Zia

During the middle of my fishless cycle, I moved all the water, plants, and equipment from my 10 gallon tank to a used 20 gallon tank. I took readings about an hour after resettling, and everything is pretty much where I left off, except... pH, which is 8.8+! Ugh! Even though I only cleaned with a tiny bit of bleach and a tiny amount of baking soda and rinsed thoroughly twice, I must have introduced something toxic (or soapy? hmmm... I didn't think so) during the process.

So: I have packet of API proper pH 7.5. How would this impact the cycle I'm on? I would remove the plants, as instructed. My readings today are...

ammonia: 4 (was down to 1 in old tank; I added more with the move)
nitrite: 2
nitrate: 10

My pH was 7.2 prior to this event.

Things were just starting move along! *Sigh.*

Shawnie

during the cycle process, your ph will be all over the place...dont worry about it until the cycle completes....especially fishless

Zia

So... this will correct itself? Phew.

Shawnie

as long as it stays above 7 , the cycle should come right along....if it drops below 7 , it will slow down as it would be ammonium not ammonia thats being produced..which is fine, but it just takes longer in that form .no fretting