Can low KH stall cycle?

[FishyMike]

Hello all,

My first fishless cycle has been rough! I’m going on 2.5 month and still haven’t completed my nitrogen cycle. And Fritz is claiming it’s because my low kh and gh level? Has anyone else seen this? As of tonight’s test I have a kh of 4 and gh of 6. 
 

my ammo- 0.25

nitrite- 0 

nitrate- 5ppm 

ph- 7.2

[MyDaughtersTank]

I read through your other thread as well.  You implied you are cycling by dosing pure ammonia and not doing water changes.  Your overall nitrogen numbers seem unreasonably low after 2.5 months.  How often are you adding ammonia and how much- i.e. what ppm are you aiming for?

[FishyMike]

Thank you for your response in advance! My first dose was 4ppm and it never seem to reach zero. I went by fish labs fishless cycle guide on the internet 

Cycle Your New Aquarium The EASY Way (Beginner Friendly!)

FISHLAB.COM

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Stop right there! Before you add fish to your aquarium you need to cycle it first. If you don't your fish will die. Follow our...

Yes you are right the nitrogen levels are unreasonably low!! And It was definitely because of a stalled cycle. 

[FishyMike]

I’m scared I might have stalled it again everything was looking good I saw nitrites them nitrates but then the ammonia was almost at zero and I didn’t want to starve it out so I sprinkled in 1/2 of 1/8th tsp of the Fritz ammonia and going on 24 hours later I have no nitrites and ammonia seems to be the same. 

[GardenStateGoldfish]

Yes a low kH can slow a cycle down because the PH drops quickly, adding crushed coral will help or just let nature do its thing and take a little longer. 

[FishyMike]

Is a measurement of 4 on the api master kit considered low? And do you guys think I should add a little more ammonia to see if the bacteria are active? Thank you garden state goldfish for your response!!!

[DaveSamsell]

@Mikeo  Am in the process of re-cycling a new tank.  I had a KH of 10 initially and a few days later it went to a KH of 0.  

Ph dropped from 7.5  to  6.5

Got too aggressive in feeding my snail tank and entered a 'mini-cycle', if it can be called that.  

I think @GardenStateGoldfish, mentioned good points, above.   

Also, @Mikeo, do you have plants in the tank?  The plants may be dealing with the ammonia as you are adding it, etc.  Additionally, a KH of 4 is not too bad, IMO, but as the acids build in the tank, the pH & KH will start to drop.  

[FishyMike]

Yes I do have plants now! I have 2 bacopia caroliniana. And Amazon sword a cryptocryne and an anubious. Yes that is exactly what happened to me! I had a low kh I added alkaline buffer then it shot up to 11 then slowly tapered back down. Then with a water change I’m back down to 4.  Is it a bad thing that it’s taking more than 24 hours to eat all the ammonia? I’m debating wether I should add more ammonia. Or wait till it goes to zero.  My nitrates are @5 ppm as we speak.

[MyDaughtersTank]

Hm.  So here's what I would do if I were you (full disclosure- I am still a beginner as well, so feel free to take my advice with a huge grain of salt):

Dose your ammonia back up to 2-3 ppm.  Test the water after one hour to ensure you are dosing and testing correctly- your test kit should show you 2-3 ppm ammonia.  Test again in 24 hours.  The standard protocol is to look for exactly 0 ppm ammonia and nitrites, but in my opinion as long as you are under, say, .5 of both after only one day, that shows that you have a bacterial colony (+ plants) that can handle a reasonable bioload.  Now do a 50% water change or whatever you need to do to get ammonia and nitrites all the way down to zero, making sure you vacuum up any dead plant matter or other detritis.   Go ahead and add one or two small, hardy fish (no plecos) and feed very lightly once every 2-3 days.  Try to continue to test for ammonia/nitrites as often as is reasonable for you and do weekly water changes with thorough gravel vacs.  After 2 weeks with no ammonia/nitrites, you can up to feeding once every 1-2 days, then keep increasing until you reach your permanent feed schedule, then add a couple more fish, etc etc.

You can riff on this to some degree, but in summary the idea is 1) establish a reasonable baseline bacterial colony that can convert ammonia into nitrates; then 2) increase "bioload" very slowly in order to allow your bacteria to catch up if need be.  Make sense?

Oh and to answer your original question: no, I'm not convinced your gh and kh are the issue 🙂  I could be wrong though.  Good luck!

 

 

[FishyMike]

Thank you for your reply it is greatly appreciated!!! This really is the tank from hell! No matter what I do I think I keep killing the bacteria colony I’m at a loss. Literally no movement in anything after that small jump. I’m so confused! I will do a water change tomorrow I came home to late tonight but I’m so discouraged and confused. The plants all seem to be ok I just dosed it with another squirt of easy green! 

[FishyMike]

Parameters tonight 

ammo->0.25

nitrite 0

nitrate 5 

ph 7.2

gh 7

kh 4