Cycle Issues in New Tank

[DJW]

A fishless cycle is a good time to test these things. My tap water is <1 dKh, I find crushed coral has very little effect because of frequent water changes (70% daily for grow out). I have about a half cup of CC in my canister and my Kh goes from <1 to between 1 and 2dKh and the pH is unchanged by the time of my next WC (24 hours). If you are keeping your tank clean and doing frequent WC's (when you add fish), I think it isn't necessary. I am contemplating removing it from my filter

I'm curious how many fish & gallons you have. Bioload is the big factor in this... in a crowded tank the pH might start slipping down if you go 2 maybe 3 days without new water. I have a tank lightly stocked with some rams and cardinals that can go a week, and this with RO and no buffer, just whatever KH gets through the membrane.

[Aquaman6410]

Alright, so here is the new update. Ammonia seems to have dropped, it was show but it's moving. The api test shows it at .5 ppm now, possibly a little darker green but not quite 1ppm. So progress. Nitrites at 0. pH starting to fall, currently at 6.8. Nitrates are at 5ppm. Should I add a tiny bit of ammonia to bring it to a solid 1ppm or let it hit 0 or .25ppm before bringing it back to 1ppm?

[DJW]

I would bump the ammonia up to 1 every time its convenient to check it. Your water acts like it has no buffer at all - how are you measuring pH? The filter bacteria are supposed to do better with the pH above 7... some baking soda will fix that until you can try the coral.

[Aquaman6410]

Morning update before work. Tested ammonia and it is now a solid .5 ppm. I added about 1.4 ml of 10% ammonium chloride which should roughly get me back up to 1ppm. Checked pH and it has slowly dropped a little again to 6.6. I'm testing pH with the liquid API test kit so colors can be really similar but I'd definitely say pH is no lower than 6.6 and no higher than 6.8. I did go ahead and add a teaspoon of baking soda (roughly 7 grams with gram scale) which I believe will bump up the KH about 1 degree. Nitrites are still showing 0 which is a good thing I guess, should mean that bacteria may not have died off completely. Coral should be coming today. I'll keep you all updated.

[DJW]

Not a complete loss maybe.

I don't know if you have the time or the inclination to check this yourself, but when I add a calculated amount of ammonia to clean water (no biofilter) and measure it 10 minutes later with the test kit, it reads about half of what I just added. .. ?so which is it?.. in my case it was fooling me into thinking the filter was consuming more ammonia than it really was. Unless the two match, its apples & oranges. There are too many variables at play for this to be an exact science.

[Aquaman6410]

Well I've been maintaining ammonia around 1ppm. It seems the bacteria consumes around 1ppm every 48 hours now. Nitrites are showing again. Around .5ppm to 1ppm, hard to tell color difference on API test. Ph at 7.2 and some crushed coral was added in a bag in the AC110 around Friday night. Let's hope this continues to cycle and actually hold bacteria this time.

[LizStreithorst]

Please tell me why you don't use one of the products and add the Discus, or add the Discus and do huge WC for a month? I don't understand why anyone goes through the pain and frustration of a fishless cycle using ammonia.

[Aquaman6410]

I think I may be ready for discus. I can add about 2.5 ppm of ammonia and the ammonia and nitrite read around 0 after 36-48 hours. Did this 3 times the past week. Do you all think I'm finally in the clear?

[DJW]

I would go get some fish.

[Clawhammer]

Congrats! Enjoy your tank, looking forward to pics!

[Aquaman6410]

Thanks. I should be starting a journal of the tank soon.