Cycling And Low Ph

[waterdrop]

No, baking soda is just sprinkled in to the top of the tank, I do it slowly over a wide area so it is less likely to clump at the bottom, but doesn't really matter.

Its kitchen baking soda but be sure its only that. Should say Sodium Bicarbonate on box. Don't do this until you understand what you are doing and know you want to do it.

here's a link with some numbers and info:

http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

I still think a pretty small part of a handful of crushed corel in a silk stocking sack in part of one filter tray might be better for you in the long run. But if you go the baking soda route, you might consider raising KH to say 6 and then letting it drop to 4 before you apply more baking s. again. You'll need a KH test, liquid based of course.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LionessN3cubs]

i'd like to add something about adding baking soda if i may.

Due to having a kh of 0 and pH of 7 in my tap water i add baking soda when i do water changes. i was told that 1 tsp per 10 gallons will raise the kh to 4 without raising the pH. that is wrong tho. using the ratio that i was told raised my kh to 2-3 and raised my pH to about 7.5. if you wanna try baking soda keep that in mind

wow, interesting observation. I'll bet if that recommendation came from TFF it might be that drhelm link that many use for KH/pH things. It says almost that exact wording, here is the quote from it:

"One teaspoon of baking soda added to 50 liters of water can raise the kH of the water by approx 4 OdH without a major affect on pH."

So really it is saying 1 tsp for 13.2 US gallons will raise KH to 4 without raising the pH. BUT, my observations are similar to yours -- I in fact had to use more baking soda than that to acheive the same amount of raising KH, so I agree with you it needs to be higher. For me though, it indeed raised KH without raising pH. For me it just leaves my tap pH (7.5) the same but raises KH and then does indeed allow my pH to stay stable (for a while, then at some point it the buffer is used up and it begins to drop pretty rapidly again.)

In gumby's case for the fishless cycling, it might be really beneficial to go the crushed-coral-in-bag-in-filter route because gumby's problem is not going to go away and at pH 6.4 the cycling will be extremely slow -- I really think mid 7's is much better for the cycling and crushed coral, though it would take longer getting up to speed, would then raise pH more and would last much longer, probably all the way through cycling. The only question is whether it would be too bad for the plants and I don't know the answer to that.



~~waterdrop~~

1 tsp baking soda raises my ph from 6.6 to 7.6...I tested it out of the tap today

 

[waterdrop]

Let me be sure I understand you. I hear you saying two things:
1) you measured your tap water and found it to be 6.6 out of the tap
2) you added 1 tsp bak.soda to your 10G tank and it raised pH from 6.6 to 7.6

Or did you add bak.soda to bucket of tap water as a test? If so, what volume?

(sorry, I may just not be awake enough yet )

~~waterdrop~~

 

[gumby]

Another update. I did another 80% water change over the weekend, and the ammonia is back up to 4. I was stumped for a bit, but I finally realized that I am falling victim to the infamous ammonia spike ADA comes with. So I suppose I will continue to do some water changes. I just hate that whenever I do a WC, I tend to rescape everything. But the good news is that my HC looks like it is growing a bit.

I also came across some oyster shells. Should I boil it prior to crushing it and putting into the filter bag? It's great not having any fish in the tank yet, I can experiment so much without harming anything.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup ada aquasoil releases ammonia for a couple of days after going in the tank. it won't halt your cycle but it'll distort your readings as it's constantly being released and used up rather than 5ppm being added at once then all being used as with a fishless cycle.

just keep monitoring it and when it starts dropping off you know the soil is stopping leaching and you can get back to a proper cycle

there's definatley an art to big water changes in planted tanks!!

 

[gumby]

Good news - the ammonia levels read 0 today! After many many WC's, I think the ammonia has finally stopped leeching. I did another water change tonight, and hopefully the ammonia will stay at 0 in the next few days. If it doesn't go up, does that mean I'm good to start stocking the tank?

The plants are growing nicely, hopefully the HC will continue to thrive.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Good news - the ammonia levels read 0 today! After many many WC's, I think the ammonia has finally stopped leeching. I did another water change tonight, and hopefully the ammonia will stay at 0 in the next few days. If it doesn't go up, does that mean I'm good to start stocking the tank?

The plants are growing nicely, hopefully the HC will continue to thrive.

glad the soil's not leeching anymore, this doesn't mean you're cycled though (you may be, but no conclusive proof)

you need to add 5ppm of ammonia to the tank, test it after 12 hrs, if both ammonia and nitrite are down to 0 then you're cycled and ready for fish, if not then you'll need to fishless cycle in the normal way until the cycle completes.

 

[gumby]

Thanks Miss Wiggle. I'm do that tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow morning the ammonia will be all absorbed.
I did a nitrite test last night as well, but it still read 0.

 

[gumby]

I did the wc, and the next day the ammonia was back...

I'm beginning to lose patience, but at least it's giving the HC some time to carpet...(got to keep my chin up).

Anyone have any other advice? Should I continue to do wc's?