Desperation

[qkingston]

You have to buy fish too?!!

 

[cynic]

 

[CezzaXV]

The others are right that you need to lower your ammonia dosing to 4ppm tops. Have you got live plants in your tank? They will eat ammonia, but I wouldn't have thought that much.

There's really no reason for there not to be nitrite if ammonia is going down, unless perhaps you started with seeded media? Have your nitrAtes been going up?

 

[phoenixgsd]

So, the fact may be that for most fish keepers having a pH under about 6.5 causes problems with cycling and that under 6.0 it is impossible for them. Moreover, most hobbyists may never have to deal with this. But the fact remains that nitrification can and does occur in acid waters and that it is done by the very same kinds of bacteria that are at work in the higher more common tank pH levels.

Saying that a pH drop to about 6.5 and below causes complications with the "normal" cycling process is one thing, saying it can't be done or that fish keepers with tanks at a pH <6.0 must change water almost daily to keep fish in it simply is not factual. This is how all the urban myths of fish keeping get started and kept alive.

our tap water ph is 'just' 6.5 tastes fab and great for keeping a kettle for years but would this explain my problems with slow cycling and why ive bearly seen nitrites