my new water.

[Sam]

ive been scyling my new tank for about 3 days now. the dkh is on 3. and my ph is still high. aprox 7.5 - 8.
any comments or advice on this???
is the dkh okay? and will the ph naturally get lower or will i need to do somthing to change it?
thanks.

[goldenpigeon]

you will know it is cycled when there are no nitrates... u work at SLS dont u?

[Sam]

i know all about cycling and yes work there, but what im asking is about the ph and dkh??

[goldenpigeon]

ph needs to be at about 6.6 - 7.0. i dont know much about dkh because my water is perfect out of the tap

[Bill T.]

I don't remeber where I read this but, if you have any kH you will have a pH greater than 7.0.
I used to use kH as a pH buffer but no longer do so. Even when i wanted to lower pH I couldn't. Doesn't matter how much pH "down" chemicals you use, the kH bumps the pH back up again.
Takes a while for the kH to get used up - wc may help, but in my experience, it just took time.
After some advice from this site, I switched to using shell grit as a buffer, and now get approx. 6.8pH readings.

[Sam]

very interesting advice thank you.
so in other words i just need to wait for the ph to go down itself?
how long do u think it will take approx?

[dreamer]

im not sure about dh and kh as i never bother about them, sydney water seems to fine for my discus.

but im sure in fully cycled tank nitrate should be present you need to do large wc to reduce nitrate before adding any fish. another thing is your ph doesn't need to be within the range of 6.6-7.0 thats just myth.

[jim from sydney]

Sam.....why is your pH so high anyway????? from the Sydney tap it is 7.1 to-day.....which is fine for discus (unless you are breeding)....i would do a BIG water change in your case....run for a day or two and check....only change 1 thing at the time....Jim

[Sam]

my tank is only 3 days old still cycling. is it safe to do a water change at this time?

[Merrilyn]

Sam, just let it go for now. Don't do any waterchanges, it will just take longer for the tank to cycle.

Are you doing a fishless cycle? Or what are you using to cycle the tank.

[Sam]

yeh fishless cycle. using nitrovec biostarter.
u think i should add a few neons or something?
i also hear that turning up te temp helps it cycle faster??

[Merrilyn]

are you adding liquid ammonia to feed the bacteria?

How are you going about this fishless cycle?

I might be able to give you some tips to move it along.

[Sam]

itll tell u from da start.
i put the water in... added aqautan to condition the water form chlorine and all the business. then dail adding the bio-starter for ten days and thats it. and today is day 3.

[Trebs]

Have a read of the fishless cycle thread, definately the way to go. Adding a product like bio-starter is uneccessary and probably won't do a lot for you either. Really just an added expense IMO.

My water comes out at ph 7.6-7.8 so I think there is a bit of variation across Sydney. I run off Prospect water which may be different to the rest of you.

A PH of 7.5-7.6 is fine discus as long as the tank is properly cycled. A KH of 3 is okay. I find a KH of 4 to ba ideal, it will keep the ph a little more constant longer term.

[Sam]

ive read that fishless cycling article.
and they method im using of cycling a tank has worked for me a number of time so im not actually worried about that.
if u see my original Q was about the ph and kh. and just wanna say thanks to everyone for their help.

[dreamer]

without adding liquid ammonia thats not fishless cycle !!!

ph 7.5 is good there is no need to change it so-called best level of ~6.5

[Merrilyn]

Okay, well I must tell you I don't have much faith in bottled bacteria. I suppose some of it is good, but I prefer to use a way that I KNOW will work.

Here's the go. First get yourself some of that nice gunky filter wool from a friendly aquarium shop :wink: . Some that has been used in a display tank for a while would be the best. That is your starter colony of nitrifying bacteria. Dump that in your tank. Then get yourself a bottle of plain Ammonia from the cleaning aisle of the supermarket.

In your size tank, you would probably need to add about 5 mls per day to give you an ammomia reading of 5 on your test kit. This is the food for your bacteria. Same as the ammonia produced by fish waste. Do your three tests daily, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You will see a rise in your nitrite reading after about 5 days, then it will drop. At this time you will get a rise in your nitrate reading, and within about 10 days, all the ammonia you add will be used up within 24 hours and you will have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and a high nitrate reading.

This is the time to do your first water change, and add fish. Easy. Your tank is fully cycled and ready to take a full bio load of fish. :D

[Sam]

lol ok its not a fishless cycle well the way i cycle has always worked for me.

[Merrilyn]

If it has worked for you in the past, then it must be fine. Good luck.

[Sam]

Thank You! :D

[Proteus]

FYI, Nitrivec is actually a good product, and about the only one I would recommend. (personally it walks all over Cycle, Stress Zyme etc, etc).

If used properly, it is as good as any other method, however, you must follow the guidelines, i.e. after 10 days, very lightly load the tank, then build from there.

I have used Nitrivec for start up tanks elsewhere, and had no issues at all... (although I always have additional spare filters running on tanks to use on new set-ups, nothing like a few extra filters available 24/7).

If getting some filter media from elsewhere, make sure it is from the system that the fish you want are from (eliminate any potential infections from other systems, best be safe than sorry)