Okay got it, I’ll do all that today.
Water changes shouldn't slow down the cycle. So many folks have been told not to do water changes during a fishless cycle and then they come here wondering why their cycle seems to be stalled.
I screenshotted that response so I can remember that months from now, that’s an incredibly clear response compared to what I’ve been reading online & it makes so much Sense.
That low of a Ph will stall a cycle from my own research turn your heater up and try to get your Ph to 7 to keep the cycle going.
How much coral do you have in your filter? You don't need to change it.
You shouldn't have to replace the CC. That is the beauty of using it. It raises the hardness thus helps to stabilize the PH. The effects don't stop working like some products. You may need to add more. Adding too much shouldn't spike your PH up too high so go ahead and double the amount you already have in there and see what happens. We need to keep your PH up to at least 7. Higher isn't a problem.
Okay. If you want to get your tank cycled you are going to have to put the coral in the filter. You were a advised to put 3/4 cup there. Is there some reason you used less than 1/2 cup? I guess you need to make a decision, if you want to get your tank cycled, you'll need to put 3/4 to 1 cup -in a mesh media bag-in your filter preferably in the area circled in red. Take the blue honeycomb thing out of there and put the coral in instead. You can hang or sit -the honeycomb thing under the outflow where you have the coral now. Bacteria will still grow on it. You have enough other bio media in that filter to cycle that tank. You could put 50 lb of bio media in your tank and run it for 6 months and your tank won't cycle with a pH of 6. Right now, the <1/2 cup hanging outside your filter isn't getting enough water flow over enough coral to move your pH.
You won't "spike too high" with a rock carbonate. It will buffer your water to a certain pH regardless of the amount you put in there. The amount and location of the CC only determines the speed that it buffers the water, not the level your pH rises to. As I said, hanging a couple tablespoons under your filter outflow will take forever to buffer the water. More coral, inside your filter where each fragment of coral surface area gets strong water flow, will buffer the water much faster. You can control the pH your tank remains at with water changes.
No. The issue is where you put it. As long as there is a buffer in the presence of acid, the buffer will continue to react with that acid until the acid is neutralized and an equilibrium between the two is reached. Adding more buffer does NOT increase the level (pH) that equilibrium is reached, it ONLY increases the speed of the reaction. In your case, less water flow over less buffer resulted in a drop in pH only because the was less surface area being exposed to the water It didn't cause less buffering, it caused a reduction in the speed of the buffering. Given enough time, if you just set 2 tablespoons of CC in your tank full of water at a pH of 6, circulated the tank water through the cc and waited, your pH would rise to well over 7.0 as the carbonates reacted with acidic water.
Makes sense, thank you.
Oh my goodness.Like they say, If not for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. If you have to replace it be sure to move everything from this one to the new one so you won't lose all the work you have already done.
Should I fill a bucket with the aquarium water and drop all the filter media,heater, decorations all in or leave it in an aquarium with no water until I get a new aquarium? There’s a loose end somewhere or a crack because when I woke up, the water level was about 10% down.
You need to keep everything in water. A bucket or any kind of container big enough to hold it all will work. It would be best if you could keep the filter running and continue to feed it until you can replace the tank.
Dear,
If the amount of CC that will fit in the filter won't get the PH up to at least 7 put more in a media bag and situate it under the filter. The water being pulled in and coming out of the filter will help circulate it and should get the PH up where it needs to be to get this cycle moving forward.
A cup of it would be a good start. Crushed coral will only raise the PH to a certain level and then will stop there. Even if it raised yours all the way up to 8 it wouldn't be a problem. It needs to be up to at least seven but higher is not a problem. Too low and the cycling process slows down. Higher won't affect it.
Yes, go ahead and get the ammonia back up to 2ppm.
Good job. They really should start going up before long.
I would go ahead and dose it back up to 2
As long as the ammonia you add is continuing to go down your cycle is still progressing forward. If you add it and it just sits there then you would want to do a water change to get the numbers down. You aren't there so go ahead and add the ammonia to keep the process fed.
It should be fine. Quite often when both nitrites and nitrates show up I actually recommend only adding ammonia every other day so this isn't a problem at all.
What are your nitrite and nitrate readings.?
Just add ammonia every other day but only if it goes down close to zero. If it doesn't go down that low give it an extra day to do so before adding more ammonia. This should give the nitrites a chance to catch up. I am sorry I didn't mention this earlier.
You could and it shouldn't hurt anything but your ammonia should get to you before the fish food decomposes enough to form ammonia.
