Cycling Tank - Ph And Kh Dropping

[dwoodruff73]

I'm in the process of fishless cycling my 28 gallon tank with pure ammonia. The PH, GH,and KH levels have dropped. Does anyone have any advice on how to increase the these levels in my tank? Should I wait until my tank is done cycling to try to increase these levels. I would like to keep an
Electric Yellow Labidochromis cichlid.

30 gallon tank
fake plants
fine sand substrate
temp 79F
PH 6.0
KH 0ppm, 0 dGH
GH 30ppm, 1.7 dGH
Nitrite 10+ ppm
Nitrate 200+ ppm
Ammonia 4ppm

My tap water is:
PH 7
KH 120
GH 120
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia .50ppm

 

[Skins]

You can use sodium bicarbonate to raise your pH.

Having to much nitrogen in the waters chemistry will have caused the pH crash. In my opinion i would perform a large water change before dosing with bicarb, you want be getting your nitrogen levels down.

Keep us all posted, Keith.

P.S just noticed your tank temp, this needs to be 29c

 

[Uriel]

How long have you been cycling it may be worth doing a 95% water change just to bring down your nitrate level as this can stall your cycle. I would dose bi-carbarbonate of soda to bring up the Hardness and ph to about 8ph. Bear in mind you can't use bi-carb once you have fish in the tank. It's generally better to try to work with your water chemistry rather than against it. Keeping a stable PH/Kh using chemicals like ph buffers is hard and dangerous as if you miss dose you can give your fish hardness shock and stress or kill them.

 

[dwoodruff73]

Thank you both for the advice. I did the water change but have not added the baking soda yet. I want to see if my PH and KH will drop again. I've been trying to cycle my tank for about a month now but have had some bumps along the way.

The first week I had set up my tank I had too much ammonia. I thought my tank would cycle eventually but after two weeks and some research I found that I had to do a water change to get my ammonia down to 5ppm or it wouldn't cycle. So I did the water change and got it down to 5 ppm and by the third week my nitrite spiked. I kept adding little amounts of ammonia to keep the it at 5ppm so that keep the bacteria fed. Then this week I noticed my PH and KH was dropping.

My levels are now:

PH 7
GH 120ppm/6.7dGH
KH 80ppm/4.5dGH
Nitrite 7ppm
Nitrate 180ppm
Ammonia 1ppm
Increased my temp to 29C

Do I add ammonia to get it to 5ppm or do I just need to add a little bit to keep the bacteria fed until my nitrites drop to 0?

 

[Skins]

Thank you both for the advice. I did the water change but have not added the baking soda yet. I want to see if my PH and KH will drop again. I've been trying to cycle my tank for about a month now but have had some bumps along the way.

The first week I had set up my tank I had too much ammonia. I thought my tank would cycle eventually but after two weeks and some research I found that I had to do a water change to get my ammonia down to 5ppm or it wouldn't cycle. So I did the water change and got it down to 5 ppm and by the third week my nitrite spiked. I kept adding little amounts of ammonia to keep the it at 5ppm so that keep the bacteria fed. Then this week I noticed my PH and KH was dropping.

My levels are now:

PH 7
GH 120ppm/6.7dGH
KH 80ppm/4.5dGH
Nitrite 7ppm
Nitrate 180ppm
Ammonia 1ppm
Increased my temp to 29C

Do I add ammonia to get it to 5ppm or do I just need to add a little bit to keep the bacteria fed until my nitrites drop to 0?

Whilst your in the nitrite spike stage just dose your h/h ammonia to 2/3ppm, when your nitrite levels get close to zero then start to increase your h/h ammonia dose back up to 4/5ppm. Remember to only dose with h/h ammonia when level is 1ppm or less and once every 24hrs. A good time to dose is the same time you perform your water parameter checks. When ammonia and nitrite levels are zero at the 24hr parameter checks thats when you start performing parameter checks at the 12hr mark as well BUT still only dosing h/h ammonia on the 24hr mark. Your final stage is to get 0ppm ammonia/nitrite every 12hrs for seven days(qualifying week) and then its time to stock your aquarium.

Keith.

P.S just noticed your tanks pH, ideal pH for the bacteria is 7.4-8.4
*You could dose up on some sodium bicarbonate to raise your pH level.

 

[OldMan47]

At a pH of 6.0, your cycle has stalled. Try adding some bicarbonate of soda, baking soda, to the water. The amount would be a few teaspoons at most and would quickly raise both KH and pH quite a bit. It will not raise the pH too high for a fishless cycle unless you get really carried away with it on a small tank. A 28 gallon tank should be able to tolerate well over 4 teaspoons of bicarb.

 

[drobbyb]

I agree with OM47. Baking soda is a great tool to use during a fishless cycle. Besides, the bacteria we are trying to grow like the water to be a little alkaline anyway, and adding the baking soda will help to put it in the optimal range.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I would add that after your tank has cycled, during your qualifying week, keep an eye on the pH. It could be that your "natural" pH level is going to be lower that the level out of the tap. My tap water comes out at 7.0 to 7.2, but once in the tank the pH settles down to 6.0, which greatly affected the type of fish I was able to keep in the tank. I love guppies, but they don't do well in my soft water, etc. And it is a LOT easier to stock your tank to your natural pH than to try and artificially keep it higher or lower for fish that you want. Fish love pH stability.