Cycling Master Test Kit

[Zodiak246]

I'm still cycling my tank. Not sure if my ammonia level is a 2.0 or 4.0ppm. Should I keep changing the water every day? If so how much should I change?

[Katherine]

Your ammonia looks like a 2 on my screen. I assume you're cycling with no fish?

[quikv6]

If you are cycling with no fish, there isn't a need to change the water.

[Zodiak246]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:03 PM, Katherine said:

Your ammonia looks like a 2 on my screen. I assume you're cycling with no fish?

 

On 3/8/2022 at 7:20 PM, quikv6 said:

If you are cycling with no fish, there isn't a need to change the water.

Yes im cycling with no fish its just ada amazonia substrate with plants and some hitch hiker bladder snails. 

[Cinnebuns]

If there's no fish then don't do a water change unless ammonia goes above 4ppm. It will just slow it down. 

[Cinnebuns]

Wait, I see your problem. Your ph is too low. That will stall your cycle. I don't feel qualified enough to advise you how to raise it so hopefully someone else will chime in. Bacteria growth slows significantly below 7.0. 

I wanna say crushed coral is the way you increase it?  Not something I've had to think about as my ph is really high. 

[SupersoNick95]

On 3/9/2022 at 4:45 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Wait, I see your problem. Your ph is too low. That will stall your cycle. I don't feel qualified enough to advise you how to raise it so hopefully someone else will chime in. Bacteria growth slows significantly below 7.0. 

I wanna say crushed coral is the way you increase it?  Not something I've had to think about as my ph is really high. 

I had a similar issue last week, was cycling a new 20 gallon with used filter media but my PH was crazy low, like a 6.0. It stalled the cycled for a bit. I just recently got some crushed coral from CO-OP and a little goes a long way. Site says 1 pound for every 10 gallons i think? i only added half and my PH rebounded nicely to about 7.2. DO NOT USE PH UP OR DOWN CHEMS, especially if you are doing a fish in cycle. Stresses the fish when the PH jumps so rapidly.

[Cinnebuns]

On 3/9/2022 at 10:56 AM, SupersoNick95 said:

DO NOT USE PH UP OR DOWN CHEMS

I just wanna emphasize that more. Ph is a funny thing and those products do more harm than good. 

[SupersoNick95]

Like others have stated, I would not do anything to your tank other than adding a PH buffer like crushed coral. Your Nitrites are pretty much non-existent, this means the Beneficial Bacteria have not finished "eating" the ammonia. (Please someone correct me if I'm wrong). Same thing happened in my 20 gallon. I added a used filter from a much smaller tank and it took about a week for teh bacteria to convert everything to nitrates. Try getting some used filter media or bio media from an LFS. I added 4 bio-balls from a local store and it really sped up the process.