Hi all, hoping you can help me out. I have a new 20 gallon long tank that I'm cycling. It's got Miracle Grow Nature's Care soil with a sand cap. I've got a bunch of plants in there that I got locally. I have some dragon rock and a small piece of drift wood.
I live in New England. My tap water is extremely soft (maybe 1 drop each, if that, on the API GH/KH test kit) and is about a 7.2 PH. Before adding the plants I believe my PH was staying consistent in the tank and the GH/KH were both increased to whatever 2-3 drops calculates to (maybe due to the dragon rock?). I've noticed the nitrogen cycle seems to have stalled and my water PH is reading at the bottom of the API test kit scale (so 6.0 or below).
I've read dying plants can cause that.. but I've also read plants in general can pull minerals out of the water. I think there are some dead leaves in there, but I don't see anyting that is a big decaying mess (although I do have problems with the soil generating tons of gas under the sand still).
Should I be waiting to see if things stabilize more? Or should I be adding something? I was planning on adding some crushed coral, but I don't want the PH to go up to 8+... since I want to keep a community tank with Corys, maybe some tetras, and then either a Gourami or something else.
Any advice is welcome. TIA!
