Joelhill84
New Member
Hi guys,
This is my first post here, I’m relatively new to the hobby, I’ve had a 30 liter nano tank with shrimp in the past. I’m trying to do a fishless cycle. I added 2ppm ammonia 7 days ago and it hasn’t gone down yet, after some research I think I worked out why..
My tap water parameters are:
pH: 6.6
KH and GH both less than 1
Tank parameters:
pH: less than 6
KH: less than 1
GH: 2
I’ve read that such a low pH can stall a cycle and stop the bacteria from forming.
I can’t test the ph actual reading in my tank because I don’t have a low range test kit and couldn’t find one in store.
I am running co2 which I’ve read can lower the pH by 1 point, I also have a piece of driftwood, corbo root, dragon stone and slate in the tank.
I noticed that the co2 drop checker also does not change back to blue when co2 is off, but read that the drop checker fluid is essentially pH water, could this be affected by it being such a low pH?
My main question is how can I cycle my tank? The pH is very low from tap water, I’ve read that I can add crushed coral to my filter, I have an Oase bio master 350, and this will raise the pH to allow a cycle, but once it has cycled and pH drops again, will the bacteria still be there or die off again? I only plan to keep some snails, neocaridina and possibly chilli rasboras in the future
My apologies for such a long post but I’m struggling to find definitive information elsewhere online.
Thank you
This is my first post here, I’m relatively new to the hobby, I’ve had a 30 liter nano tank with shrimp in the past. I’m trying to do a fishless cycle. I added 2ppm ammonia 7 days ago and it hasn’t gone down yet, after some research I think I worked out why..
My tap water parameters are:
pH: 6.6
KH and GH both less than 1
Tank parameters:
pH: less than 6
KH: less than 1
GH: 2
I’ve read that such a low pH can stall a cycle and stop the bacteria from forming.
I can’t test the ph actual reading in my tank because I don’t have a low range test kit and couldn’t find one in store.
I am running co2 which I’ve read can lower the pH by 1 point, I also have a piece of driftwood, corbo root, dragon stone and slate in the tank.
I noticed that the co2 drop checker also does not change back to blue when co2 is off, but read that the drop checker fluid is essentially pH water, could this be affected by it being such a low pH?
My main question is how can I cycle my tank? The pH is very low from tap water, I’ve read that I can add crushed coral to my filter, I have an Oase bio master 350, and this will raise the pH to allow a cycle, but once it has cycled and pH drops again, will the bacteria still be there or die off again? I only plan to keep some snails, neocaridina and possibly chilli rasboras in the future
My apologies for such a long post but I’m struggling to find definitive information elsewhere online.
Thank you
