eagerinsight

I'm started doing a fishless cycle in a 10 gallon tank 3 days ago. Added 1 oz Bio-Spira to my tank pH 7.0 with all Nitro readings at 0.0ppm. I have 2 small plants also.

I added a small amount of fish food along with enough ammonia to increase the [ammonia] to 4 PPM. Temperature is 80 degrees F.

Currently my levels are; pH 6.4, Ammonia 4.0 ppm, nitrite 2.0 ppm, nitrate 10.0 ppm.

How does the pH drop when I have 4 ppm of ammonia? Why haven't my ammonia levels dropped? I want to speed up the cycle, I thought having the temp around 80 would speed up the process? Should I leave the light on all day?

drumbum540

if you want to raise the Ph I know that Co2 does raise it. I hope I have helped.

K. Sear

Dissolved carbon dioxide would actually lower the pH since it makes carbonic acid.

Water pH is a pretty delicate thing, especially around 7. It doesn't take much of an impurity to change the pH in either direction. It could be that dissolved CO2 has lowered it. At a lower pH, you are likely reading ammonium and not ammonia, so the two are somewhat buffering each other.

As for your other questions, time will take care of the ammonia (three days isn't very long yet and you are already well on your way because of the Bio-spira I assume), raising the temperature will probably help speed things up and leaving the light on all day could potentially lead to some algae problems.

drumbum540

But I have a Co2 diffuser on my tank and my Ph is always really high? explain please?