Fish in cycle question

[strangeworld2002]

I assume those numbers are lowest, mean and highest?

68 isn't too bad, it's the same as 3.8 dH. And 52.6 = 2.9 dH so not too bad either. But 22 is very low - 1.2 dH, which is low enough for a drop in pH to occur.
You could try using a piece of limestone rock or piece of coral as decor. Members who have done this should be able to help better.

Yes, min, average and max. I need to find out what is causing the PH to reach 6 in my tank after 24 hours and am running out of things to try but I am 99% certain it is why my cycle isn't happening.

 

[strangeworld2002]

I'm inclined to think now that the drop in PH might be due to nitrification after all. I have done several tests on the tap water now and it seems fine in fact after i dosed it with prime strangely it went up. After the 50% water change on Wednesday when ammonia was showing 4ppm, after the change it showed 1ppm today I have tested and it has dropped to 0.50ppm?

I have stopped with the prime/stability combo that a youtuber recommended and now I have found out that it is absolute nonsense anyway as BB only consumes ammonia and not ammonium so detoxifying it doesn't give the BB anything to eat - correct me if im wrong? Anyway in theory if that was the issue all along maybe things will finally get a move on now as I'm just letting it do its thing. Will test ammonia again tomorrow but if it drops again then things are looking good, I have used a full bottle of stability over the last 4 weeks so thats still in there.

 

[Byron]

On the pH. I do not think the nitrification by bacteria has any effect on pH (the reverse is true, pH and temperature affect nitrification). I will tag @TwoTankAmin who will know absolutely. The KH (Alkalinity) is low so there will not be much buffering, and the pH will naturally lower from the organics. With soft water fish this will not be a problem. The problem is the fluctuation up and down. TwoiTankAmin will probably have ideas for this too.

 

[sharkweek178]

Thanks. What floating plants do you recommend? really not had much luck with this tank so far, one of my female guppies jumped out last night the glass top was on as well so she managed to get out of the smallest gap, I think the flow contributed to that as the pump is quite powerful and I can't turn it down - I have ordered another one.

I just have two guppies left, both seem active, well and eating after the last change so I'm not overly concerned should I bring this number back up do you think or just leave it now?

I know its just part and parcel of fish keeping and I'm trying to not get too disheartened but as this is my first venture back in after 10 years where I had very few issues its incredibly frustrating but I was dealing with bigger tanks and they weren't planted, maybe they are more forgiving.

Personally, I've found Anacharis to be very easy. And salvinia minima. Only thing about that one is that it doesn't like a lot of water movement. Other than that, it's super easy. I throw away handfuls of it every week because it grows so fast.
There's also Amazon frogbit, red root floater, water lettuce. You can also float water wisteria and water sprite.
Some people use duckweed. But a warning about that one. Once you add it to a tank, it is very difficult to get rid of. And it can spread to other tanks.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually, the cycle is acidic. That is because of how both nitrite and especially nitrate react to being in water. Nitrate creates some Nitric acid (HNO3) while Nitrite creates Nitrous acid (HNO2). Acid in water lowers pH. Fortunately nitrite in the water is fleeting once the tank is cycled so its contribution to lowering the pH is nowher near what nitrate can do. Nitrate in many tanks is not fleeting, it is accumulating. Well planted tanks do not have this issue.

Old tank syndrome results from the failure to do water changes allowing, among other things, for nitrate to accumulate which creates more nitric acid. This drops the pH. When the pH drops, any ammonia in a tank is all ammonium. Then if one does a big water change what happens?

The hardness goes down, the KH goes up the nitrate is removed to a good extent, the ammonium in the water turns to some part ammonia and the pH pops up. And the fish suffer or even die. The acid nature of the cycle is one reason why we should be doing weekly water changes. This is most true in tanks with no plants. But in well planted tanks we still must do water changes but for a different set of reasons.

Also, the bacteria need inorganic carbon. Two of the best sources of this in tanks are carbonates and bicarbonates. They can also use CO2. In a tank, the primary components of KH are carbonates and bicarbonates. If the bacteria deplete them the KH drops and that helps to lower pH.

Most of ua, myself included, have no idea what is transpiring in our tanks on the elemental/atomic level in our tanks nor a lot of the microbiology, There is much more to this than just nitrifying bacteria. But if we do not get the nitrifiers in place, the rest doesn't usually matter. We can use live plants to do much of this work, but there will still be some nitrifiers present.

I have 20 tanks. 12 of them have no plants at all. The other 8 are jungles. All 20 are fish safe and thriving