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Cycle Journal Part 2

My tap water has a pretty low pH, so I was planning on treating it as a fish-in cycle for a while anyway as I don't really want to mess with the pH. I've already paid for my fish and they're on hold at the LFS (they were the last leopard cories they had left) so I'm reluctant to leave them there too long.
 
CezzaXV said:
My tap water has a pretty low pH, so I was planning on treating it as a fish-in cycle for a while anyway as I don't really want to mess with the pH. I've already paid for my fish and they're on hold at the LFS (they were the last leopard cories they had left) so I'm reluctant to leave them there too long.
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Personally (and this is personally only) i'd cancel my request at the LFS. I would make sure i have done a FULL week of Double '0's then add the fish. As you know, i suffer from a low PH buffering capacity (soft water area) and there are means and ways to combat this (crushed coral being one).. as long as your PH is stable, it wont kill your fish.
Failing that, i am sure your LFS would keep your fish a little longer, especially if you tell them your tank isn't quite ready for inhabitants yet :good:

But as i said, that is my personal opinion, and i wish you good luck with whichever route you decide to go down, keep us updated :good:

Terry.
 
My stocking plan is to go a little on the over stocked side, so I don't really wanna add anything which is gonna change my tank water too much, as I plan to do more water changes than you might normally do and don't wanna be battling with pH shock and the like. The pH and softness will be ideal for my fish, it's just a case of getting the bacteria happy. Tbh, I thought I'd be in my qualifying week by now.

There is a possible alternative. I have an old filter I was using before, the cartridges from which are currently in my fluval 205 right now. If my tank really wasn't ready for fish, I reckon the old filter could probably keep the cories going in a quarantine tank until my main tank is 100% ready. That's if the LFS wasn't willing to hold them any longer.

We'll see what happens though. A lot could change in the next few days.
 
The good news is that I have Friday off work, so I'm gonna leave gettign my fish til then, if not the week after.

Had to dose early tonight as I'm off out and didn't even have time to test, but it's been quite some time since I last didnt have 24 hour double zeroes so all should be well.

I've heard that bicarbonate will only increase pH to 8.4. Is this true? If I put a load in to increase kH, the pH wouldn't go above 8.4?
 
After yesterday's hiccup I actually had a really good test this morning, with nitrite reading 0-0.25. I did dose ammonia early last night, but if I'm lucky I might be getting a "real" 12 hour zero tomorrow. This would put me five days into a qualifying week by Friday. :)
 
I got double zeroes for the first time about 10 days ago, but my ammonia has been zeroing in 12 hours for absolutely ages now. I doubt the ammonia takes much time to process at all.

It's looking like fish on Friday (I was planning on doing this anyway due to personal circumstances you can read about earlier in the thread), but it does give me some peace of mind that I've got this 12 hour zero and should hopefully have had 4 of them by the time Friday gets here.
 
Jelous.....I'm on day 64 and 54 now.....still not processing 1.4ml and 1.2ml of nitrite :-(
 
Wow, I got an appallingly bad test result this morning, ammonia at 0.5ppm and nitrite at 5ppm. However, I'm fairly sure I know the cause. It's possible I overdosed on ammonia last night as I was in a rush, but I don't think that's the cause. I'd been keeping my plants in a box but some of them were looking a little worse for wear (the leaves on one were practically melting) so I put them in my tank for the time being with a little fertiliser. I'm hoping the rotting leaves on one of the plants meant that there was more ammonia and the bacteria are still going. I've since chucked this plant in the bin.

I'm going to see how it goes. If I get another result like that tomorrow I'll ring the LFS and ask if they can hold my fish a little longer.
 
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