Low Ph In Fishless Cycle?

[cjheck]

I added some driftwood last week after soaking and scrubbing it. It seemed like there was no more color, so I out it in the tank. My pH is a 6.0, still on my first dose of ammonia that is now at 1.0ppm and nitrites at .5ppm. Is this pH okay for my plants and the beneficial bacteria?? Should I do a water change evn though it will interfere with my cycle??

 

[RSVBiffer]

No need to do a water change at present, pH 6 will be fine to cycle but the problem will be if it falls below 5.5 your cycle will stall. If the pH keeps falling you will need to buffer your KH which can be done by either a partial water change, you would then have to redose ammonia up to the correct level, or you could add a KH buffer now, either a commercially available one or you could use something like Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) although you would need to add the correct dose. Don't use a pH adjuster, they are short term fixes that don't address the underlying problem and you could well end up with your pH 'crashing around' all over the place.

Edit: You didn't mention what your pH was originally and if it is falling I suspect you are going to have to address the issue.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You need yo get the pH up. The best way is usually doing a water change. however you do not indicate what your tap parameters are. There are other ways to raise the pH during cycling if your tap pH and/or KH are too low. The easiest is baking soda which is sodium bicarbonate. You want the carbonate part but in the end before adding fish you want to do water changes to remove the sodium part (this doesn't apply to rift lake tanks).
 

To raise the KH without raising the GH, add sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), commonly known as baking soda. 1/2 teaspoon per 100 Liters raises the KH by about 1 dH. Sodium bicarbonate drives the pH towards an equilibrium value of 8.2.

from http/fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-chem.html#altering
 
The bacteria use ammonia. In water ammonia is in two forms ammonia and ammonium. In a tank with a pH of 6.0 and a temp of 80F and a total ammonia reading of 5.0, the amount of NH3 in that water is .0033 ppm. Your cycle will take forever.
 
Here is what the Ph.D. who was part of the research team that identified the bacteria at work in aquariums said about cycling and pH. Knowing his tendencies, he is being overly cautious using 7.0, but by 6.5 people are stalling things and by 6.0 it is not usually advisable to add bacterial starters to a tank as the pH may kill them when the change in pH is that drastic and that fast for them.
 

The other big problem is that the cycling process seems to stall with ammonia or nitrite not dropping anymore. Usually this is due to a low pH value (less than 7.0). The conversion of the ammonia and nitrite by the bacteria naturally produces an acid that will lower the water pH. If the pH gets too low, however, the nitrification (cycling) process will stop. So if you add a lot of ammonia over the course of a week and get the cycling cranking, you can actually cause the pH to drop to a low value and ‘stall’ the entire process. The way to get the cycling going again is to simply do a 25 to 20% water change. This will increase the pH and usually gets the cycling process going again.

from http/www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/how-to-start
 
I have a couple of tanks cycled to a pH of 6.0 or a tad under and it takes a completely different method of cycling to get a tank working there.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The above information is correct.  6.0 is far too low to cycle a tank, and the pH may be even lower than that if the test kit doesn't read lower results.

 

[cjheck]

I just tested my pH after getting back from work and it's now 7.4, I have no idea what's going on...