Tank Will Not Cycle?

[Creature Seeker]

I was interested as it took me 42 drops of ammonia to get a 6ppm reading in 10 litres of water.

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[Kevstir]

i supose it depends on the size of the drops lol , i would have thought there would be a calculator for this , like say so many ml per 10 ltrs

 

[Creature Seeker]

i supose it depends on the size of the drops lol , i would have thought there would be a calculator for this , like say so many ml per 10 ltrs

Yeah, lol, I did find a calculater but it wasn't very effective. I was just interested as wanted to make sure, but your dropper does look much larger than mine, cheers.

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[robyngunston]

what kind of sand do you have ???

as has been said 32 drops sounds a bit much for 12 gallons (about 45 ltr) , when i was trying to work out how many to put in my tank (180 ltr, 47 gallons) i filled a bucket up with 10 ltrs and added a bit at a time to work it out, it worked out to 4 drops , so 18 x 4 worked out at 72 drops.

Kev

I have playsand I bought from Homebase?

I used the same procedure to calculate how many drops were needed, however remember my dropper may be a lot smaller than the one you used? I have double checked that it only rises to 4ppm by doing multiple ammonia tests about an hour after I have added the 32 drops. I used my AIP Ammonia test kit and I did various dilutions with tap water and they all came out at around 4 ppm??

^When you say drops, do you mean 1 drop = 1 pipette full or 1 single drop?

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I meant one single drop.

I live in Fife and the water here is crazy soft, because the water is so soft the ph crashes quite quickly which is fine for me cause I keep kribs and they love slightly acidic water. To get around this, the easiest thing to do is frequently change the water as you seem to have been doing. However, with reflection on what other ppl have posted I would perhaps recommend not changing the water till you have the bacteria going but meanwhile tackling the ph drop in another manner (the baking soda method or whatever you think will be best).

But I'm still very much an amateur so I would do some research yourself into soft/hard water and how to test your own to find out and what recommended measures you can take to balance the ph manually.

Hope that might help some and good luck with the tank.

Thanks for the advice Karuna

Yes I have bacteria growing already and hence why I have been doing the water changes...I just can't seem to get them to growth more?

I might try the baking soda thing or I have PH Up as well.....but I realise this can't be used on a constant basis?

 

[Glod]

When you add amonia, your ammonia reduces and your nitrates increase ?
If that is the case then somehow you missed your nitrite spike. Nitrite is the product the first set of bacteria produce by breaking down ammonia. The next set of bacteria break down the nitrite to produce nitrate. So, if your tank breaks down ammonia and produces nitrate you *do* have the middle set of bacteria in sufficient quantity to break down the nitrite as fast as it is being produced.

 

[TammyLiz]

I know it was said earlier in this thread about the baking soda but that is really the key here. Below 6.0 the bacteria do not function properly so that is why your cycle is not finishing. You are so close, you already have bacteria so don't need to get mature media from someone else, you just need to bring up your pH so the ones you have are not being inhibited. Crushed coral or baking soda will raise the KH, which will make is so that the pH doesn't drop once you add the water to the tank. Add enough to stabilize the pH wherever you want it, depending on what species you're keeping, but keep it at least slightly above 6.0 for the bacteria.

Do that, and you'll be good to go.

EDIT: I read your last post again and see you're under the impression baking soda can't be used on a constant basis, but this isn't really true. It doesn't hurt your fish and you can dose it with water changes as needed.