Cycling - Soft acidic water

[Joelhill84]

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

 

[aaron.c]

Thanks Darrel. I am a worrier at the best of times 🙂
I have some floating plants coming in my order, some frogbit.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I am a worrier at the best of times

So am I, <"it is natural feeling"> and in some ways just trepidation about the unknown. I just think people often feel better doing something, rather than nothing (making the wait bit difficult), and we are drawn to <"black and white answers">, even when the problem is <"all shades of grey">.

I think the "cycling" concept will be around for a while yet. My suspicion is that people tend to like both simple <"black and white answers"> and instant gratification. Which makes the idea that you can add a bacterial supplement, add ammonia and within a very short period of time your tank is "cycled" and fish safe, appealing. It also offers opportunities to sell test kits and bacterial supplements, in a way that "time and plants" doesn't. There is a line in the film <"The Big Short">, which sort of sums it up.

The truth is like poetry. And most people f*cking hate poetry.

I have some floating plants coming in my order, some frogbit.

I'm a <"frogbitaholic">, I even have a Frogbit song: <"Songs from the Man Cave!">.

cheers Darrel

 

[aaron.c]

I tested the KH and GH from the tank I took the seed media off.

It has a gh of 8 and kh of less than 1

My plan is to drain tank by 95% - refill with our less than 1dkh tap water, and then re-seed the filter with some donor filter media and just (try and) leave it


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