fluctuations. :/ If it doesn't stabilize I'm not sure what to do.

 

[librarygirl]

Probably a good idea to hange out the shrimp substrate. You might lose some bacteria but it shouldn't reset your cycle totally as long as you don't touch the filter media. Let us know how it goes.

 

[jlk]

Def keep us posted! As Librarygirl stated, you may lose some bacteria with the substrate change but things should recover quickly. I am glad you actually have decent numbers for gh & kh- I was expecting to see your kh at or very close to zero. Hopefully, your 8g will stabilize with the substrate change.

 

[silentfilms]

Changed out the substrate last night, dosed with ammonia. Here are the numbers:

After 8 Hours
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 10-20ppm
KH: 107.4
GH: 53.7

After 24 Hours
pH: 7.2-7.6
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm
KH: 107.4
GH: 53.7

Also did a fwc in the 2.5 today and put my betta in. So far, so good.

 

[jlk]

Your numbers look good! Just keep an eye on the betta's tank to make sure it stays stable.